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Is it possible to turn monthly debt payments into a significant amount of savings once my debt gets paid off?

Last Updated: March 25, 2008

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Yes. Here is an example. Pay off an $8,000 balance on a credit card that charges 16% interest in three years by applying an additional $10 a day ($300 monthly) toward the outstanding balance. According to the book Pay It Down! From Debt to Wealth on $10 a Day by Jean Chatzky, "finding" $10 a day by trimming household expenses can dig someone out of a credit card hole in three years instead of taking decades. Once the debt is repaid, Chatzky advises continued $10/day savings for another two years in a money market account to build an emergency fund of more than $8,000. After that, the $10/day savings should be used to fund a tax-deferred account such as an IRA. If your IRA’s performance matches the approximately 10% return of the Standard and Poor’s (S&P) 500 stock market index since the 1920s (e.g., in an S&P 500 index fund), you would have more than $250,000 in 25 years from $10 in daily savings. We would like your feedback on this Personal Finance Frequently Asked Question.

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