Emergency funds vs Paying off debt

[BalanceLife]

I have up to 9 months of my monthly expense funds available (50K) which I can pay off my both car and mini-van debt and may still have 2 months funds left. With that, I will start saving up to 1100 per month more. APR isn't much 2%, but these funds are just sitting in my bank account and I don't know any other investments yet. I have started exploring some investment options in Vanguard - still too early for me.
For any savvy investor - it could be a no brainier to invest  in 8-10% return investments, but I am not there yet.
Any advise on
1) whether I should payoff and save $1100 more per month and either invest those or pay off home mortgage
2) Leave those funds as-is for emergency
3) Pay 50% funds to debts and keep remaining
 

[Le Poisson]

I'm not an expert, but I play one on TV...

We tried for years to just go ahead and kill debt but couldn't get on top of it. We put so much money into beating VISA and lines of credit, and stuff, that when anything at all went wrong, our whole house of cards crumbled, and we'd feel forced to reach for credit, putting us back in debt by whatever we had just paid off. It was a bad cycle.

What did make a difference was a 2-pronged approach to beating the cycle.

First key element - a strong and reasonable budget.
By budgeting more effectively, we were able to continue making our base payments on the essentials and see the spots where we could save. Holding to the budget while paying things down was key. And in our budget, we allowed cash for the unexpected. Things like replacing cars, major home repairs, and so on.

Second Key element - Building up a "War Chest" or Emergency Fund
Once we had a couple months of effective budgeting, under our belts, our family got serious about saving. We set a goal to have a war chest of $15000 in order to stave off whatever emergency we came across. Knowing exactly what the budget looked like meant we knew where it was safe to cut, and we had a good handle on exactly what debt we carried, where, and how much it was costing us month over month. This meant we could maintain minimum payments and even get ahead a little while building savings. And we did - in the end we settled for a $10,000 war chest in a TFSA (Think Roth, but in Canada).

There is a lot more to your payments than just interest, so focusing on the highest interest account may not work for you.  In our case, I took on a side gig and pushed more money into the debts from that. Any gifts, windfalls and tax returns went straight to debt.  The shared approach of budgeting and declaring war on the debts meant we went from owing lotsa cash to debt free in a matter of months - definitely under a year. In that time we also bought 2 cars, put on a new roof, and went on a spendypants Caribbean vacation.

It can be done.... Our paydown is all documented in my (lifestyle) journal, but there are pages and pages of it, so you might get tired of reading.

[Proud Foot]

Two questions to ask yourself before you make a decision.  What is the minimum liquid emergency fund for you to feel comfortable? And what are the interest rates on the loans?

Once you have your minimum emergency fund you will know how much you can throw either to the debt or investments.  Unless your rates are super low you will most likely be better off paying the debts.  Then with the $1,100 a month extra you can split that between investing and adding to your emergency fund to bring it to your desired level.  And if you have an emergency in there you can stop adding to your investments and use that $1,100 to help cover the emergency and then rebuild the emergency fund

[HipGnosis]

Not enough specific info for a specific answer.
Whats the APR, balance and minimum payments on the car and van?
How stable is your household income?
How much credit do you have available?

I don't like the term 'emergency fund'.  I prefer 'life fund'.
Emergencies might happen, they might not.  Life happens all the time.  I want it to happen.