In the order of...?

[torsion]

Hi all,

This is my first post (apart from the intro) and wanted to get some feedback/opinions.
I am in the MMM mindset for FIRE
I am super pumped to get into the save & invest cycle however I have some high interest debt to pay off first (ie x2 credit cards) between the wife and myself. I intend on eliminating this completely.
I have a little conflict, do I solely focus on paying off the debt before saving & investing?
Also how many of you saved for the emergency fund (according to Your Money or your life/Bogleheads should be 6-9months salary) before starting any investment into index funds?

Should I put some away for the emergency savings fund and investment vehicle or should I kill the debt first ie not save at all?

[EngineerMum]

It does depend a little on what your debt is, and what interest you are paying, but as a general rule I would pay off debt first. Certainly the high interest CC debt, needs to go ASAP. Read the "your hair is on fire" post by MMM. I wouldn't bother building up an EF first, certainly not one as big as 6 - 9 months expenses, as it's a very inefficient way to do it (paying lots of interest on a debt while earning a tiny amount of interest on a savings acct). As you obviously already have a CC, the money you pay off that balance works as an EF if it's a REAL emergency, but you have to learn not to use it for regular expenses that you haven't planned for.

[nanu]

I agree - I would pay CC debt first, and then save up some money for an EF.
Only after getting at least a small cushion would I start investing (so maybe after you have 3 months of expenses saved up start investing while growing your EF a bit slower)

[torsion]

Thank you for the responses - I appreciate your opinions a lot as the demons inside of me wanting to do everything! CC debt will be my number 1 enemy. I have a UK credit card at an 27.9% APR (yes ouch when I think or the times I've opted to pay minimum rather than larger amounts and re-spending on it) and a US card at 11.9%
Wife has a UK card on 20.9%

Should note that before I discovered MMM, frugality mindset, FI etc my good wife was already kind of plugged into this in her general management of money and frugality, makes it easier to embark for FIRE.

[EngineerMum]

Right, so the most efficient way to pay them off is pay minimums on the US and Wife's UK card, then everything else you can throw at your UK card. Then move onto her card, and finally the US one. If you can do a balance transfer, that would help a lot. What sort of balances are you talking about, and how much can you allocate to them each month?

[torsion]

My UK - GBP3652.56
Mrs - GBP3000 (ish)
US - $6,860.61

With allocation - I've not quite worked out a set amount yet, some months I only cover the minimum however other months I will pay bigger chunks. I understand that I should and need to set the amount where possible.