Paying yourself is better than paying a bank or a credit card company. Debt is your enemy. “When you are in debt, it is very hard to make progress toward securing your financial future because you have to pay your taxes and your debts before you can use any of your money for yourself,” Legacy Partners’ Flurry says. Flurry says you should avoid what he calls “dumb debt,” such as credit cards, car loans and most student loans. If you have a stack of credit card bills, pay them off and keep just one or two. Try not to put anything on your cards that you can’t pay off in two or three months. “Debt holds people back,” Flurry says. “They buy liabilities, and they make those payments forever.”
