First Priority: Pay Your Mortgage
I can’t not link to Miranda Marquit’s post about paying your mortgage over at Loan Shak, Baby. Miranda said she often gets the question in her inbox asking advice on whether the consumer should pay their mortgage or pay their credit cards. Her answer: pay your mortgage first,
The answer to this question is very simple: Pay your mortgage first. You should make your mortgage payment your first priority. Your credit card debt is unsecured. Your mortgage, on the other hand, is secured by your home. Your credit score may be in trouble if you miss credit card payments, but it will be in much worse shape if you go through foreclosure. And you could lose your home.
First, I’m NOT a financial planner, adviser, attorney, therapist, hand-holder, etc. BUT if I had to put in numerical order how my bills would be paid here’s what we’d see:
- Mortgage
- Car (you have to be able to get to work to earn money to pay your mortgage).
- Electric, Gas,Water bill
- Food (don’t eat out … cook to save money)
- Insurance
- Phone
- Medical
- Credit Cards
- Cable (I really wanted this near the top, but realistically you can live without cable)
- Internet
This doesn’t account for court-ordered payments like child support, alimony, judgments, etc. If the court orders payment on anything, I’d put those payments up to number 4 or 5. What do you think? What have we forgotten?
