I have finally made the decision to go ahead an pay myself first. I was already putting 5% of my pre-tax earnings into the 401k and putting another $50 per week into my kids 529 account so what is another $10 per week? I went ahead and opened an ING Direct Orange Saving Account with an initial deposit of $25. I immediately made a 100% return on investment because ING gave me a $25 bonus for signing up! Now what I should really do is take my original $25 out and just let the free money work its magic. That's acutally not a bad idea now that I think of it. Maybe I will open another ING account under my wife and get another $25 bonus! Then I will deposit $10 per week automatically into one of our accounts and watch it grow!

In researching the best way to eliminate all of my debt I came across a book titled the Automatic Millionaire by David Bach. It took me about two hours to read through this little gem over two days. This is a trick that I learned from an old friend. Instead of purchasing books, I just go to the local Barnes & Nobles or Borders and read during my lunch break. Now the money that I would've spent on this book will be put towards my outstanding debt.

A recurring theme in many of the books I have read, including the Rich Dad series, is that you should pay yourself first and invest that money for the future. Now I am struggling with wether or not to do this. After thinking about it for a while, I realized that I already do pay myself fist by contributing to the company 401K plan at work. Now I only contribute 5% a week but it is better than nothing. The big question with paying yourself first is this...

Are you getting a better return on your investments than the bank is getting on you? If your investments are giving you a 5% return and your credit cards are costing you 7%, wouldn't it be better to take as much money as you could possilbly scrape up and pay off those credit card bills as quickly as you can? You are actually losing 2% by paying yourself first!

Some experts may try to shoot this theory down but I can't see how. There are ways to cut your credit card interest rates so that they are less than that of your investments. For example, you can play the 0% credit card game. This is a tough game that I have lost in the past. I will attempt to get it going again once I feel comfortable enough about doing so. There are some good articles on www.debtsmart.com regarding this method.

I am not sure what to do about this. I am in a quandry (I love using that word! I don't really care if it is used incorrectly!) My gut says to stop contributing to the 401k and start hitting the credit card debt hard. This, however, goes against everything that I have been taught. Save, save, save, save! What to do? What to do?