It is not fun being in debt. When you owe someone money, you always have that in the back of your mind, especially when you don’t think you don’t know if you can pay it back.

If you owe twenty dollars to your friend, probably interest free, you may feel less obliged to pay it back right away than if you owe a thousands dollars to an uncle at a 10 percent interest rate. It is not often that you borrow large sums of money from family and friends.

The money you owe to family and friends is nothing compared to larger debts with higher interest rates that are not borrowed from family or friends. One of the worst is credit cards. They can have huge interest rates which cause the debt to pile up faster and faster.

The answer to the question, ‘should you pay off your debt?’ is a resounding yes. As an individual, you should work to pay off all your debt. If you are married and have a family, you have an even bigger obligation to pay off your debt. The more debt you have, the faster and longer it will grow and the less money you will have.

One argument is the tax deduction you get from your mortgage. The truth is you only get to deduct the interest you pay on your mortgage and when you deduct it, you only save a percentage.

For example, if you paid $2,000 one year in interest on your mortgage and you are in the 15% tax bracket, you only get to save 15% of the $2,000 which is $300, not the whole $2,000. It’s a limited amount of savings and you should not prolong mortgage expense beyond what you original set it up for.

You could say that you could invest what you aren’t paying for your house at a higher rate than the mortgage rate and make more money. How many people actually have that money now and if they could save it, how many would invest it and not just go and spend it?

Even if you kept your mortgage and paid it off in 15 or 30 years, all your other debt should be paid off as soon as possible. Even better, don’t take out loans for things you can’t afford. A house is enough. Otherwise, buy used and save until you can buy what you want.