Q. I owe the IRS $6,000 and currently I’m making monthly payments. Should I roll this debt into my debt snowball, and then really attack it when it gets to the top of the list?
A. My advice would be to put the IRS at the very top of your debt snowball. Usually, when it comes to paying off debt, I advise people to arrange their debt snowball from smallest to largest, then start with the smallest one and work their way up. This doesn’t always seem to make mathematical sense, but the truth is personal finance is 80 percent behavior and only 20 percent head knowledge. Paying off some small debts quickly energizes you and gives you motivation. It makes you feel like you can really do it. Besides, if you were such a math genius you wouldn’t have debt in the first place.
But the IRS is a different animal altogether. Their interest rates and penalties are ridiculously high. Plus, they have virtually unlimited power to collect. So put them at the top of the list, and get them paid off as fast as you can.
Article originally published at http://djournal.com/news/dave-ramsey-dont-cash-401k-pay-debt/
