<prompt> Human: I make 75k per year, plus bonus.Credit card debt about 20k3 cars; two older and paid for, one we owe 3500 on, worth about 5k. 145 per month payment, 7 interestHouse, 225k mortgage, just refinanced last year for 4, 1400 per month, zero equity.In the next 2 months I should be receiving:Tax Return 2500PTO payout 1500 after taxesRefile of 2010 taxes 900Bonus 10k to 12k after taxesI guess my question is, what should I do with it? I figure the answer is probably pay downoff as many credit cards as you can but I guess Im looking for a little more help than that. We dont have any sort of emergency fund. Not even for car repairs, kidspets getting sickthough we have good insurance and healthcare spending account, etc. We pretty much live paycheck-to-paycheck and I want to get out of this grind. Im making more money than I ever have before but were still struggling just like 5 years ago when I only made 40k.Put 2500 in a dont touch, emergency account? Should we pay off the 3500 car to get rid of that 150 per month? Or just pay off credit cards only which are certainly more than 7 interest. I guess Im just looking for some advice. Ive got two kids in high school right now and its pretty late to start a college fund, but I want to at least be able to give them decent graduation presents in a couple years. :  <response>: Heres what you do. Set aside 1 grand as a oh shit emergency fund. You do not touch it unless you are actually in a situation that makes you say oh shit. If you do have to touch it, you replenish it as quickly as you can to get back up to 1k.This is generally a good enough buffer for the little emergencies that will pop up from time to time. Throw the rest of it at bills. There are a few different ways to approach this - the mathematically superior way to do this is pay off the highest interest rate first --- but I and others have found much more satisfaction in a debt snowball. Arrange your debts, from highest to lowest balance. Attack the fuck out of the smallest debt until its dead. Move on to the next smallest, and so on. Each time as you pay something off, dont just start spending the money youre now saving on not having a monthly payment, put it towards the next debt.Keep doing this until you have your debt paid off.I would seriously suggest sitting down and making a budget with you and your partner. I do mine in google docs, I keep a running tally of whats been spent and where, what bills have to be paidhave already been paid.If you guys have a problem with eating out too much or just too much random spending, consider doing allowances for you and your partner monthly. My wife and I both get 100 allowances a month to blow on whatever we want. It helps keep you sane - but limits the impact. If you really want something more expensive, save up.Go listen toread Dave Ramseys Total Money Makeover if youre starting from scratch. I dont really jive with his religious beliefs, but his system is pretty straightforward and _works_. 