<prompt> Human: Ill preface by saying that Im not super tight with my money. I have automatic savings each month, but tend to spend whatever is left over. I obsessively keep track of where every dollar goes, and have a multi-account system that works great for me. I tend to spend in large chunks vacations, electronics, etc., but I manage to stick to my monthly savings plan and never touch that money. If I have extra money, I tend to spend it still working on that. My wife and I got a large tax refund this year nearly 8,000 - mortgage interest deductions do provide a nice treat at the end of the year. For a couple of weeks I kept wondering what I was going to gift myself. A new TV? A gaming PC? New carpet in the house? Or just a whole bunch of crap that I wont use in 6 months?Finally I had to scratch that itch. We had one 6,000 car loan 4.75 - two years remaining; another 2,000 car loan 5.25 - 5 months remaining; and, a 4,000 student loan 6.5 - five years remaining. With 8,000 from our tax refund, and 3,000 in our vacation account, and some extra cash in our normal checking account, I decided to bite the bullet and go sans loans.It doesnt feel as good as it did when I had to scratch and claw my way out of a 10,000 credit card balance six years ago. That was 12 excruciating months of saving paying off that loan. That was major relief and that period of repayment taught me a lot - like the fact that I can save money. Paying off these debts which amounted to more than that 10k credit card feels more like Im finally being responsible - looking at the big picture. Instead of 750 each month towards those loans, now that 750 can reduce the impact of the 1200month daycare expense were about to have wife is having our first child on Monday. No real lesson here; just wanted to share the joy of feeling responsible with someone other than my wife. Only 5 years ago I was atrociously bad with money. Id bring home 20k in a year and spend 25k on nothing of value. I fought my way back after being 6 months past due on multiple accounts. 5 years later, I own a house it owns me, but I am still working on repairing my credit to refi to a better rate 650 rating right now. Fortunately, my wife and I make a decent living, but we are both good at not going crazy with vacations, or really nice cars, or the other debts people can easily find themselves going into...now there is this small matter of a huge mortgage to chip away at.  <response>: Responsibility increased to 33. New perks available. 