<prompt> Human: I have about 10K of CC debt left to pay off. Ive been paying 1200month on it lately. I got a 5K tax rebate a couple months ago that is currently sitting in my savings. Normally, I would have put this right onto the CC debt, but my wife is currently pregnant and changing jobs, so I figured having an extra 5K available if we need it would be safe while she finds out if the place she has been interviewing her will make her an offer its looking promising.So, should I just keep paying the 1200mo on this 10K debt and have it paid off in 8 months, or should I apply that tax rebate to it and get it paid off in 4 months? We have 3 months of our salaries saved as a safety cushion as well, so using this 5K will not drain our savings. Im just not great with money so I want to see what more financially experienced opinions are here, especially taking into account my wifes job change. The conservativesafe part in my brain is winning right now and telling me to just keep the 5K as a backup and power through paying off the debt at the 1200Kmonth rate, but there is a part of me that really wants to get this CC monkey off my back and start using that to add to a house downpayment fund as quickly as possible we are renting right now. Thoughts?Assistant: This is a no-brianer. You have 23k in cash and 10k in credit card debt. You should pay the debt in full right now.The whole point of having an emergency fund is so you dont have to use credit cards in an emergency. What youre doing defeats the whole purpose. Worst case scenario you have an emergency in the future you can use your credit card again to get by, at least you will have saved some interest. Human: I thought an emergency fund was for just that: emergency situations such as job loss or medical expenses. Especially with my wife changing jobs and being pregnant, you think it is wise to pull from our emergency fund to pay off the debt? EDIT: What about using the 5K tax rebate and then transferring the remaining balance to a 0 intro APR on a new CC, then cancelling that once it is paid off?  <response>: Would you take out a 10k loan at 16 for peace of mind? Pay off the CC debt now and if something comes up later you can go back into CC debt again if necessary. Your house is on fire but youre reluctant to throw water on it in case another fire starts up and you need the water for that. 