<prompt> Human: Hey all,Im 26 and have no savings, made some poor choices when I was younger, and I had some unforeseen circumstances some that I could not control and am now paying for that. I currently have about 14k in debt. I am now in a position to start working on this debt and have made cuts in my lifestyle in order to do this but its still tough. I want to be smart and am really trying to be in a good place financially. What steps should I be taking to clear up this and are there some good investments I should be making?Thank you in advance!  <response>: What sort of debt are you talking about and more importantly what is the interest rate on that debt? The interest rate is going to determine the cost of the debt to you. If it is high interest rate credit card debt 10, you need to work to pay it down before you should be making most investments.The other critical first step is to get an idea of your monthly expenses to begin starting an emergency fund. This will be money you can tap when large unexpected expenses occur in your life. Things like job loss, large car repairs, personal injury etc. This will eliminate your reliance on friends and family members, or high interest rate credit cards should unexpected circumstances occur. 