<prompt> Human: So Im 25 and in the military, have a 3 yr old and another on the way, my wife and I are looking to purchase our first home in the next year using a VA loan. Right now looking at our budget we can afford to put about 150 into savings every pay cycle paid on the 1st and 15th. All sounds good untill we see that we have about 15000 in credit card debt right now. Its all old debt, we havent spent on the cards in almost a year. So the question is, should we be using this extra money to pay off the credit cards as fast as we can or be adding the money to our savings? currently have about 3000 in savings and 10000 in an IRA.  <response>: Whats the interest rate on the credit card? If its very high, like 10 plus, then Id recommend paying that off since you already have a small savings account. If its less than that, you might want to consider increasing your savings to at least three months worth of expenses, then pay off the credit card. Although I dont know much about the military and any backup plan associated. Is it even possible for you to lose your job? What happens if you get injured and cant do whatever it is that you do? If you have basically 100 job protection, then dont worry about the savings account and just pay off the credit card debt first. Also take a second look at your budget and see if theres anything you can reduce to pay off the debt faster. If you guys spend 1000 a month on food and can reduce that to 900 totally arbitrary numbers there, thats another 100 a month you have towards debt. Put your credit card info into unbury.us to see how quickly you can pay it off with different payments. 