<prompt> Human: My wife and I have about 6,000 in credit card debt. Last year our income was 29,000. This year our income will be over 50,000 thanks to a very unexpected promotion for one of us. Weve been trying to put back for emergency funds and debt repayment since we started paying attention to our money and keeping up with rpf back in September. Never expected our income would go up so quickly. So now, weve gone from having barely enough to get by, to having over a thousand left over to use each month however we want. So now heres my question... We could pay off our debt over the next 6-7 months and be out of debt completely. Why should we put back one months expenses worth of savings before paying off this debt since it costs us more in interest every month that we dont pay it off? What if we just had a 500 emergency fund or something smaller so we could get out of debt sooner?EDIT: I left something out. Why have an emergency fund when were getting out of debt, rather than using the credit card that we paid off somewhat and just going back into the same debt if there were and emergency. Im asking purely from a mathematical standpoint, not a peace of mind kind of question. EDIT 2: Noticed I didnt include our interest rates. Were young so our interest rates are between 22-29. EDIT 3: Thanks for all the advice guys! Ive decided to keep a 1000 emergency fund until I pay off my high interest debt. Im okay with that amount of risk.  <response>: Its purely psychological. When paying down debt, the emergency fund is there to break the dependence upon your credit card. For example, if your car needs new tires you dont need to fall back on the credit card youre trying to pay off to get them. It feels like a failure to have to fall back on your credit card again, so the emergency fund prevents that.From a purely mathematical standpoint, youre costing yourself money by not paying the debt first. 