3389: Should You Save More For Retirement Or Pay Off Debt First? by Mark Dennis with Financial Finesse

Optimal Finance Daily - Financial Independence and Money Advice

Optimal Living Daily LLC

Investing, Self-improvement, Education, Business

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 16 December 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 3389: Mark Dennis explores the classic personal finance dilemma of whether to save more for retirement or focus on paying off debt. Blending both mathematical logic and behavioral psychology, he outlines a hybrid approach that leverages guaranteed investment returns while maintaining motivation through small debt victories, helping you take control of your money and stay on track long-term. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.financialfinesse.com/2018/03/29/should-you-save-more-for-retirement-or-pay-off-debt-first/ Quotes to ponder: "Use those good feelings of accomplishment to help motivate you to stay on track and hammer away at the next debt on your list until you kill that one too." "Free money is free money, and nothing beats a guaranteed return on your investment." "People often struggle to fully understand how compound growth works, which leads us to underestimate how much our savings could potentially grow." Episode references: Retirement Estimator Calculator: https://www.calcxml.com/do/ret02 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:14.0	This is Optimal Finance Daily. Should you save more for retirement or pay off debt first?
1:20.4	By Mark Dennis with FinancialFenest.com. This is a common question posed to financial planners and advisors. Should I save more for retirement or pay off debt first? Even well-known personal finance pundits disagree on this one. Mathematically, this is a fairly simple question to answer. Behaviorally, however, actually taking action and sticking with the plan, approaching this question
1:47.0	can be much more difficult.
1:49.0	Let's assume you sat down recently and reviewed your monthly budget.
1:53.0	During that exercise, you were happy to discover that you have a couple hundred extra dollars available each month.
1:59.0	You now face the happy dilemma of deciding what to do
2:03.0	with those dollars. Your basic options are simple, of course. You could spend it, you could save it,
2:09.1	or you could pay off some debt. What the experts say. As I mentioned, even seasoned financial pros
	...

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