[Haku]

I realize I'm responding quite late to this conversation, but I feel strongly compelled to do so.

When I first started my journey to climb back out of debt, I decided to pay everything I can to the credit card with the lowest outstanding principal. Then, I kept it, holding it as an emergency fund while I "snowballed" the rest.

This worked out well enough for me, but some feel that it is better to set up a tiny emergency fund first, if nothing else so that it can alleviate the sense of hopelessness and motivate the owner to keep going. I can appreciate the rationale, but didn't take this approach. Having had heated debates about this, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks this way.

Today, I have no credit card debts and refuse to have anymore. Instead, I have an emergency fund sitting in a money market account that is tied into my checking as overdraft protection.