Do you have debt?

• A mortgage?
• A car loan?
• Credit card balances?
• A line of credit?

But a more important question than if you have debt is, what are the interest rates you're being charged on each of your debts?

This is the key - you may be paying a lot more than necessary each year to service your debt through interest.

You can do three things:

• Consolidate debts at as low an interest rate as possible and remember that credit card interest charged is often in excess of 19%.
• Don’t keep excess cash in a either your savings or chequing account if you have debt, because after all you can always borrow money on your line-of credit.
• Remember interest earned on savings is taxable income while interest paid to service debt is paid with after-tax income.