Name: 錢只出不進，究竟何時才可以還完「債務」呢？ (When it's okay to wait to pay off debt)
Uploaded: 2025-03-12T21:01:20.000Z
Duration: 8 min 8 s

情態副詞

Let's say, you're at a place financially where you're able to start saving rather than living paycheck-to-paycheck, a situation that describes more than one in three American workers across many different income levels.

比方說，在支付了每月的食品雜貨、醫療保健、房租或房貸等開支後，您還有 200 美元的剩餘。

After covering your monthly expenses like groceries, health care, your rent or house payment, you've got $200 left over.

There's two places people usually look -- paying off their debt or investing in the stock market to watch the money grow and save for retirement.

人們通常會把目光投向兩個地方：償還債務；投資股市，看著資金增長併為退休儲蓄。那麼，從長遠來看，哪一個能讓您獲得更好的財務結果呢？

So which one sets you up for a better financial outcome in the long run?

There's no simple answer, but there is a rule of thumb that can help you start thinking about this.

答案並不簡單、但有一個經驗法則可以幫助你開始思考這個問題。 專家們認為，無論是償還債務還是投資，決定勝負的臨界點數字都是 7%，即 7% 的利率。如果您的債務利率低於 7%，那麼從數學角度來看，將這 200 美元投資於指數基金更為有利。標準普爾 500 指數數十年來的平均增長率約為 7%（根據通貨膨脹率調整），有些年份比這高得多，有些年份比這低得多，但一般來說，如果你的債務利率低於 7%，那麼隨著時間的推移，你可以通過投資賺得更多。我認為 7% 是一個很好的指導原則，從數學角度來看，7% 的經驗法則確實很

The number that experts say tips the scale in either direction, be it pay your debts or invest is 7.

That's a 7% interest rate, the amount by which a debt or investment grows over time.

You'll sometimes see this tipping point number as 6% or 5% after factoring in considerations like how close a person is to retiring.

But since 7% is the low end of the growth you can expect from investing over time, that's where the scale will balance out for the purposes of this video.

If your debt has a lower interest rate , elow 7%, it's considered mathematically more beneficial to put that $200 toward investing in an index fund.

An Investment fund that tracks the performance of a market index, like the S&P 500, for example.

These are a hands-off way to invest your money that generally carry a lower risk than investing in individual stocks.

The S&P 500 going back decades grows at an average rate of about 7% when adjusted for inflation.

Some years are much higher than that and some years are much lower, but generally, if your debts interest rate is below 7%, you stand to earn more over time by investing rather than tackling the debt right away.

Past 7% though, the interest adding to what you owe, outpaces any growth you could reasonably rely on through investing.

The way to think of it is just which one enhances your net worth from year to year because it is sort of a balance sheet issue.

What you own minus what you owe. And I think 7% is a good guideline.

Looking at the math really shows how the 7% rule of thumb works.

Let's say you have $10,000 in debt at a 5% interest rate. That's about the average rate of federal student loans for undergraduates over the past 10 years.

And let's say this debt has a monthly minimum payment of 150 dollars that you have to pay every month along with all your other necessary expenses.

There's a bunch of calculators online that can show you how long it will take to pay down this debt based on your monthly payments and how much total interest it will cost you in the end.

In our hypothetical scenario, if you pay just the minimum payment without contributing anything extra, it will take you about six and a half years to pay off this debt and you will have accrued around $1,700 in interest on top of the original 10,000.

But if you put that extra $200 per month as an additional payment toward this debt, it's gone in two and a half years and your total interest is under seven hundred dollars.

Paying it off faster means you have a thousand dollars more in your pocket.

But let's go back to scenario one. You pay your debts minimum payments and rack up $1,700 in interest over six and a half years.

And during that time period, you invest your $200 per month into the S&P 500 instead of paying down the debt sooner.

Even at the more conservative 7% expected rate of return, you end up earning around $4,000 in total interest.

So sure, you've added $1,700 of interest to your debt, but you earned $4,000 by investing, that's $2,400 extra in your pocket instead of 1,000 from paying off your debt faster.

But now let's crank this debt interest rate up to 13%, a typical interest rate to take out a subprime loan, one given to someone with a below average credit score to buy a new car.

Paying just the minimum payment, it would take you almost 10 years to pay this off and you'd have racked up $7,800 in interest on top of the original debt.

But if you put in your extra $200 per month here this debt is gone in just under three years and you'll pay around $2,000 in interest.

So let's do the invest scenario for this one If you pay just the minimum payment on your debt and invest your $200 per month over those 10 years, you can conservatively expect to earn around $10,000 in compound interest, which sounds nice, but when you subtract the $7,800 the debt grew in interest, you end up with a net gain of just under $2,400, which is less than half as much as you would have ended up with if you had paid the debt down sooner.

So whichever side of this scale accumulates more interest has the higher rate of return, that's where you generally want to put your money.

Of course using seven as the tipping point on this scale is just a rule of thumb and life is much more complicated than a single math equation.

Plus, different kinds of debt carry dramatically different costs.

Let's unpack that after a quick word from this video's sponsor.

The largest total debt in the US in dollar amounts is from mortgages. These are long-term loans that generally have lower fixed interest rates, usually below 7%.

您可以通過在 Robin Hood comm Slash Gold 註冊，在前 30 天內一次性免費試用 Robin Hood，Robin Hood 對我們的工作沒有任何編輯方面的影響，但他們確實幫助我們製作了這樣的視頻、信用卡債務是最難管理的債務來源之一 信用卡利率在過去幾年裡一直保持在 20% 以上的趨勢，而且可能會更高，尤其是對於信用評分較低的人來說 即使是最精明的投資者也很難從股市中持續獲得這種回報，而當你的債務增長率超過 20% 時，這種可能性就非常低了。2009 年通過的一項聯邦法律實際上要求

Then there's student loans, the next highest debt amount in dollars.

But also often with low interest rates, especially at the undergraduate level.

One of the harder to manage sources of debt is credit card debt.

Credit card interest rates have been trending above 20% for the last few years and can go even higher especially for people with lower credit scores.

The likelihood that even the most savvy investor could consistently reach that level of return from the stock market is very, very low.

When you have debt that is growing at over 20%, there's almost no reason not to eliminate that as soon as possible.

A federal law passed in 2009 actually required credit card companies to display on each statement how long it will take to pay off the debt and the additional interest incurred by going with the minimum payment and show you what you need to pay each month to eliminate the debt in three years, plus what you'd save an interest by doing it There's one other important step a financial planner will tell you to take care of before deciding what to do with extra cash And that is to have an emergency fund set aside just in case the guidance you'll often get is for this fund to be at a minimum $1,000 to cover an unexpected expense Ideally though this security blanket is bigger.

The classic advice is three to six months of must pay expenses That's the mortgage or the rent.

經典的建議是，必須支付三到六個月的費用，也就是房貸或房租。

That's health care things like that The experts I talked to for this story emphasized that any investment in the stock market Always comes with some risk and that could be a big factor for someone choosing between these two paths 7% rule or not.

我為這篇報道採訪過的專家強調，股市中的任何投資總是伴隨著一定的風險，這可能是在這兩條道路中選擇 7% 規則與否的一個重要因素。

I will just double down on there are no guarantees in the stock market You have so many more options and so much more flexibility If you're debt-free, there's just a benefit to being debt-free that you really can't quantify So if you're someone who would rather avoid the risk of investing no matter how high or low your debts interest rate is Well, then you have your answer

如果你沒有債務，那麼無債的好處是無法量化的。所以，如果你是一個無論債務利率高低都寧願規避投資風險的人 那麼，你就有了答案

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錢只出不進，究竟何時才可以還完「債務」呢？ (When it's okay to wait to pay off debt)

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