MONEY 174 words
Decide Between Paying Off Debt and Investing
You have debt and some spare money, and you have heard convincing arguments for both clearing it and investing it. This applies a proper decision framework to your actual balances and rates rather than leaving you to go with a feeling, ranking your debts by real cost and telling you where each pound is best sent first.
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You have {DEBT_SUMMARY} (types, balances, and interest rates) and also have [monthly surplus / lump sum] you could put toward either clearing debt or starting to invest. You have heard arguments for both and want a principled framework rather than just a feeling.
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<task>
**Apply a decision framework to your specific situation:**
1. Rank your debts by effective interest rate (include any employer pension match as a guaranteed return)
2. Apply the waterfall rule: any debt above [threshold rate, e.g. 5-6%] should almost always be cleared first
3. Identify the psychological value of being debt-free vs the mathematical value of investing
4. Check for any special cases: student loan (Plan 2 behaves differently), 0% deals with expiry dates
5. Produce a priority-ordered action plan: what to tackle in what sequence
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<output_format>
- Debt ranked by rate (table: Debt | Balance | Rate | Action priority)
- Waterfall decision rule applied to your debts
- Special cases flagged (if any)
- Psychological vs mathematical trade-off (one paragraph)
- Priority action plan (numbered, with monthly allocation)
</output_format> ⚠ human-in-the-loop: you are responsible for the results of using this prompt, not us.