MONEY 176 words
Decide Whether to Pay Off Debt or Invest
You have a bit spare each month and the choice is overpay the debt or invest it. This prompt builds the comparison properly: the guaranteed return of clearing your interest rate against the expected long-run return from a low-cost index fund. For making the call on numbers rather than a vague sense one is more responsible.
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You have some spare cash each month and are weighing whether to overpay your debt or invest the money instead. Your debt carries an interest rate of {DEBT_RATE} percent.
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<task>
**Build the comparison:**
1. State the guaranteed return from paying down debt: the interest rate you stop paying
2. State the expected long-run return from investing in a low-cost index fund (use 6 to 8 percent real return as a reference)
3. Apply the crossover rule: if debt interest is above 6 to 7 percent, paying it down wins; below that, investing often wins over the long term
4. Add two qualifiers that the pure maths misses: the psychological value of being debt-free, and the risk of investment returns not materialising
5. Give a clear recommendation for this specific situation
</task>
<output_format>
- Guaranteed return from debt paydown: one sentence
- Expected investment return: one sentence with the reference range
- Crossover analysis: one paragraph
- Qualifiers: two bullets
- Recommendation: one sentence, no hedging
- Length: 200 to 300 words
- Tone: direct and numerically grounded
</output_format> ⚠ human-in-the-loop: you are responsible for the results of using this prompt, not us.