In 2016, the same year she graduated from the University of North Carolina's MBA program, Joy realized she and her husband had. Then, Joy says, they turned their attention to their investment portfolio. These days, the couple's net worth is nearly $1.5 million.
"It's going toward my future self being happy," says Joy."It's anything that's going to build your net worth." For certain types of debt, she makes a strong point. The average interest rate on credit card debt is nearly 21%,Joy doesn't just believe in prioritizing high-rate debt, such as a credit card balance, though. She believes in becoming totally debt-free before embarking on an investing journey. That means paying off everything, including student and auto loans.
Still, critics say, you're passing up potential gains by paying down debt with medium to low interest rates. if you have significant debt. People are like, 'You're missing out on compound interest,'" Joy says."So then I show people my own trajectory of what it looked like when I paused putting money into my 401 and then undisputedly became a millionaire."
Then, once things are paid down, the second key is investing just as aggressively as you tackled your debt.