Hi friend,

I want to talk to you today about something I have been noticing, and it genuinely concerns me.

Credit card debt is creeping back. I am seeing it in the questions landing in my inbox, and in the conversations happening all around me. More than the debt itself, what worries me is the decisions people make to deal with it. Because some of those decisions, made with the best intentions, can quietly put your entire future at risk.

So today I want to walk through a handful of the biggest money questions I keep hearing, and give you honest answers to each. Not the easy answers. The right ones. Grab your coffee. This is an important one.

This is the big one, and I hear it constantly. “I have credit card debt, and I have money sitting in my retirement account. Should I just pull it out and wipe the debt clean?”

I understand the temptation completely. That debt feels heavy, and the retirement money feels like it is just sitting there. So why not use it?

Please hear me. For most of you, the answer is no.

Here is why. When you withdraw money from a retirement account early, you often get hit twice. You may owe taxes on it, and you may owe a penalty on top of that. So to pay off, say, ten thousand dollars of debt, you might have to withdraw far more than ten thousand just to cover the taxes and penalties. You are setting your money on fire to put out a different fire.

But the deeper cost is the one nobody sees. That retirement money was not just sitting there. It was growing. It compounded, quietly building your future year after year. When you yank it out, you do not just lose the dollars. You lose every dollar those dollars would have become over the next 20 or 30 years. You are robbing your future self to rescue your present self, and your future self has far fewer ways to recover.

Credit card debt is a serious problem, and we have to attack it. We attack it by cutting spending, throwing every extra dollar at the highest-interest balance, and sometimes getting honest help. We do not attack it by dismantling the future you have been building. Protect the retirement account. Fight the debt another way.

Here is another one I love, because the answer surprises people. “Should I rush to pay off my mortgage?”

My answer is this. Paying off your mortgage is a wonderful goal, but only after a few other things are truly in place first. Order matters enormously here.

Before you send a single extra dollar to your mortgage, I want you to have your high-interest debt gone, a solid emergency cushion in place, and your retirement savings on track. Why? Because your mortgage is usually your cheapest, most patient debt. It's low-interest, predictable, and the roof over your head isn't going anywhere as long as you make your regular payments.

It makes no sense to pay off a low-interest mortgage early while you are still carrying a credit card charging you three or four times that rate, or while you have nothing saved for an emergency. That is putting the dessert before the vegetables.

Now, once your high-interest debt is gone, your cushion is built, and your retirement is funded, then yes. Walking into retirement with no mortgage payment is one of the most powerful things you can do because it dramatically lowers how much money you need each month to live. Just make sure it is the last step in the sequence, not the first.

This one is so human, and so common. “My spouse and I have completely different ideas about spending. What do we do?”

First, let me say this gently. You are not broken, and your marriage is not doomed. Money is one of the most common things couples clash over, precisely because money was never really about math. It is about safety, freedom, childhood, fear, and dreams. When one of you wants to save every penny, and the other wants to enjoy life now, you are not actually arguing about a purchase. You are two people with two different money stories trying to share one bank account.

The way through is not for one person to win and the other to surrender. The way through is to get the money stories out in the open. Sit down, not in the heat of a fight, and each of you share what money felt like growing up and what you truly fear. The saver is often afraid of insecurity. The spender often fears a life not fully lived. Both fears are valid.

Then build a plan with room for both. Set aside money for the future, which soothes the saver, and guilt-free money for the present, which soothes the spender. A shared plan that fits both people’s needs beats a perfect budget one person resents. You are a team. Play like one.

I want to close with two things I keep hearing, because they stay with me.

The first reminds me how fast a financial future can change, for better or worse. One decision, one windfall, one setback, and the whole picture shifts. That's why the boring fundamentals matter so much. The cushion, the diversified savings, the lack of high-interest debt. Those are not just good habits. They are what let you absorb a sudden change instead of being destroyed by it. You cannot predict the moment your life changes. You can only be ready.

The second is heartbreaking, and I have written about it before because it matters so deeply. A family learned a painful lesson about what happens when important documents aren't in place. When someone passes or becomes unable to manage their affairs, and there is no will, no healthcare directive, no financial power of attorney, the people left behind are forced to sort out enormous decisions in the middle of their grief. Courts get involved. Costs pile up. Families sometimes fracture. And so often, all of it is preventable with a few documents created while everything is calm.

Please do not let that be your family’s story. These documents are not about expecting the worst. They are an act of love for the people you would leave to handle everything.

One small step, like always. Look at the four questions above and pick the one that made you flinch a little. That flinch is the signal.

If it was the retirement one, promise yourself you will not raid your future to pay today’s bill, and instead write down your highest-interest debt so you can start attacking it the right way. If it was the spouse one, schedule a calm, no-fighting money conversation this week. If it was the documents one, name the two people you would trust with your finances and your healthcare if you could not speak for yourself. Just that. One honest step.

All of these questions come down to the same quiet truth. The goal was never just to get through this month. It is to make decisions today that your future self will thank you for, instead of ones that quietly rob her.

Protect your future. Attack the debt the smart way. Get on the same team as the person you love. And write down your wishes. None of it is glamorous, but it is what separates the people who feel secure from the people who feel scared.

You deserve to be in the first group. And you absolutely can be.

Talk soon,
Najma Zanelli
Explore Offerings
Founder, NAZ Global Consultancy
Follow me on IG: @najma_zanelli
Email: [email protected]

P.S. Know someone wrestling with credit card debt who is tempted to cash out their retirement to fix it? Forward this to them before they do. That one conversation could save their entire future, and there is no better gift than that.