The other 20%.

The hard part I didn't skip.

Talk 5 promised the hard part. Here it is: if you carry a credit card at 20-something percent, everything so far changes order. I won't pretend it doesn't.

Remember Talk 1's compound interest? It runs both directions. On savings, for you, slowly. On a 25% card, against you, fast. That debt is the same engine, in reverse, pointed at you.

Killing expensive debt is the best "investment" you have.

One number changes everything: no honest investment reliably earns 25% a year. But a dollar that kills a 25% debt just earned you 25%, guaranteed, zero risk, because it's 25% of interest you'll never pay. Mathematically, paying down expensive debt is the highest-return, lowest-risk use of a dollar you have. That isn't opinion, it's math.

The classic split puts about 20% toward debt, but forget the number. The nuance that matters: not all debt is the enemy. A 3-4% mortgage or a low-rate student loan is slow debt you can live alongside. Hunt the expensive stuff, the 20%-plus cards. Kill those first.

The boundary, and the tool.

Let me be clear: diBoaS does not lend money. No debt consolidation, no loan we're selling you, none of that. This is just the math, so you're not the last to see it.

I'm not going to tell you which debt or how fast. That's your life. The tool below lets you give the "debt" slice a real job. And you can take Talk 1's compound calculator, point it at your card's rate, and see what it's costing you.

I run diBoaS, so check the math yourself.

The interest you stop paying.

See what the card really costs?

Sometimes the highest-return thing to do with your first slice is aim it at the debt eating it. The interest you stop paying is a return almost nothing else in money can match.

And that's the last piece. All six now: the engine, the destination, the order, the amount, the room, and the debt. Next, we put them together, and you'll see it was never six things.