A reader asked me if I could break down my ideas into a handful of principles. After some careful thought, I came up with a list of fourteen basic “rules” that summarize my money and life philosophy. I’ll be presenting these as a weekly series. This rule is about as subtle as a sledgehammer, of course. Many of you started visiting The Simple Dollar because you came to this realization on your own – high interest debt is a terrible idea, and even low interest debts are a terrible idea. Let’s count the ways. The higher the interest rate, the more money you lose with nothing in return. Leave a $1,000 debt on a credit card with an 5.5% APR for a year and you lose $55 – not good

Read more here – Rule #4: Eliminate (and Avoid) High Interest Debt.