One of the things you might want to do is reduce your monthly outgoings by paying off some, or all of your debts with your retirement funds or savings.

If you haven't retired yet, you might want to try and reduce any debts now if you can. This should give you more surplus money to spend or invest when the time comes.

Is paying off your debts the right thing to do?

Before you make any decisions, you might want to check the interest rates you're paying on your debts and if there are any early repayment penalties you may be charged. This allows you to compare the possible returns you could get if your money was invested instead.

As a general rule it's usually more beneficial to use your savings to pay off any debts rather than investing them - but it's always worth checking.

Which debts to pay off first?

If you can't or don't want to pay off all your debts, you should consider paying off your most expensive debts first. Just to clarify, these are the debts with the highest interest rates, not the ones with the highest repayments.

To find out the interest rate you're paying you could try contacting the companies you have the debt with or check any paperwork that might be associated with the loans. Once you know the rates it should be easy to decide which debts take priority.

How debts are typically ranked in terms of the interest rates they charge