Not all debt deserves the same urgency. A home loan or an education loan tends to come at a lower interest rate and finances something that builds value over time — a property that can appreciate, a qualification that can raise your earning power. A credit card balance or a personal loan taken for consumption, on the other hand, usually just costs you, with nothing growing in return.
Here's a concrete comparison. A home loan at 9% funding a property is "good" debt — it's cheap, long-term, and the asset behind it can be worth more later. A credit card balance at 36% funding last year's vacation or a phone upgrade is "costly" debt — expensive, and the thing it bought has already lost its value or been used up.
Why the distinction matters practically: if you have spare money to put toward debt and you're holding both kinds, the costly debt should almost always come first. Clearing a 36% card balance saves you far more, far faster, than putting the same rupee toward a 9% home loan — the math simply favours attacking the most expensive debt first, regardless of how large or small each one feels.
This isn't a reason to feel bad about good debt — a home loan is often a sensible, deliberate trade-off. It's a reason to be clear-eyed about costly debt: the kind quietly draining money from your future with nothing growing in its place is the kind worth your full attention first.