Puja thought she should start saving – but there was the small matter of her credit card debts to consider.

Puja's decided she really wants to start saving. She hasn't got a particular goal in mind but she does fancy a little nest egg.

However, she's been running up debts on her credit cards. As far as Puja's concerned, she's in control. After all, she only has a couple of cards and it's not as if she ignores her bills – she always pays the minimum each month. It isn't a problem.

Her friend Shweta disagrees. She persuades Puja that they should sit down and work through the figures together to see if saving makes sense for her at the moment.

Puja was thinking about putting Rs.500 a month into a Recurring Deposit account that pays 8.25% interest. After two years, she'd have Rs. 13,079.65 – and that's including Rs. 1,079.65 of interest.

However, she does have Rs.10,000 outstanding on her credit cards, which is being charged at 35.4%. In a year, her credit card bills would go up by Rs.18,333.16 even if she didn't spend any more!

Puja's a bit shocked but agrees that it's best she doesn't start saving quite yet. And her mind's now focused on that credit card debt. She wants to reduce it – and her dependence on credit cards. She decides that she might give her financial planning adviser a call to see how best she might go about it.