Give Tzedakah or Pay Off Interest?
Question
I know I am supposed to give 10% of my income to charity. But I am currently in a mountain of credit card debt that accumulated when I was unemployed. The longer I go without paying it off in full, the more interest I am charged. Therefore, the wisest thing to do is to pay as much as I can until the balance is zero. This is likely to take several years. Am I still obligated to give tzedaka at this time if it’ll cause me to end up paying more interest?