I recently had a conversation with a friend about savings plans, and a related issue of contributing to savings vs. paying down long-term debt came up. This is a common gray area when it comes to looking at the most effective way to budget and manage your money, and probably one of the best articles I have read on this subject is this one over at Kiplingers. It has a very good outline of the best approach to this problem, while still recognizing that every situation is unique.