Our only debt is a modest mortgage. We have a home that we can afford and have extra money left over.
My wife needs a new, used car. I’m considering taking out a loan for it because the money is earning far more in the mutual fund than the interest charges.
The other day, I was at a work seminar. Some yahoo loan guy was encouraging people to take out loans for everything. Insanity
We made a concerted effort to pay off our mortgage early. Every month we could, we simply added $100 to pay down our principal on our mortgage, and eventually it turned to every month, and we paid it off in 15 years instead of 30.
We didn’t buy a big house, we purchased a small 1962 era mass-produced Ranch, and have lived in it. We could have got a mortgage for a house 3 or 4 times what it is worth, but we didn’t. We buy new cars, each one of us probably every five years staggered, and we pay cash because we save for it. But we don’t buy top of the line cars.
We lived with furniture for many years we found in front of houses in our neighborhood and refinished.
We don’t have, and have never in our entire lives had cable. We have one cell phone between us.
You get the idea.
We live within our means. We have structured our lifestyle so that if something happens to one of us, lose or job or become disabled (that will obviously be a trial that will throw any plans into a dumpster) we can still live on one income. We have many places where, if we had to, we could cut back even more.
I read a story today about some guy who they say committed robberies so he could pay rent. I am quite skeptical when I hear these things, because I suspect that in many cases (though not all, to be sure) you would find a lot of things that got a higher priority in finances than rent did. When I see people who live in section 8 housing with an EBT but they have cable and internet, smoke cigarettes, have a car, 60” television and buy lobster at the supermarket, yes...that pisses me off. I don’t have anything against people who want those things or do those things, but I bitterly resent that they do it on my dime, when I have endeavored to live within my means.
I think a lot of people live beyond their means, and value stuff and status more than they value fiscal responsibility, simple as that in many cases.