Personal Finance Advice

I married a man just like me. He had no debt going into our marriage and no desire to incur any. This has made it very easy for us to create a financial life together that we both agree on and enjoy. I know many other couples who are not so lucky and this has [...]

I’ll let you in on a secret: I’m really about fifty-eight years old. Mentally, at least. In actuality I’m in my upper thirties. But if you look at my lifestyle, my spending choices, and my account balances, I’m much closer to someone who is nearing retirement. Financially I’ve always been about twenty years older than [...]

Many people want to be out of debt. They talk about it and they may even take steps toward the goal. They may make up their minds that they will never have debt (again) and that may become their mantra. They may have the best can-do attitude out there. Yet they may still fail. Why? [...]

I’ve noticed that some respondents to my previous articles seem to think that I’m living a life of deprivation because I choose to save money aggressively and live debt free. I want to set the record straight: A debt free life is not a poor life; it’s not a life of deprivation and suffering. It’s [...]

Many times I hear people say, “It’s great that you’re debt free, but I’ll never be able to do that. I’ll always have a some kind of debt,” and then they elaborate on why they can never be without a car payment, mortgage, credit card balance, etc. “It’s just the way things, are,” they’ll finally [...]

When people find out that I’m debt free, the thing they most want to know is how it’s possible and how they can achieve it, too. Quickly. They want the crash course or the quick fix to debt free living. I tell them that there really is no quick fix. There’s no magic pill that [...]

In the process of making out my Christmas card list for the year, I was struck by how many of our close friends are also debt free. I’ve never given it much thought, but there it was. We didn’t plan it this way, it just sort of evolved over the years. Like any sort of [...]

My last “real job” where I worked full-time for someone else was a mess. There was sexual harassment, bullying, unfair hours and demands, and all sorts of other foolishness going on. I was young and hadn’t yet saved up a large emergency fund, so leaving wasn’t possible unless I had another job lined up. Not [...]

One of the most common responses I get when people find out that I’m debt free is, “Well, that’s nice for you, but you probably have a huge income.” I’m not alone. Many of my debt free friends say that they get the same response. The assumption is that in order to live debt free [...]

I knew it was bound to happen, but I’d been hoping that somehow I’d avoid it. Despite having excellent credit and no debt, we got a letter from one of our credit card companies dropping our limit from $10,000 to $300. This was done because of “inactivity” on our account, which really translates into the [...]

Over my years of debt free living I’ve learned that procrastination is a huge enemy to staying debt free. We all tend to say, “I can take care of that tomorrow,” and put off things we don’t want to (or can’t) deal with right then. The problem is, the longer you put things off, the [...]

The only debt we’ve ever incurred was to buy our house. At the time we bought, we just didn’t have a spare $150K lying around so we had to get a mortgage. We knew going in that we didn’t want to be stuck with it for thirty years so we set out to buy a [...]

The other day a friend asked me if I gave to any charities, or did I just save all my money in order to keep myself debt free. The questioner seemed to think that a debt free life automatically equates to a miserly life. There seemed to be a belief that one cannot be both [...]

One of the things I’ve learned living a debt free life is never to dismiss anything out of hand. Whenever I see a money saving tip, investment strategy, or other money management idea I don’t automatically pooh-pooh it as something I can’t do. I’m always willing to try something new — or at least investigate [...]

If you’re debt free, chances are that you are one of the few in your family or circle of friends who is. In the circle of people I know well, only my parents and two close friends are debt free. I’ve met others but of the people I’m close to, I’m one of five debt [...]

A friend of mine who, like me, has always lived a debt free life recently ran into a perfect storm of disasters. He was diagnosed with an illness and, despite having good medical coverage, ended up with bills that threatened to eat up much of his non-retirement savings. As if that weren’t bad enough, he [...]

One of the things I’ve noticed about my debt free life is how much less distracted and stressed my mind seems to be than those with a lot of debt. I see many of my peers running around freaked out by bills, or chasing the latest “deal” on some doodad that they just have to [...]

I know that many people believe that you have to have debt in order to have a high credit score. Many people keep their debt just so they can keep their score up (so they can get more credit later). They fret every time a credit card is closed or the available limit is lowered. [...]

Debt free living has one important benefit that many people don’t consider at first. Sure, it makes bill paying easier and it lets you save for vacations and other fun things, but it also lets you save big sums for retirement. When all of your money goes to servicing debt, not only can you not [...]

The other day, a friend and I were having a general conversation about personal finance. My friend began by complaining about some debt he has and then he mentioned how he had no idea what he had in his checking account and how he kept getting hit with overdraft fees. He kept railing at the [...]