I blame debt for a lot of people in my age group that have trouble. When I looked around at my peers in my 20s and a bit of my 30s it's what I always saw. Tons of student loans. Needing a new fancy "cool" car at 18-20. Traveling all over on credit. They never could wait for anything. Meanwhile, I paid for college by working full time and for the most part giving the school checks every semester. It took me six years to get a "4-year" degree, but I walked away not owing a penny. I bought a car for $3,000 cash I'd saved two months after I graduated high school. It was in really nice shape, but wasn't trendy and modern. It was also damn comfortable and got me where I needed to be every time. I drove that until I was 25. I didn't really travel much until I was nearly 30, and even then it's not a huge amount I spend.

The thing is, everyone looks at me now like I'm rich, but most of the people around me who think that have more income than me or at the very least think I make a lot more than I do. Yeah, I have nice stuff, and yeah, I don't stress about money at all, because I don't have to. I only have mortgage debt, I could get rid of that if I wanted without too much pain. Car titles are on hand and clear and will be even though I'm looking at buying something else soon. I paid my dues the hard and patient way, when they were instead paying the bankers.

I blame debt for a lot of people in my age group that have trouble. When I looked around at my peers in my 20s and a bit of my 30s it's what I always saw. Tons of student loans. Needing a new fancy "cool" car at 18-20. Traveling all over on credit. They never could wait for anything. Meanwhile, I paid for college by working full time and for the most part giving the school checks every semester. It took me six years to get a "4-year" degree, but I walked away not owning a penny. I bought a car for $3,000 cash I'd saved two months after I graduated high school. It was in really nice shape, but wasn't trendy and modern. It was also damn comfortable and got me where I needed to be every time. I drove that until I was 25. I didn't really travel much until I was nearly 30, and even then it's not a huge amount I spend.

The thing is, everyone looks at me now like I'm rich, but most of the people around me who think that have more income than me or at the very least think I make a lot more than I do. Yeah, I have nice stuff, and yeah, I don't stress about money at all, because I don't have to. I only have mortgage debt, I could get rid of that if I wanted without too much pain. Car titles are on hand and clear and will be even though I'm looking at buying something else soon. I paid my dues the hard and patient way, when they were instead paying the bankers.