partly where I’m coming from is a deep aversion to debt. DEBT. we ran up a hefty credit card debt in our profligate youth, way before we were scaredycat. Large numbers. We suddenly got religion when the credit card debt coupled with the massive student loan debt threatened to overwhelm us, battened down the hatches about a decade ago, got debt free in 18 months of extreme saving (we used to reuse plastic sandwich baggies washing them and hanging them up to dry — baking our own muffins everyday, etc…) and that mindset just stuck. extreme debt aversion over the lastd ecade has worked for me ina sense. yeah I coulda bought a house in 01 and flipped it in 05 and made $X…but this way works for me. by the way, if you’re interested in the frugal lifestyle, it’s tough to beat THE TIGHTWAD GAZETTE, by amy dacyzyn (spelling might be off on that name). coincidentally this morning i saw a license plate that said “WE NDEBT”. not sure if that meant we in debt” or a business name ‘we end debt”. probably the former. how strange to get a license plate that so proudly proclaims that. you keep that license plate a long time, debt as lifestyle, and while heavy leveraging has worked in the past, worked with my stduent laons, it might not work in the future. might be very bad for a while.
