How much in debt are you

A lot.

About $80k in credit cards (mainly caused by a last minute glitch in a house purchase) 40k in a home equity line of credit, and just under a million in mortgages. Oh, and about $35k car loan.

On the plus side, one mortgage is basically being paid off by a tenant, so that's a net increase in worth over time even before property value increases, and the credit debt, though far beyond what I'm comfortable with, is about half the annual household income, and the rates are held low by juggling card promotions. I also have a few months' reserves. We're not going on any major vacations for the next couple of years, but the long term decisions seem good. I've no problem with debt as long as there is a plan to make it work for you. Property values alone (currently 1.5m and increasing) are such to counter most of it

Not sure I understand the hate on nice new car loans.

The purpose of earning money is to spend it. It does you no good in the grave, especially if you have no heirs to worry about. The purpose of spending it, once you have dealt with the requirements of life, is to improve your enjoyment of life. Buy a better cut of steak. Get a nicer house. Go on a vacation. And, if you happen to view your car as something to be enjoyed as opposed to simply being a mechanism to get from A to B, get a nicer car.

Winning at life, for me, is measured by happiness and enjoyment, not a balance sheet.

As for the luck thing, it is true that there is much out of your hands, and some folks have to work harder than others to get to the same level. My wife grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, worked her ass off to get the first (and so far only) college degree in her extended family. In comparison I just breezed into my degree. Many of her friends did not have the same ethic and ended up in jail, still in a down part of New Jersey, and in one case, dead.

Even at that, there are decisions you can make to tilt the odds a little bit more in your favor. In my case, the best financial decision I ever made was to join the Army. Some periods of good pay with nothing to spend it on, lower interest rates on the mortgage, free college for the kid, and a pension for life.(I'm in the US). Most folks choose not to take the same route. That's fine, but one has to balance the pros and cons. By total coincidence we ran into a childhood friend of the wife (also from the wrong side of the tracks) here who she hadn't seen in 20 years. After a brief stint in jail, he had a life epiphany, and made a deliberate choice and effort to improve his lot. He's a happily married dad now, a company sergeant, with a lovely house in a good part of town.

In short, I'd say the difference isn't between who is lucky and who isn't, barring injury or illness which can't be planned for, but between who is best able to take advantage of the opportunities which luck provides. Luck is not the sole provenance of the privileged. ]

randomspud wrote: »

Or invest it so that it makes more money until you get to the point where you don't need to work for money anymore.


Earning just to have more money to consume things is something a simpleton does.


It's the 6 year old child spending all their money on sweeties.

So when you don't need to work for money any more, what are you going to do? Sit on the porch and continue to not spend money other than that required to buy basic food and pay taxes? Or are you going to spend money to enjoy the rest of your life?

I do plan to reach a stage in life where I won't be working. It's called retirement. Maybe you plan on retiring early, maybe say fifteen years before I do. If so, fantastic. That's a rather common attitude here in the US. However, since I have no guarantee I'll make it to fifty, let alone 65, I don't plan on living purely to accumulate wealth and not enjoy my younger years where I'm still healthy enough to climb Hyanu Pichu or fly airplanes. It would be ironic if I were to be hit by a truck the day before I retired early, with a trip to a candy factory set on day 1 of retirement, having never bought a sweetie as a kid.