I’m a big fan of the yoga program “Inhale” on the Oxygen network. The host, Steve Ross, likes to say (when talking about mental health) that, “Psychology is based on suffering. Yoga is based on bliss.” What he means is that psychology generally assumes some misery is present and tries to rectify it. You’re depressed, [...]
I’m frequently asked how I stay motivated to remain out of debt. After all, there are so many temptations and so many fun things that I could blow my money on. People assume that it is hard for me to remain motivated and disciplined. Sometimes it is. Like anyone else, I have days when I [...]
One of the best ways to become and remain debt free is to simply learn to love what you already have. It’s human nature to be swayed by the glitter and gloss of new items. You drive past a new car lot and think, “Wow, those cars are so great.” Or you walk into Target [...]
Congratulations! You paid off that last debt and you’re officially debt free. After the celebration party ends, you’re likely to be confronted with one thought: Now what? You’ve just spent months or years focused on the goal of getting out of debt. Now that you’re there, what do you do next? It can be difficult [...]
I talk a lot about being debt free, but recently this question came up amongst friends: Am I as free as I think I am? I have no debt of any kind, so I am free from obligations to creditors. The bank cannot come take my house if I don’t pay my mortgage, my car [...]
In writing this column, one of the things that I see frequently in the comment trail is an argument about what counts as being debt free. Some people argue that debt free means freedom from consumer debt such as credit cards and car loans. Keeping a mortgage, whether for a personal home or a rental [...]
A debt free friend of mine came to me this week with an interesting problem. He’s recently been laid off from his job and is living on his (not insubstantial) emergency fund and unemployment while he looks for work. By his own admission he has enough in various savings products to last him about five [...]
The other day, in a different context, I heard someone talking about “embracing a different way of life”. It got me to thinking about what that oft-repeated phrase really means in relation to a debt free life. When I think of embracing a different way of life, I think of going after something with so [...]
I’m often asked two things: First, how can someone become debt free and second, how does one really live debt free? The people who ask these questions are usually seeking a blueprint; a set of fail safe steps that will get them debt free and give them instructions on how to live a debt free [...]
I’m constantly amazed by how little value we place on the older things in our society these days (and our older people, but that’s a whole other issue). I can remember looking around my grandmother’s house and seeing the piano that had belonged to her great grandmother, the quilts that her mother and grandmother had [...]
