How does it feel to be debt free?

[liveandchi]

As I'm trying to dig my way out from under this mountain of debt, I wonder how it feels to be debt free. I imagine that it takes a lot of stress away. If you are debt free and were in debt before, how does it feel?

[mom-from-missouri]

It feels wonderful. it does take a lot of stress away. All I pay is my monthly utilities and my daughters school tution. I have 2 credit cards, neither has a balance on it. I do use each one at least once a year, and pay it off as soon as I get the bill. Being divorced, I do this to keep a good credit rating, as opposed to having no credit. The trick is-live like you are in debt. Don't spend it because you have it. Put it away so that you will have it when you need it. I paid cash for my vehicle this way. When you get a raise, put that extra into savings or your retirement fund.

[2moretrees]

I come from sort of the opposite direction. I had always been debt free and then got into debt with medical bills. Being debt free is a lot less stressful. I'm working to get back there.

[Tree0164]

We just became debt free last month! It feels much much freerer not to have any credit card debt. I stress about money alot less.

One downside is that we got a little lax and not saving towards our two short term goals- a new car and a nice trip to Disney in 2006.

[jhd815]

You know it's sort of funny in a way ... I reached a point in my life where I said I wasn't going to worry about money anymore, but the minute I got deeper in debt I realized that I at least had to be more concerned about it.

One of my dreams was to someday own my own house. Well four years ago, at the age of 40, I finally was able to do that. Even though at the time my credit wasn't as great as I had hoped it would be, I was able to afford a mortgage at a decent rate. I was also fortunate to have found a builder who offered a buy-down program on the mortgage. Then I got lucky enough to be able to refinance the loan at a lower rate and chop off 5 yrs from the 30 yr mortgage because my credit had improved once I became a homeowner and took care of other debts along the way.

I started this year off with approximately $12,500.00 in credit card debt (about $5,000 of that was due to helping my brother replace the engine in his van). Well as of today I've paid off about $7,700.00 of that debt and I hope to have my last large credit card balance paid off by next spring. (My brother on the other hand still owes me the 5 large).

It certainly is a big load off my mind (as well as my credit cards). I'm not anti-credit by any means. But I also have set the goal to only charge what I can afford to pay off at the end of the month (or in rare cases two months).

I've also learned to figure out whether something I have my eye on is a "want" or a "need". If it's a "want" I don't make any impulsive buys. I wait another month or so and then evaluate it again.

Okay, I've ranted on long enough. It feels great to be debt-free or even to be less debt-burdened. My next goals are to establish an emergency fund for the house, then begin investing money for the future.

Good Luck ... it can be done ... and it feels wonderful!

[terry1156]

Being debt free has some tremendous advantages. It takes a lot of stress out of the bill paying and not having to worry if there will be enough in the bank. I think I read somewhere that the majority of divorces list money issues as one of their causes. I can seen how debt can do that.