BahamasEd wrote:On a personal base, you should not have any debt.
And if you have assets, a good part of them should be in things that are not the debt of other people.
Well, NO debt is a nice goal, and one which my father and I were fortunate enough to practice 90+% of the time via self discipline, planning, and frugal living.
However, for the vast majority of people before, say, age 40 or 50 -- buying a house with no mortgage isn't feasible, or even if feasible, may not be practical.
Now, this doesn't mean one should buy 3 times the house one needs and go crazy with debt, of course. And people who lease instead of buying a car and end up ALWAYS having a big car payment -- to me that's like smacking yourself in the head all the time.
One strategy I advised friends/family on to save money and apply some discipline to their financial lives, was to use a 15 year mortgage vs. a 30. This ensured their house would be paid off well before they retired, that they'd build up equity at a reasonable speed, etc.
I got some nice meals, cases of beer or wine, etc. as thank you gifts when some of those friends were thrilled to have their house completely paid off in their 40's, with a huge cash flow for other things like retirement investments.
Given the track record of the perma-doomer blogs, I wouldn't bet a fast crash doomer's money on their predictions.