>>I was raised by that rule and have lived by it for all my 74 years!<<
I ABSOLUTELY will not follow “ all my 74 years” with “and I am 60 years old!”
I won’t, I promise! ;)
Seriesly, when I was young I got caught in the credit is easy thing. I did stupid things, but, thank God, not so stupid I couldn’t come back from them. And I am not joking when I say my wife was such a blessing.
After the early snakebites, I HATED debt — I understood it, and how smart financing can make sense. But my wife helped me take it from concept to execution. We needed 2 cars — OK, we didn’t have cash for them.
My older car was totalled in an accident, and I used all the money from that to get a newer car. One of the proudest days of my life was when the salesman told me “in my 20 years of car sales I have never seen a better credit score” (it was 822). My wife was again the smarts that made it all happen. “Yes dear” when you agree on finances is a GREAT marital strategy!
We needed and got cars we could enjoy but made financial sense — then overpaid on the cheaper one until it was paid of in 1/2 the loan time. We then plowed that car payment into the other one (double paying). Then, when the cars were paid off, we took all that and added it to the mortgage and paid that sucker off.
The whole time, we kept a fund for appliances and what have you. I still have tube TVs and a non-B/R DVD player I got free from Amex points.
I might have been unwise in my youth, but I married up and try to be wise in these latter years.
And today, let’s face it, cash is king! I didn’t predict it but my planning is paying off.
I had a slight advantage of being born in the depression and having parents had saved enough durring the depression to build a large new home and start a business in 1936.
They also had the lessons of my Great Great Grandfather losing his bank, the First National Bank of Pomona, in the 1980s depression and my father having to shut down a new business in the 1920 depression.
I even saved to pay cash for my airplane which cost more than our home.
I wanted an airplane for a number of years but waited until I could pay cash for it.
Of the hundreds of employees I have had over the years I can count on my 2 hands the number that had more than a pot to piss in because the idiots bought on credit!