I find it fascinating how many on here brag about being debt free or almost debt free. This is a great thing if you're retirement age...not a good thing if you are 50 or younger. Debt is the mechanism that will enable you to build wealth. For example, a guy I know were talking recently, he and his wife have a debt service of 5.3 million. This debt is on real estate worth 11 million. His mortgage payments are 39k a month on 8 rental properties that they list on Air bnb. Their monthly income is 140k-150k. After mortgage , taxes, and expenses they net 82k per month.
Every month they pay 6k in extra principal which increases their net worth and saves interest. Historically the properties have increased in value by 4 percent per year. When they purchase a new property they renovate it which also boosts its value. Refinancing some properties has allowed them to get tax free equity out of the property which they immediately roll into purchasing more real estate.
His words..."debt is the most powerful wealth building tool IF USED CORRECTLY!!"
My own personal experience is, I have debt of 1.5 million. At one time it was almost 3 million. That debt allows me to have an income of 480k per year gross. In 3 years I'll net an additional 110k per year. In ten years I'll net an another 200k. I'm investing 305k in solar which will save me 500k over 30 years (life of the system)
I'm saying all this to say, debt is not bad. Paying a vehicle in cash or a mortgage off early is fine. But that won't make you rich. Use debt to boost your gross income. When you retire, instead of working for $40 an hour and making 90k a year, you'll be making 500k a year. Only way this is possible is by debt service when you're younger.
Obviously this post is not about buying an atv on a credit card or other foolish decisions.

There are a bunch of immigrants that will agree with you.
They are all borrowing exorbitant amounts of money on credit to start fake buisnesses and are shipping the money back home as their retirement fund.They intend to go bankrupt and skip out and are bragging about it and laughing at all the suckers that will eventually have to pay for them,lol.
People gaming that stupid system is what is leading to the country going bankrupt.
Bunch of leetches living off the working man.

Debt is not good. It is not good to owe people or a company money!

Yes debt has worked for us, but on a much smaller scale than yours. We retired our mortgage on our small home in the mid 1990s. We were debt free for about 6 years. I have taken out 3 30 K home equity loans over the last 20 years with 3-year lengths. I have used those for many various items, some even for charitable giving. The vast majority of our annual income comes from Social security and my pension. Both are not assets and will terminate on the death. So paying off 90K plus about 16K of interest with money coming in monthly and leaving the 90K to grow these last 21 years has resulted in just shy of 3xs growth of the 90 K. These were not super funds but securities that we and our financial planner chose to invest in. I missed some opportunities in the early 90s where borrowing some money would have been a good investment. Never too old to learn.

Bryce

Yeah had to learn the hard way about debt and it's powers. Guess it depends on what you wanna do in life is how you look at it. Also what kinda person you are. If your financially illiterate, hard on the KISS method and not good with money or planning, then yeaaaaah debt no good. But if your the opposite it can be a pretty powerful tool

Hate to say though on here this post is gonna get probably 80% responses similar to something Dave Ramsey would say. No saying that as an insult just what's most likely gonna happen

I think Dave Ramsey would recommend not having a lot of personal debt, especially credit card debt. Business debt is a whole other ball of wax. However, in the ( we will lend you money for less than inflation ) world, debt is free money.

Most people should follow Dave Ramsey's advice.

As for debt being good, it depends on lots of specifics. Income, investment type, experience, timing, etc. are important factors.

Not sure I'd listen to a guy bragging on a trapping (or any other) site about how great he's doing--no offense intended. For every success story of highly leveraged types, there are plenty more stories of folks that went broke.

BC--debt free.

You must be a firecracker buisness man running your trapping operation on debt since you claim to lose money trapping every year,lol.

Broke people pay interest
Wealthy people earn interest
A fool and his money are soon parted....

There is a freedom in being debt free. Used correctly debt can be a great tool but If it doesn't cause you any mental stress to have it you're likely overly optimistic.

Yep its the system that keeps the few at the top like Soros,Gates and the other leetches sucking the lifeblood from the middle class and keeping them down while they think they are doing good living on hired purchase(other peoples money)
It is killing western civilization.No one living on hired purchase including the government will ever pay it back.Maybe the odd sucker will.

In the 70's in rampant inflation, one could borrow money at 7% and put money down on almost anything and triple his money in just a small time by the inflation adding bloated value to almost anything you would have bought. When you do that if you don't get off of the train at the right time it could be a wreck. For some they was heeding to the call of the "Russians are coming". Then reality hit them in the face and the "Russians weren't coming". When one over extends himself he is just gambling on what direction the next administration is going to take things. If they decide the people with money is losing too much then they have to get inflation under control. The Feds are not the people, the Feds do what's best for them not for what some administration has promised you the way it was going to be.
I knew a couple that went to jail on bank fraud, a couple that killed themselves and countless others that just worried themselves into the grave, while others cleaned house and filed bankruptcy never to be seen again. For the last couple of years I have had 100's of emails from brokerage type people telling me the money was coming to and end and the only way to beat it is to get rid of it in some of their strategies. Many of us are just fish in the sea and they catch the easy ones and move on to bigger and better fishing holes. When you are young you have dreams. Follow them the best you can and shoot for the stars and maybe you can at least make it to the moon. But remember she can be a harsh mistress !


The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
Song by Charlie Haden and Pat Metheny

Lyrics
Videos
Other recordings

See her how she flies
Golden sails across the sky
Close enough to touch
But careful if you try
Though she looks as warm as gold
The moon's a harsh mistress
The moon can be so cold
Once the sun did shine
Lord, it felt so fine
The moon a phantom rose
Through the mountains and the pines
And then the darkness fell
And the moon's a harsh mistress
It's so hard to love her well
I fell out of her eyes
I fell out of her heart
I fell down on my face
Yes, I did, and I, I tripped and I missed my star
God, I fell and I fell alone, I fell alone
And the moon's a harsh mistress
And the sky is made of stone
The moon's a harsh mistress
She's hard to call your own

Yep, debt is good says the person with a $100K or more in student loan debt. As some are holding their breath waiting on the government to forgive their obligations.

Paid for everything thing in cash my whole life. Being truly wealthy was something I never strove for. Being truly happy and content is my goal. Some people are driven by money, others not so much. Whatever makes you happy is my philosophy. Having debt has driven many people to an early grave, worry,worry,worry.
I see your point in working the system to your own personal advantage but it's not for everyone

The key to good debt is if you can earn more with the borrowed money than you have to pay to finance it. That’s when you are actually making money.

I’d say those on here who are proud of being debt free are speaking from a more personal living standpoint. They are proud to be able to afford their personal lifestyle without having to borrow to do it. If you are in debt so you can have the latest phone, new cars, boats, motorcycles, or other toys that depreciate…you’re headed down the wrong road.

That said, if you want to loan me money at 5% and I have a way to earn 10% on that money…I’ll take that deal all day long.

Blaine co, I'm certainly not bragging. Probably a lot of folks on here that are way better off than I am. Just offering a counter perspective to the "all debt is bad" mantra. I'd rather pay interest to a bank than pay income tax. Either way you're out the money. But debt service allows wealth increases. Taxes is money gone forever.

Thats the thinking that keeps the govermnts pushing all the wars-great for the bloated money machine economy-not so good for the working man.
And leaves a big balloon to burst.
Its coming,but like all ponzie schemes keep it going and to (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) with the future generations.

Certainly a difference in philosophies out there. Id rather pay income tax, and a lot of it..sounds crazy, but you see, that means I made a lot of money. Others want to pay interest to the bank...that means the banker made a lot of money. As for a previous statement that debt is the biggest income building tool, ill also argue that your income is actually your biggest income building tool. With no debt, cash piles up fast....without ANY risk.
I still remember a thread similar to this pre-covid era, many on here talking bout the great wonders and powers of debt.... after all, they were making more interest in the stock market than they were paying in mortgage interest...life was great. Then covid hit, jobs were cut, tenants were told they didnt need to pay landlords (you know, the ones with mortgages on rental properties). Many houses of cards came down due to the risk that that turned into reality. When you have debt, you have risk...period.
If you dont mind risk, have at it, but dont assume that other folks that made their fortunes, or are still working on their fortunes without risk, have done it wrong.
I wish you luck, if for no other reason than I'm sick of my dollars bailing out financially irresponsible people.

If the asset you buy with debt doesnt appreciate or earn revenue, its bad debt..

Real estate debt can be a bit tricky if you run into a downturn or the banks get nervous. That's how Ramsey got burned before he started the debt-free philosophy.

It funny if you don’t owe someone it has a negative impact on your credit score that’s just crazy to me fantastic plastic had ruined many a life. Credit is right up there with the other addictions like alcohol, drugs and gambling if you let it control you.