Getting out of debt is the very best thing you can do for yourself. The average American family has something like $7,000-$10,000 in credit card debt. That boggles my mind. The interest would range anywhere from 8.9% on an excellent-credit intro rate on up to a more common 15.9%-18.9% rate, or a poor-credit 24.9% rate or perhaps worse. All that interest is just money pissed away into the hands of banksters who produce nothing of value. I do use a credit card, but pay off purchases in 30-60 days. We've got a mortgage, but our house is a modest and inexpensive manufactured house, not a huge and overpriced McMansion. When the market permits, I'm thinking of selling, and my wife and I will join the Tiny House movement. Two hundred to four hundred square feet is really all we need, plus an outside storage shed and/or shop area.