How to Live Without Debt, Set Yourself Free.

LIVING DEBT FREE IS TRUE FREEDOM!

My father was not a wealthy man. He never made more than $8.50 an hour. He was a janitor cleaning other people's garbage, My dad was a rich man because he lived debt free. 

Being free of the burden of debt is liberating, he would tell me, with his 850  credit score he could get any loan, car loan, home loan on his own. But he would tell me, forget about borrowing money. Stay debt-free and be frugal, and you can bank your income and live a credit-free life.

That’s not the life for many people, of course, because as with anything, there are trade-offs. Sure, you can live without the burden of debt, but it’s harder to travel without a credit card. It’s also hard for many people to rent for most of their lives, instead of getting a mortgage. And in some areas it’s hard to even rent without a good credit score.

However, for my dad, he lived a rich simple happy life.

Here are some ideas for living a debt free life, if that appeals to you, continue reading, if it doesn't appeal to you skip this page.

1. Save an emergency fund. Many people use their credit cards as a sort of emergency fund — if there’s an unexpected expense, the card comes out to the rescue. Instead, use the money you aren’t paying towards debt to build up a healthy emergency fund, keeping you out of debt when something unexpected comes up. Living without credit can be risky, but having a strong emergency fund (aim for $2,000 initially, then build it up to 6-8 months or more of expenses).
2. Save for goals. Once you’ve got the emergency fund adequately covered, you can start saving for other things. Set savings goals for yourself: do you want to travel, or buy a car, or save for college, or renovate your home, or buy a house. Decide on your highest-priority goals, and set a dollar figure. Now save towards those goals. Without debt, it should be fairly easy.
3. Get a debit card. If you need to use a credit card in certain situations, such as buying something online, often you can use a debit or check card instead, if it has the name of a major credit company such as Visa or Mastercard. I went seven years without a credit card, but using a Mastercard debit card, and had no problems at all. It actually worked every place you would need a credit card, but I wasn’t buying stuff on credit it was taken straight from my checking account, meaning I would need to have the money first before purchasing anything.
4. Earn interest instead of paying it. The problem with debt or credit is that you waste money paying interest. It eats away at your finances. Instead, make your money work for you by investing it. 
5. My father use to say the when owe interest it will eat up your savings. Invest in real assets, real estate, gold and silver. will grow over time.
6. Buy a car on cash. For those who have been buying vehicles with auto loans all their lives, it may seem impossible to buy a car on cash. But it’s very possible, and many people do it. My grandparents, for example, always buy their cars with cash. So instead of making loan payments, and paying double the price of the car or more over the term of the loan, they make savings deposits, and end up with the amount it costs to buy two cars in their bank account over the course of five years. I’m going to use my current van as long as possible.
7. Invest for retirement. This is just common sense, no matter what your credit or debt situation, but without debt payments, it makes sense to accelerate your retirement investments (as one of your savings goals). Then you can retire early, thanks to not being in debt.
8. Travel without credit. It’s a common belief that you can’t rent a hotel room or a car without a credit card. This is false. It’s easy to rent a hotel room, for example, with a cash deposit. You just need to call around to find the right hotels.
9. Use PayPal online. I’m not a big fan of online shopping — well, actually I love to shop online, but I think it’s bad for your finances, only because it’s so easy to do. You end up buying stuff online that you might have resisted in the real world. But if you must buy something online, and don’t want to get a credit card (or a debit card), in many cases it can be done with PayPal — meaning that you have to have the money before you make the purchase. I’ve heard of people who don’t like PayPal, but I haven’t had a problem so far.