When I was starting out my family, in my early 20's, we bought a mobile home with cash. When I got pregnant, we bought a house that we could afford, and NOT the amount we were TOLD we could afford. We wanted to not be house poor. We lived there 15 years, paid child support for two kids, and I worked from home for 10 years (daycare) until my son was 10. The house was paid off, so we moved and bought a bigger house. What really got to me was we'd see new houses built in the city where our first house was, and two new SUV's in the driveway with a young 20ish couple living there. This happened a LOT. I always wondered, are their parents helping them? Or are they in debt up to their ears? We never carried credit cards then, and even now, we have one with cash rewards, pay off each month. We rent, (I remarried) and have been building a cabin, cash all the way, for a year. It's almost done. We paid cash for the 10 acres too. I also used to pay child support for my grand daughter, and once we put her mom through college, we started a college fund for Kensi, my grand daughter. My husband has been retired for over 20 years from the AF and I have 25 years into my job. We are not rich, but we do just fine. Neither one of us carried debt other than student loans. It can be done!!!