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When I got married, I started out with about $800 in credit card debt. Not exactly a lot by today’s standards. And we paid it down a bit and used some a bit and picked up a few department store cards. It slowly grew just like it does with most newly wed couples. Then we added a car payment. Then another. Then we decided to “save up” for a house. The plan was to pay off the credit card debt before we moved into a house but the right house presented it self earlier than we expected. So we added a mortgage. Then when I got laid off and went back to school, all the little things that would have normally been covered by discretionary income had to get covered by the credit cards. Little by little it grew. Sometimes by a lot. Pretty soon, we found that we had been imprisoned, enslaved if you will. New jobs, raises, pay off one car, changes in spending, pay off the other car, start a new business, it never was quite enough to get us out. Just barely enough to pay the prison guards. Well, goals have been made, habits have been changed, lessons have been learned (knock on wood). The condo was finally worth enough to cover a move to the outskirts of civilization and pay off the debts. So we did it. We found a price the market would bare, we found a buyer that needed just what we had to offer, we even found an appraiser that would give us an honest appraisal. Then we actually got a check. Then I put it in the bank and I realized just how easy it could be to forget the habits, the goals and the lessons. Well I am determined that we have learned our lessons. I scheduled all the payments. We got moved in and covered the costs that we had agreed to. And now it’s all gone. I sent off the last of it this morning. I put my paycheck in the bank last night and I discovered something that I hadn’t felt for over 10 years. All that money wasn’t already spoken for. At least not spoken for by someone else. I don’t have to pay the credit card people, I don’t have to pay the car loan, I don’t have to pay the bank or mortgage company. I’m free. I can cancel my utilities any time I want and have nothing left to pay. (Not that I would but I COULD! That’s what counts here) I am a free man. Poor, but free. And I am happy. They say money can’t buy happiness. I believe that. I think money can buy sorrow. I know it can in fact. And I know that money can buy freedom from that specific sorrow. So in a way, I think I did buy some happiness. I am a poor, free, happy man.