You never bought a house? Took a student loan?? I haven’t taken on a lot of debt - but I did do those two things.
There is debt, but there is also leverage (using someone else’s money because it is cheaper than using yours).
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I had a mortgage for 4 years from age 31 to age 35. None afterwards, we paid cash for houses.
I remember a specific financial disclosure document I had to sign for that mortgage. It stated how much interest I would pay for the life of the loan. I dont remember the figure but it was well over $200,000 for this $45,000 house.
My emotional reaction was to go numb, sign the rest of the docs, and get out of there. Horrifying stuff.That was back in the day when my mortgage interest rate was 11.5%
There are reasonable people who show logical financial reasons to have a mortgage. I agree with their math but that path is not for me. Debt weighs too heavily on my mental space.
We bought a gut rehab house after the mortgaged one. I always told people “ you, too, can have a mortgage free house if you are willing to live in a construction zone.” Most are not.
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Wow! If you are living somewhere (or willing to move somewhere) with houses in that range, I agree, interest is powerful and dangerous. Good decision
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This ^ is completely fair! The numbers may say one thing, but being able to sleep at night and not be stressed is more valuable IMO
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Hiya, I’m SF and while it sounds like a lot of y’all knew each other from other corners of the internet, I haven’t been a forum person since my short lived neopets and high fantasy obsessions converged as a tween.
After spending my twenties in service industry jobs barely scraping by financially but doing cool things in a slew of northern M states, I finished grad school and took a job doing tech writing for a software company in California. I do not love this job, but I am able to pay down debt and start building savings (albeit a decade late) in the midst of a global pandemic / political shitstorm, so i am feeling wildly privileged and for now it will do. Looking forward to learning how to do things with money, since I’m still in a state of confusion every time I come out ahead at the end of the month.
I also spend a lot of time in the woods or desert, doing fiber projects, growing / foraging / eating good food, and trying to figure out how to meet new folks in a new place in the midst of said global pandemic.
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Finances aside, it sounds like you’ll fit in very well around here!
Welcome!
(Eta I meant that as like, aside from finances you’ll fit in on the basis of other things. Not that your finances make you not fit in 
my wording was unclear)
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Welcome! We have a couple of craft threads you might be interested in, and there’s a lot of people who like good food on here too 
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Welcome!
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Welcome! A lot of us grow food, and a few of us forage.
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Welcome! Join our craft threads! And if you still like books (I too loved high fantasy as a tween… and now), join the book threads! 
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Welcome, SF! I feel you on starting a decade late – I was in grad school for most of my twenties and didn’t get a job that paid me much more than a living wage until I was 30. Suddenly having a ton of cash flying my way was a real interesting thing.
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Welcome @timeforustogo! I didn’t know anyone from other corners of the internet before, but have found everyone to be real nice here.
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Hi new friend
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Hi, I have been lurking on MMM for years, and then continued my lurking to OMD. The time has come to comment because I should no longer keep having imaginary forum conversations in my head.
I’m Latinx, cis gender woman with a couple of jobs, a couple of kids, and (one) partner/co-parent living in a very expensive urban centre in Canada. We are high income earners, but I grew up very low income, so money (or lack thereof) has always been an underlying theme in my life. It also made me very political, and most of my personal and professional life has been focused on different areas of community activism, from union organizing to DEI work in the non profit sector. (I crossed the border to spend several weeks working with Bernie’s campaign in Detroit). I am trained as a lawyer (mostly went to law school because I was volunteering with an anti-poverty group and we were all getting arrested fairly frequently), but my day to day work does not involve me practicing, although I still do pro bono work on occasion. I am lucky that my work is consistent with my values, but I’m also highly skilled in it, so I earn an excellent income.
My household is extremely social, and my hubby is an excellent and enthusiastic cook and partier and before COVID we would host people every single weekend, sometimes multiple times a week. I’m actually an introvert but my husband is the world’s most social person, and my children turned out the same way. COVID restrictions have been a bit of a relief to be honest, although we still see people outside quite frequently.
I have a lovely, privileged life, that I am always grateful for, but also feel the privileges I enjoy (a safe home, good food, healthy children, kind friends), should be privileges available to all, so I will do my bit in the world to try and make that happen.
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Welcome!
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Welcome!
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We’re glad to have you here! I’m Canadian too, living on the prairies.
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So much truth here! Glad you decided to join in.
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Welcome~! 
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Thank you for sharing, and welcome!