My opinion, becoming rich and having no debt is based on a persons circumstance. I started working part-time at the age of 13 years old. By the time I was 14, i asked my dad how to invest and buy shares in the stock market. In those days it was not done electronically, but manually. Anyhow my dad told me not to invest in the stock market as I can lose ALL my money. Being Naive, and I didnt want to lose my money, I decided not to inquire further. Obviously had I received the right information, I would most probably be rich now. Buying my first car cash at the age of 21 and having to accumulate a lot of problems with it and fixing it all the time only helped to escalate my debt as my parents could not afford to buy me a car and pay for my university cost and I had to take out loans to pay for university. There are parents that buy their children cars when the get out of school and pay for education and thereby Alleviating them from starting to get into debt early by the time they start working....Again circumstance. Anyhow a few years later, my debt has been kept to a bare minimum - just have major debt like your car and house. We have been living comfortable where my wife and I spent way less than what we earned. We draw up monthly budgets and save money every month and pay extra in the bond. moresoever recently, I was retrenched (circumstance) 5 months ago and have not been working since. Debt can be good in certain situations, but in our case having to pay the bond, and motor costs can be a nightmare especially without 2 incomes. My advice is to live within one partners salary and have no debt (circumstance once again). I myself am trading the stock market full time to make ends meet....