Living without debt
No mortgage, no loans, no balances, chosen for the flexibility not the interest
Someone doing this owns the house outright and carries no car loan or credit balance. The reasoning is usually not the interest saved but the range of shocks a household can absorb. A recession, an illness, a career change or a family emergency is survivable on cash with nothing due, and much harder with both at once. Spreadsheets tend to say otherwise, since cheap borrowing can go into an asset that returns more, and people who pay the house off anyway concede the arithmetic and point at how they sleep instead. Trading liquidity for certainty only works if the money going into the mortgage is genuinely spare. It is less a decision than a project that runs for years on surplus income.
People on record
Sorted by strength of stance
Does it: documented as part of their own routine. Recommends: explicitly advises other people to do it. Discusses: covered it substantively without clear personal adoption; this can include criticism or disagreement.
- Morgan HouselDoes it
Writer · The Psychology of Money
No mortgage on the house he and his wife own. He calls that the worst financial decision they have ever made and also the best money decision. On a spreadsheet he will not try to justify it, and says he cannot. What it buys, by his account, is the sense that the house is theirs rather than the bank's, and he weighs that heavily while the kids are growing up.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show: Morgan Housel on The Psychology of Money (#576)“I think this is the most practical way to think about debt: As debt increases, you narrow the range of outcomes you can endure in life.”
Collaborative Fund: How I Think About Debt (opens in a new tab) · 30 Apr 2024
Aimed at the same thing
Other entries filed under stress.
- HabitFREE, no cost
Daily meditation
10-20 minutes of formal practice, most days
On record from 21 of 62 tracked people: 17 do it, 1 recommends it, 3 have discussed it - HabitFREE, no cost
Daily walking
A long walk most days, often without headphones
On record from 19 of 62 tracked people: 14 do it, 5 recommend it - HabitFREE, no cost
Journaling
Writing to unload the mind, usually first thing or last thing
On record from 14 of 62 tracked people: 13 do it, 1 recommends it - HabitFREE, no cost
Gratitude practice
Writing down a few specific things you are grateful for, daily
On record from 13 of 62 tracked people: 11 do it, 1 recommends it, 1 has discussed it - HabitFREE, no cost
Deliberate solitude
Regular time with your own thoughts and no other inputs
On record from 12 of 62 tracked people: 9 do it, 3 recommend it - HabitFREE, no cost
Daily prayer
A fixed time for prayer each morning, before the phone and before the day starts
On record from 4 of 62 tracked people: 4 do it
Habit entry · notes paraphrased from cited sources, quoted excerpts copied from the transcript they link to. Not medical advice. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by anyone listed. How this works.