Don't sound like a good combination to me. Investing is an unsure business and brings its own worries. For me I'm pretty sure that the gains from investing money would not weigh up to the worries over my investments.

Besides, if we all become investors, who are we going to invest in?

Part of the program is just common sense; do not buy what you cannot pay for. Part of it sounds vaguely new-ageish like 'life energy', and it seems to gloss over the fact that some of us actually like a large part of our work, so that it gives us 'energy'.

Roland --- I assume you went to the website or book and saw that one of their final steps is saving up enough that you can invest it and live off the investment income, right? I'm with you --- that part doesn't seem quite as safe long-term as it could be (even though they recommend investing in bonds.)

I think that for people like you and me, "don't buy what you can't pay for" seems like common sense. On the other hand, it clearly isn't or Americans wouldn't be sinking further and further into debt. As a nation, we've had a negative percent savings over the last few years.

In reply to "some of us actually like a large part of our work", I'm of two minds. My last job was the best job I'd ever imagined. I was working for a non-profit, trying to help save the world, with people who were fascinating and like-minded. But after working there for two years, I wished I'd never taken the job and had just remained a volunteer! I ended up having to devote so much of my time to fundraising (which I came to hate) and other administrative tasks that I wasn't doing the parts of the job I loved any more, and my relationships with the board changed as I became staff instead of a volunteer. By the time I quit, I was thrilled to be out of the group. Granted, my experience can't be extrapolated out to everyone's work experience, but I think that most people wouldn't go in to work every day if it wasn't for the money. For those people, it makes lots of sense to shift gears so that you can volunteer doing the parts of your work you love and not get it all mixed up in making money.

Maybe as staff you were getting the shitty tasks because nobody was volunteering for them?

At the danger of using a terrible cliché, everything has its ups and its downs. As long as the ups outweigh the downs, you're good.

For myself, I tend to keep in mind the old saying "that which cannot be changed must be endured". So I just do the things that I consider chores but I try to avoid spending time grumbling about them. Makes life a lot easier.

Isn't debt to a large degree a question of how people raise their children? My father grew up during the depression and the Nazi occupation of WWII. As a result, he was very frugal. He never threw away anything that he thought he could use. Clothes were only disposed of if they were really worn, and then usually cut up into cloths for cleaning duty. Never borrowed money, because you'd be paying back the original amount several times over.

We grew up with that attitude, and a good thing too, IMO.

Of course it's partly a cultural thing as well. If loans are easy to come by, it's easy to slip into debt. Especially of there is no shame associated with being in debt. In the Netherlands the term 'in debt' (with the exception of a mortgage on a house, because house ownership is stimulated) carries a very strong negative association. And lenders have to check with a neutral credit registration agency before lending people money. They will usually not lend you money if you already have a large outstanding debt relative to your income.