Amen!! Because I put everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) I did on plastic in college and my first few years out, I'm left with a mountain of debt. I lived far beyond my means. Now, we have had to scale back a whole lot, live within a budget, and make sacrifices. I've had to do without ESPN, because we switched to the "family" plan on Directv, because it was cheaper, and I'm still looking for cheaper TV options, because the wife wants her TV. I've sold my golf clubs, my PS2, and have rifled through my CD collection, all in an effort to scale back in life. We will probably have to live this way for about 2-3 years, to get out from under this mountain, and I'm far from excited by it. But I've learned from my mistakes, and once we get out from under the mountain, we will be able to go on trips, do what we want, as long as we save up for it. I bought into the lie that the world sells that stuff is good and you have to have it now. I've realized that is far from true.