The 3 Hardest Things About A Debt Free Lifestyle

“The typical American household averages $134,643 in debt.”

Wow. That’s a lot of money.

It might be ok if you make $200,000 per year, but most of us never see that figure.

Before we got married, Andy and I decided not to go into debt. I’m glad we made that decision, but executing it has not always been easy!

When times are hard or when I’m tired of living differently than the people around me, the thought of getting a loan looks so appealing!

But thankfully Andy has never wavered in his commitment to not go into debt and sticking to that choice has brought us to where we are today.

Living without a mortgage requires decisions and choices that are often different from friends and family and brings me to the first hard thing about a debt free lifestyle.

1. Loneliness

We now own our own 18 acres of Alaska (plus a boat and motorhome!) and have built a cabin – all without going into any debt. But in order to get to where we are now, we had to sacrifice in the first years of our marriage.

We lived in a camper for three years, and honestly, it felt very lonely. Our friends and families were mostly supportive, but we had chosen a radically different lifestyle than the people we lived close to, and it was hard to be different; to be odd.

Saving up for a house takes FOREVER. Especially if you don’t have a very high income. We learned to live as cheaply as possible and invest or save toward our future house.

I got discouraged so many times. I remember looking at houses for sale online and thinking, ‘It’s going to take ten years until we can afford a house trailer on a one acre lot!’

Housing was expensive in that area of PA and so we began looking in other places. New York State, Maine, Ohio. Finally we thought ‘Well if we’re going to move anyway we might as well really MOVE!’

And so we ended up in Alaska.

2. Buying what you can afford

Not going into debt means that many “opportunities” are closed to you. If you don’t have the money, you don’t buy it. This can be hard when others are taking advantage of “deals” by paying them off over a period of time.

We went to quite a few farm sales in PA and it was always a struggle to see land or equipment go for a good price but still not allow ourselves to get it because we didn’t have the money in hand.

Loans sure make life easier!

At first.

3. Appearing poorer than others

If no one were allowed to have any debt, it would be interesting to see what everyone actually owned.

But since people do have payments on their house, car, etc, it’s easy for people to look as though they own a lot and are doing very well.

With a debt free lifestyle there are no such facades. What you see is what we own, and compared to others sometimes it doesn’t look like much!

This can be very humbling and sometimes downright embarrassing.

I got so tired of telling people that we lived in a camper because of the shocked and sometimes even horrified exclamations that always followed the statement. I reached the point where I often didn’t even tell people our home was a camper because I was embarrassed.

“Are you really going to stay in the camper ALL WINTER??”

“Um, yes? Are you going to stay in your house all winter?”

Even better were all the comments when I got pregnant with Gabe. Some friends were shocked that we would actually raise a child in such cramped quarters. Many folks commented we’d have to put him in a drawer to sleep.

It really wasn’t nearly that dramatic. A pack and play fit in the living room during the night, and we put it up on our bed during the daytime for naps.

In fact, Jasmine was also born while we were in the camper, and while things were starting to feel a bit cramped, we then moved into the motorhome for the move to Alaska and realized that the camper had been SPACIOUS!!

Despite the times I was embarrassed about our lifestyle, I would rather own a little than be paying on a lot.