@ Mr. NtJS – Everyone will have their own way of doing things, but my personal opinion is that no, debt is not your number one priority. You should be your number one priority – your physical health, your mental health, your relationships that make worth life living. You are your biggest asset and should be treated accordingly. Debt is certainly important, but there’s a reason that finance gurus chant ‘pay yourself first.’

@ 444 – Once you make something a habit, it pretty easy to keep up even when circumstances change. And, I’m all for living frugally and making wise money decisions, but not to the extreme that it cuts you off from the rest of the world. Not that I think you do that, I’m just saying.

@ kosmo – Yup! And you can’t really call it a life if all you do is stress over debt and bills. As J. Money says (indirectly quoted, of course), budgets are sexy! There’s a reason for that…they work!

@ BM – You aren’t alone in your need for financial security, and I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that at all. I’m just of the opinion that being frugal and conscientious of our finances doesn’t mean that we can’t live our lives to the fullest, either. I have a group of girlfriends that I get together with at least twice a month and we hold video game tournaments. It costs us some snacks and drinks and that’s about it, but we have fun! Lots of fun! That’s all I’m saying. Debt can’t control your life so much that you miss out on the little stuff that make all the hardships worthwhile. But, congrats to you and your wife being able to take a little extra time for the baby! When’s she due?

@ Slinky – I agree with you on the retirement, but it’s the first thing people cut! Even I had to train myself in this area and it’s because we don’t see ourselves as an asset, even though we are. But, like many others in the finance world, I wish I had started younger, but I do have the advantage of starting in my 20s, at least. So I’m pretty happy about that!

@ Credit Answers – Spam much?

@ The Happy Rock – See, I don’t think debt puts your dreams on hold, per se. I think it slows them down – in terms of the things you listed – but it doesn’t, or shouldn’t, put them on hold. But, then again, that’s what works best for some people, so that’s the way it is. I’m glad you have such positive thoughts about your debt reduction journey! It’s not easy, but it is still possible to live during those times!

Life can still be awesome while getting out of debt. I look back fondly on my 4 years of debt reduction on 70k. The growth and energy of that time makes me smile and I know that it would be one of the best things that we ever did.

If you can figure out your passion and your dreams thnt debt reduction is a means to a beautiful end. Sure those ends often need to wait until you get financial sanity back, but now the debt reduction is part of that dream.

I really appreciate you responding to my comment, I did not mean to say that having fun and building on relationships should take a back seat when in debt. However with hindsight I can say that many areas of our life were definitely put on hold. For instance, We did not start retirement investing untill we were done with debts, we did not even consider having second child while in debt. We hesitated in donating to charities when we were in debt. We did not begin investing for college for my son untill after we were in debt.

These days my wife is planning to take an extra 3-4 months off for maternity leave and then use that time to further her education, This would have been unthinkable if we were in debt. . I want to run my own startup/consulting firm some day and every day I spend a little bit either preparing or learning something about it. There is no way I would be able to do all these if I was stressed about being in debt.

I will admit that I am a bit more paranoid about financial security than most people. I worry about loosing a job in this economy and spent months looking for a job. Having no debt other than mortgage helps me a lot in keeping me sane.

Create a plan and stick to it, definitely. But enjoy life at the same time. All work and no play …

As I said before, having fun =/= spending lots of money. Getting out of debt, and enjoying life are not mutually exclusive.

For example, we spend $0 per month on TV as we are on antenna. Yet, every Thursday we have a ball watching The Office, 30 Rock, et al.