Who's really better off?

The other day I found myself leaving my bank with $40.00 cash in my wallet. As I was leaving the parking lot there was a homeless man standing on the corner with a sign "Vietnam Vet. Please help." It got me thinking about money and debt. Here is this man, standing on a street corner in his dirty clothes, with his unshaven beard and his cardboard sign, and here I am thinking to myself "well, you (thinking the homeless man) aren't really that bad off." Recently I have been stressing about money a lot. I get paid pretty well, yet most months I spend more money than I make. This is my fault, I put myself out there and took a chance by buying a condo. In the long run this will pay off, however right now, even though I make more money than a lot of my friends, I find myself putting my groceries on my credit card so I don't bounce a check. Now truthfully, when i thought that, I was probably rationalizing my excuse for not giving this guy a buck, but here I am, this 25 year old girl with a home in my name, a car in my name and a job that pays me pretty well. However, here I am drowning in debt. After combining my credit card debt, student loans, car loans and house loans, I am over $200,000 in debt. Me, by myself, am over $200,000 in debt. Him, this homeless man, I am guessing, has no debt to his name.

What kind of culture do we live in that going into debt, an amount more than most people will see in their lifetime, is completely acceptable, if not preferred. Who doesn't want to own their own car, own their own house, take dream vacations and get a college education? But what does it really cost you? Does this debt confine you to a lifestyle that ties you down, makes you stay at a job you don't like or stay with a spouse just because you are afraid you can't survive on your own? Or do acquiring these things give you a sense of pride in what you have (and will) accomplish in your life?