We’ve continued to live reasonably frugally relative to our peers, but despite what we tell ourselves, we really don’t get tremendous gratification from foregoing luxuries that our friends enjoy. More importantly, we see the mountain of college costs (4 kids) bearing down on us as well as the escalating cost of retirement. It leaves me feeling almost helpless about the amount of money we’ll need to ensure our children don’t graduate with a financial anchor (student loans) or a familial anchor (supporting us in our elder years).

I earn a good income (6 figures) but I truly don’t understand how people can build enough wealth to manage life’s obligations (eg, children’s education) and prepare for retirement. The numbers are just ridiculous. In-state college with room and board is $20-30k per year in real numbers, not what the admissions office tells you. Retirement, incl. medical expenses, is ridiculous. And that’s assuming social security doesn’t start means testing.

Almost all financial blogs focus 99% of the commentary on just getting out of debt, but few, if any, spend meaningful time discussing life after debt. In fact, the blog writers who have achieved debt-free / look-at-me status seem to lose a lot of purpose and motivation in their writing. I for one would certainly appreciate a more meaningful discussion from people about what they’ve done after crossing the “I’m Debt Free” hurdle and how they’re managing the real costs of life.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Something you alluded to in this post is opportunity cost. By paying off your debt and not investing in other higher return investments you’ve missed out on some capital gains.

It’s different strokes for different folks. Some feel safer with no debt, for me personally I feel the reverse.

1) Increase our charitable contributions
2) Rebuild our emergency fund (we dipped into it at the end to pay off our last loan)
3) Increase our retirement contributions
4) Save up some money for my boyfriend to get his master’s degree

So exciting!

I find that it’s almost harder to resist the temptation to go in debt now. We have many remodeling projects that need to be done in our house currently. Instead of being dedicated to saving for our emergency fund, it’s a lot easier to minimize our savings and throw a few thousand at new hardwood floors, a couple thousand more at a new staircase, etc.

I had temporarily stopped my 401(k) contributions and college savings accounts while we saved up an emergency fund, but recently reisntated these since we are not being as serious as wee need to be towards saving for the emergency fund.

I wonder if I will stop lacking motivation if there’s nothing for me to really support? Do you think that’s possible?