...and here's why:

Coincidentally, I've actually been living this way(debt free - sorta) as I grow older. I've been doing the opposite of what most people do - accumulating things. I literally picked a place to live where the cost of living was low, but still had a kinda' cool lifestyle - IN the CITY.

That last part is quite important - let me explain: I've done the whole "bigger, better car" thing for years and years... then I realized that I really enjoyed my old classic 1968 Mercury Cougar much more than anything I'd been paying for monthly - so I kept that and sold everything else. But I still had the same problem... a need for transportation(due to living in the burbs) ...the car was still old, no matter how much I loved it... it was still prone to breaking down... and still required insurance.

So what to do? While I enjoyed the vehicle, it was not going to hold me back... I decided to have it detagged (and stored) and move into the center of the city where I'd have access to rapid transit (subway's and lightrails - sorry I won't do the bus) ...and all the culture the city could give me (not to mention the high-class broads that frequent the jazz clubs and coffee establishments)...moved into an apt. in an old pre-civil war building, in a fairly (though not totally) safe neighborhood with lotsa' history.

...next, get rid of non-essential stuff. If it's not something like a family heirloom, sell it on eBay, give it to a friend or toss it out.

...next - I told all close to me if or when they decided to give me anything for holidays, birthdays etc.etc. - "give me something I can remember, rather than hold" ... this way you don't accumulate things that are difficult to throw away due to sentiment (btw, something to remember is stuff like tickets to the ball game or the opera.. or dinner, etc.etc. - you get what I mean)

...next - work within environments where you are forced to utilize good communication skills (or build them through osmosis) - and find this type of path within walking distance so your commute to work is no more than 10 minutes by foot. (btw, this applies to the "day job" until one learns enough through groups like these to become self supporting. The point though is - if a day job is required, do something that helps to build skills portable and or transferable to what you really want to do)

These rules have given me a wonderful foundation to build upon - save for one...

... dealing with women. It's a sad but unfortunate fact of life that women - those that are highly desirable, anyway, are simply not going to be interested in you unless you have things or a high position of status. This simply harkens back to the darwinism that rules us all... women in caveman times were attracted to physical displays of prowess - thus insuring survival of the species. That simply translates today to display of prowess via possessions - which trigger the "survival" button in a womans "cavewoman" nerve center.

Sure, sure, if you become more, these things will come to you, but when you're on the road to building that dream it's a dreaded time period that one must bite the bullet and endure.

Furthermore, the reason why men "discover" that it's not about "things" later in life, is because they've either realized that life isn't worth throwing away on women - or further, they simply have gotten old to the point that the desire to chase skirts is no longer as desirable as it used to be... or a combination of these things.

(as a side note, can you imagine how the economy of the world would turn upside down if suddenly a virus - like some kinda' SARS epidemic or who knows what - hit men and made them simply lose interest in trying to impress women? Yes - rather impossible, I agree - as this is deeply engrained in our "caveman nerve center"... but it's an amusing thought... perhaps someone in Hollywood should throw together a good screenplay on such).

So anyway, my whole point is, I accidently - or perhaps through just plain dumb-luck happened onto this lifestyle some time ago... and I've never really looked back.

Just fyi.

-Anon

P.S.- I'm lucky that i can do this because I'm single with no children and no alimony - thank God... so I suppose I'm kinda' a best case scenario).