I never fell into credit card debt. I rarely use it unless I make a larger purchase but usually for an appliance or something like that you go through the stores financing and you can get zero percent for higher purchases for a 6 months to a year.

I always saved as much as I could and paid my bills on time. Buying a car helps. By the time I bought my house I had outstanding credit but my saving got drained a bit with the down payment, inspections, upgrades etc.

But now that I’ve built that back up I can start contributing to my retirement account every year. I had stopped for about 5 years.

Definitely saving more now and accumulating wealth through the house equity and the savings and investment. Hammering away for another 20 -25 years we will be able to have a comfortable retirement.