Failure to plan is expensive.  Choosing to anticipate is the way to head off the big financial blows, because you are buying a commodity more precious than money: time.
— Mary Hunt, Live Your Life for Half the Price

The Edge is a miserable place to live. People who exist from paycheck to paycheck live there. They spend all they have. And when something unexpected happens, they must either take a flying leap into the darkness below or run to the credit cards, the finance company, or worse, the bankruptcy court.
— Mary Hunt, Debt-Proof […]

The single most significant decision you make on a daily basis is your choice of attitude.  It’s the difference between letting life happen to you or taking control and making it happen.  Debt-proofing your attitude is the difference between your financial situation controlling your life or you taking control of your finances.
— Mary Hunt, Debt-Proof […]

Hang on to your hat because I’m going to tell you something that may be hard to swallow.  Money is not for spending.  It took me the longest time to understand this — money is for managing first and then for spending.  That truth profoundly changed my attitude about money.
— Mary Hunt, Debt-Proof Your Marriage

Living paycheck-to-paycheck has little to do with the size of the paycheck.
— Mary Hunt, Debt-Proof Your Marriage

Attitude, the way you respond to life and all its circumstances, is more important than anything.  It is more important than the past, than struggle or success, than education or experience.  It is more important than how much money you have, how much you owe, what you would like to do, or where you would […]

It doesn’t matter if you are managing $50,000 a year or $50,000,000.  Unless you have a specific plan that is based on values and principles you believe in and a method to keep all of it from leaking away, you will always be in a financial mess.  That’s what debt-proof living is all about:  learning […]

In your heart, you know that nothing of lasting value comes without some measure of hard work.  And you didn’t get where you are overnight, either.  But if you follow the steps and do the work, I promise you great results.
— Mary Hunt, Debt-Proof Your Marriage

Principle: Never spend it all. Your second financial enemy is fear — fear of poverty, fear of running out of money, fear of losing your job, or any number of money-related fears. The antidote for fear is saving.
— Mary Hunt, Debt-Proof Living

Money exposes the differences in our personalities, the ways we were brought up, our money beliefs, and goals. The way we think about money and what we do with it reflects what we believe about it. But money issues are buried so deeply in our emotions, it is often difficult to know what we believe […]

I know that who I am today is the sum total of all I’ve been in the past, all the things I’ve done, and the experiences I’ve had.  Every day I acknowledge how easily I could go back to my old ways, that my dignity and self-worth do not come from possessions, and that my […]

When you’re at the bottom, there’s only one way to look, and that is up.
— Mary Hunt, Debt-Proof Your Marriage

Until the pain became unbearable, I was not willing to change.  Pain brings change.  Crisis precedes progress.  And change exposes our weaknesses.  No wonder so many of us avoid change at any cost.
— Mary Hunt, The Best of the Cheapskate Monthly

It’s no fun traveling on the brink of financial devastation, fearful of any unexpected expense which could push you just over the edge.  Living from paycheck to paycheck keeps us on the edge, never having enough money to pay all of the bills and still have some left over; postdating a check or two; writing […]

For some reason we have come to accept that if the application is approved, the amount of the credit extended represents entitlement.  If the auto loan is approved it’s as if a mandate has come from on high assuring us that this is certainly an affordable purchase!  We are a nation controlled by debt.
— Mary Hunt, […]