Optimism is all to the good. However, I must point out that, if your mortgage payment IS four times a cell phone bill, then you are paying just a little more than 1/3 of the average mortgage payment ( the average cell phone bill in this country today is $127.37 and the average mortgage payment is $1,487; you do the math). Maybe you bought your house quite a long time ago, when houses cost a lot less, or maybe you got a deal that is almost unheard of. In either case, you must consider that most other people are not as fortunate as you are. That said, I do agree with you that many people do hurt themselves by not living within their means. But again, please consider that a woman with a couple of kids working for base pay must live within her means since she will have no collateral to borrow money, and living within her means will require her to make regular--hard--choices between paying the rent or taking a child to the dentist or between buying school clothes and healthy, adquate nutrition.