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Doesn't #1 imply a belief that you will remain employed at sufficient compensation levels to keep up with the debt load? There are a more than a few who are finding that difficult even now.


Yes... and no.

The idea is that your debt load (i.e., monthly payments) would remain fixed while your compensation level rose with inflation. If my expectations come to pass, over the next 3--5 years the debt you owe would not change dollar-wise, but the number of hours you had to work to pay it off would be cut by two-thirds.

You shouldn't look at indebtedness in terms of dollars. You should evaluate it in man-hours worked to pay it off.

In my case, option #1 is not possible, because my retirement income will for the most part be fixed without COLA (Cost Of Living Adjustment). Hmmm... thinking about it, it's not as bleak as that: about 50% of it will be COLAed. But in five years there will be a lot less disposable income available to us than when we started out.

I keep thinking about the old Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times." Well, I think things are going to get interesting.

tanstaafl.
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"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"