Hi Rod,

Avoid taking loans for anything.

I dont agree with that. There are situations where a loan does make
sense, most obviously to buy a reliable car that is essential for a
particular job etc.
The loan allows you to start earning real money more quickly.

If you are starting with nothing, then yes, a loan might be the only way to
acquire the essentials you need for employment (transportation, clothing,
tools, or whatever). But I would think most folks over 20 years old or so
would already have many of the basic items.

That said, we have never paid more than $3000 for a car, and have never
needed a loan. We bought our cars from savings. If we only had $1000, we
didn't buy a vehicle that cost more than $1000. Of course, we've always
been willing to fix problems ourselves, scrounging salvage yards if needed
to get the car running. Obviously, not everyone is willing or able to do
that, but I've been driving the same car (a 1976 Rabbit) for over 20 years
now and it still runs and drives great.

Yes, but if the loan is used to buy the car that produces significant
income, a cheap reliable car can be paid for quickly and you dont
end up paying much for the finance if you finance it properly.

I didn't mean to imply there were "never" situations a loan might be
needed, just to "avoid" them whenever possible. We've had a few loans over
the years, starting small to build a good credit rating, and the last was
the loan for our property about 20+ years ago. But we always paid well
above the minimum to keep interest charges down (we paid off our 15 year
loan in about 5 years).

Anthony