So often we hear of people scraping by at menial jobs or just eking it out as they work their way up the corporate ladder. But what may be surprising to hear is that many people with very advanced degrees — think doctors and lawyers — also fear for their financial well being. Many of these professionals graduate with quite a bit of debt, and they’re told that they need to hunker down and pay off their student loans before living the life they may have envisioned for themselves. However, I have different advice. Rather than spreading the panic that they need to skimp and pay back their debts, essentially living a frugal lifestyle, I offer an alternative route: keep your debt and instead to focus on your cash flow. My good friend Bob was just starting out in his specialty practice when he came to visit me. It was one of those great meetings where we really connected, both personally and professionally. And although my advice to him was the total opposite of everything he had heard from others, he trusted me. Bob did however ask me, “Why is everyone out there telling me something different?” By explaining to him that financial pundits give advice that sounds easy and simple to people — they patronize people — and in turn these pundits don’t tell them what real finance is. By going against the overly simplified, and inaccurate, advice he had been given Bob trusted me. And over the next twenty years, he not only created a successful practice but also other businesses. He makes tremendous amounts of money and is very wealthy today, but he’s still that down-to-earth guy.

More importantly, he lives life the way he wants. He was able to live the life he wanted twenty years ago and continues to do so, while still having secured a financially stable future. It’s something that Bob doesn’t take lightly either. He often states that, “Traust Sollus is the best thing that ever happened to me.” And he’ll say that with his wife sitting right next to him! It’s not something you hear very often, but sometimes having debt is a good thing if it frees up your cash flow for other money making purposes. So many people want to be out of debt by the time they retire: to them, having no debt is a sign of being successful. But if you have debt when you retire, that does not mean you’ve failed. Instead, it could mean that you’ve used your wealth successfully and been able to live in an optimal lifestyle before retirement and will be able to continue that lifestyle into retirement. But that being said, not all debt is created equally. In order to determine how to move forward with your debt, it’s best to meet with a professional and create a plan that best suits your needs and current situation.

For more information about using your debt to benefit your lifestyle, visit tswealth.com.