"Frugal and Free"

I really love stories like this. I just read an article in the magazine American Profile (comes in my local paper's weekend edition) about the most frugal family in America. Steve and Annette Economides of Scottsdale, Arizona have four children, live on only $44,000 a year, and they are doing very, very well for themselves. They've been married for 26 years, paid off the mortgage on their home within 9 years (while Steve was making only $35,000 a year), they eat just fine, have nice clothes, drive the same kinds of vehicles everyone else has, and by all appearances look very happy.

I realize plenty of Americans look at such families and think, "Man--what a bunch of cheapskates. I bet they are miserable." I think to myself, "Can you imagine how happy and free you would feel if you had no debt?" How do they do it? Annette says, "So much of what we do is just common sense. . . It's the way our parents and grandparents lived. People need to slow down and think." How about that--the way to get out of debt, have the money you need when you need it, to live just fine and have what you want--is to use common sense, live within your means, slow down and think.

Think Congress, the President, plenty of corporations, and at least half of America could learn a lesson from this ordinary American family?