Home ownership has, for decades, been the “American Dream.” It gave people a financial goal to work towards, saving their money for a downpayment and trying to get their credit up to a point where they could qualify for a mortgage. In many ways, it has also become a bit of a status symbol.

But lately, the Millennial Generation has been questioning the wisdom of this and saying it is better to rent, rather than own, and tie up your money in a downpayment. But are they right? Is it better (and financially smarter) to rent these days rather than own? To get a realtor’s perspective on this I spoke with frequent guest Lynn Stambaugh of Cardinal Real Estate Services here in Woodbury, NJ, on her thoughts as to which is better and why.

The vast majority of the people that come to me to file bankruptcy do so because of out of control credit card debt. The totals can run from the tens- to the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Credit card debt can drag you down and prevent you from having financial freedom. 

But are credit cards, in and of themselves, bad? Is it the card (and the system) itself that is bad or how we use them? Personal finance expert Dave Ramsey writes on his web site questioning whether you really need a credit cards and gives six reasons why you shouldn’t. But is he right? That’s why in this episode of the podcast I take a look at those six reasons and discuss the case for (and against) credit cards.