Margi - I don't get. How can you save to buy something/anything while you have debt.
My thinking says if you have debt, even one cent of it, then you are borrowing to buy things. You can't save money with one hand while you are borrowing with the other. The balance is held by a single person (you).
From the moment you have a housing loan you are also borrowing for every future purchase while the loan still exists.
For example, if you decide to buy lunch for $10 that is $10 that could have been placed towards the loan and saved you 7% interest for the next X years.
It doesn't really matter if you split things up in your head and imagine that you borrowed for a house while you saved for that new car. If you have a loan then every cent you spend will have a higher opportunity cost than if you were to have no debt at all.
