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Rocky,
I firmly believe in putting something aside for savings first and foremost, even if it is a little. It is amazing what time can do to money (i.e., rate of return). I am actually kicking myself for not putting anything into IRA's before I went to law school. I just saved almost every penny I made for law school tuition, which allowed me to graduate law school without any student loans.
Personally, I think the key to living a good life is limiting the amount of credit one has. With less of a monthly burden to worry about, people could relax a lot more. Instead, people feel like they are missing out if they don't drive every make of car imaginable and live in the largest house possible. The client that is paying $55,000 a year in mortgage interest is living in a 4 bedroom house and they only have a one year old child. They could have been living in half the house and used the saved interest for part of a down payment on a larger house later on (i.e., what my wife and I are doing right now). Don't get me started about the increased heating/cooling costs and the additional taxes. Those two expenses are one of the big reasons I don't want to move from our 3 bedroom townhouse.
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The pond, waterfowl, and yellow labs...it don't get any better.
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