<prompt> Human: The peace brought by being in a strong financial position is, in my opinion, underrated. Freedom is often mocked because it is perhaps an overused term in America. Personally, I think of South Park and Colbert when I hear the word used. But think about the power of freedom in your life. Its more valuable than anything, perhaps other than your physical mental health hard to enjoy anything without your health.I have no fear of being let go from work. I have enough savings in non-retirement accounts to weather between a two and three year period of unemployment. For example, in March 2013, a senior manager at my old job made the last dickheadidiotic comment that I was willing to tolerate. I smiled with full knowledge of what I was about to do and sent my two weeks notice by email as soon as the meeting was over. The freedom to make this choice was made possible by being debt free with adequate savings. I spent the next two months skiing and enjoying the après-ski lifestyle, all the while putting in applications. My next job started that June and paid more had better benefits and was a better work environment.The point of my post is to point out that you can simplify your life and gain financial peace, no matter what financial position youre currently in. It may be paycheck to paycheck right now, but you CAN take steps to improve your lot and get to a point where you can increase your incomereduce your expenses. Being debt free, in my opinion, is the elixir to financial woes. Lets enjoy life to the fullest, not making payments to a bank so a banker can reach his tee time at 3pm.  <response>: Long time Lurker here. But this post compelled me to make an account. I share a very similar story.Although my financial situation is far from yours, and I am not free of my carstudent debt, I did a similar thing. For a period of a couple years I had the fortune of living rentbill free other than the loan payments I had to make. During that time, even though I was employed and technically had plenty of extra fund I could spend, I lived very frugally. I loaded extra payments on my loans and aggressively added fund to my personal stock account. I learned as much as I could about the market and began trading.The job I took out of college was not my ideal work, and I went in with a plan to be there only 1-2 years before moving on to something better. The pay wasnt what I deserved and there was no future growth for myself. After 1.5 years I knew I had enough and took the risk of leaving my work knowing I had accumulated enough funds to last me 6-12 months with no income at all. Everyone thought I was crazy to quit before finding new employment, and everyone doubted me. My plan was to be employed about 3 months after I quit. During the time I was out, I was able to become happier and healthier. I lost 10 pounds, and worked a number of little temporary jobs here and there to keep things interesting and experience some new things. In that time I kept my spending to a minimum but still had fun. Just a week ago I was offered a new job, with great benefit and a large pay increase, that would have taken 5 years to achieve at my old work. I start on the 23rd! I took the risk, and stayed smart with my money, and everything improved. I still have a ways to go on paying off my loan, but I am powering through them and will be free within a handful of years or sooner if my investments work out well.I have never had much, but I am taking control and sacrificing a little in the short term to make my whole life easier, and I believe most people can do it too. Granted many people have harder situations than I, but I think a lot of people are their own worst enemies when it comes to finances. 