not to rag on anybody but most seem to be missing the point. If you have to work paycheck to paycheck, take out loans, you got it all wrong and that's just not very smart. It's all about making your pretax dollars work for you, and leveraging what you make as a stepping stone to bigger and better things. Yes i paid entirely my way through school without borrowing any money. I still work very hard - 60-70 hr weeks.. but it's how i invest, leverage and work with that money afterward that gets me to financial independence very quickly.