My husband and I were recently driving through a nice subdivision not far from our home, when he sighed and stated that he didn’t know why some people got the nice house and cool cars and others were barely making it.

The thing is – I totally get where he was coming from. It can be frustrating to see us, in our very small home and driving older cars, and wonder how we can’t afford a nice home or cooler car. However, I turned to my husband and told him that we don’t know other people’s situation and some people are in a serious amount of debt that we may not see. Granted, that isn’t the case with everyone, but approximately 77% of Americans carry some type of debt. We could very well be comparing ourselves to someone with tons of debt!

While we are so blessed to not have debt, we had to make sacrifices to get to that point. Our home may be modest and we may be driving older cars, but we don’t owe money to anyone. That’s a huge relief by itself. What’s ours, is just that – ours.

The point of the story is this: you may be a little sad to see the designer clothes, cool cars, fancy homes, and whatever else that other people have, but be grateful for you have. If you happen to be in that ~23% of Americans who don’t have debt, be grateful for that and proud of what you’ve accomplished. If you are in debt and are actively working to get out, be proud of how far you’ve come and your shifted mindset. I promise it will do you well. Maybe set some realistic goals of things you’d like after debt is paid off or you accomplish another big financial goal.