Kids can and are a blessing. But plenty of people without kids live and die just as happy.

My first piece of career advice is find your gifting. Find the thing that you are skilled at and figure out if you can make a living doing it.

I'm not a fan of debt consolidation. In my experience, many people "clear" credit cards and other debt to get the one payment and never change what they need to change to prevent getting into debt again.

My kids have to maintain good grades. They have to be involved in activities. They have to report to me how thing are going. I watch for any activity that would steer them wrong - drinking, drugs, etc. So their skin in the game is knowing the money won't be there if they don't do their part.

We have to protect ourselves by doing our own homework.

You don't need to waste money on a fancy program or app to do a basic budget. I've been using a simple Excel spreadsheet since 2005 to track my monthly budget.

You still need to save but being debt-free in retirement is and should be a goal.