Book excerpt: Mortgages, credit card balances, student loans, car loans, and home improvement loans have become a way of life for the majority of us. And debt is putting not only our present at risk as we live paycheck to paycheck, but our futures in jeopardy as shockingly few of us have enough put away for retirement. Personal financial expert Mary Hunt wants readers to embrace the radical but simple truth that they don't need more credit or more stuff--that they can live their lives debt-free. In her classic book Debt-Proof Living, Mary reveals the secrets to getting out of debt and staying out of debt for the rest of your life. At no time in history has this liberating approach to a no-debt lifestyle been more desperately needed. Those who have been struggling to pay the bills or feel like they just can't make their finances work without taking on debt need this book. It can change their lives.