Sitting around a backyard fire the other night , drinking a Beer and talking about things . The conversation turned to finances , debt , inheritance , etc. My friend said that at his age ( 65 ) , he didn't care if he carried any debt when he died . Why pay off a Credit Card , just pay the monthly minimum . He said " As long as I can live comfortably and have a positive cash flow every month , why does it matter if I'm debt free or not " ? He has a couple of kids but they are doing fine themselves . He's not a rich man so we're not talking about a lot of assets anyway . Long story , short he's not concerned about his kids inheriting anything and he doesn't care if the creditors get stuck with his debt . I know he sounds selfish but that's the way he feels and there was nothing I could say that would change the way he looked at things .