I have ZERO debt. I cleaned up all debt and tore up all credit cards (except 1 for online purchases) when I left for the Philippines in 2003. Why? Because I had around 80K gradschool/prof school debt after I graduated. It sucks having such a big nasty cloud hanging over you. So thanks to the adult webmaster biz, I started clearing out debt with those fat ARS checks.
Debt free, IMHO, is the way to go. That way you completely OWN all your assets. Of course, there are SOME GOOD REASONS to go into debt see:
http://webmasterlabor.com/articles/credit.html Regardless, I like the freedom of having no debt. Unless I can buy something with cash, I consider it unaffordable.
Next step: Getting more insurance (life and health) as a way to protect assets.