<p>Following your heart and the debt issue are not mutally exclusive. If being frugal and not wanting debt is an important in your value system it is likely that you will question spending a lot on college even many years down the road. That is okay. There are ways to get an education that is good and that will allow you to sleep at night without worrying about loans. Some people are more “live for today”, others are not. You need to “follow your heart” and your use your head on all parts of the decision—weigh all the plusses and minuses, factoring in what you think the upside and down side risks are. When things go bad (and of course with 24 news etc you can get the feeling that the world is falling apart) it is often easy to think they will never go good. To some extent we live in a post 911, baby boomers may out live their savings, nobody can ever afford healthcare, global warming or terrorism is going to destroy us all, funk and paranoia. We need to adapt. Often things are never as bad or good as they seem. There are things you have no control over and things you do. Balancing spending and planning for the future while enjoying today is something you can do. Some of the other things out there are going to happen whether you fret about them or not. Good luck</p>