Every single thing you mentioned outside of cc debt (though arguably you should never reach for a credit card outside of using it for the points systems they provide) could be categorized as something used as a tool to make more money.

Vast majority of new car sales will not let the new owner make more money and were financed with debt.

If all of those buyers bought used for cash, nobody would be able to afford used cars for cash.

It really is only businesses that can convert debt into income, most consumers do not want to. There is nothing I can spend on to get a higher hourly rate.

How can you factor in the aspect that a cool car might impress someone who might get you a better job? Or it allows you to "look the part" and "fake it till you make it"? People sometimes rent cars and watches and suits to appear higher class when talking to potential investors or other business partners.

Having a better house might allow you to invite more people over for parties or dinner, which can have downstream effects in your social mobility and status.

If you can keep up with the Joneses and chit chat about your vacation to some nice place, it may allow you to become an insider in some group.

At least that's the "logic" (even if subconscious) to chasing status symbols. Though very often it fails because faking it is hard and you can easily be clocked as a tasteless tryhard. But if you don't take too large steps up, you might get away with it and reap the social benefits.

All of the above are reasons why people go into debt, some derive genuine pleasure and happiness from their purchases. None, however, are investments that one can put on a P&L sheet, and please, never let anyone think otherwise.

You can buy investment properties to convert debt to income and get nice returns. While this is technically a business, there are ways to make it quite passive and thus more like an investment than a business. Margin stock accounts also exist, although I don't know enough to know what situations it makes sense to use them in.

There are arguments to be made, especially if you're young and just starting out to take a reasonable amount of margin and kickstart your compounding growth.

Say you just started working, have no use for your money and are willing to bet 20k on index funds vs a 90% market drop, you should be able to take 2k in leverage and set up your position be auto closed.

But of course as you have more money this type of market exposure starts shifting as you have shorter timer horizons to rebuild and are instead going into more of a wealth conservation mode.

You clearly are delusional if you believe that the people drowning in credit card debt are in ever in this position.

This has the rather tone deaf sound of “if you just had financial security, you wouldn’t need to use loans to survive, then you could use them to invest!”.

Which rather misses the point that many people using these tools don’t have financial security, and don’t have the option to invest like that.

Saying that mortgages can be used to buy investment properties doesn’t change the fact that most people use them to provide basic physical security. I.e. a literal roof over their head, that they can’t be taken away with little notice by their landlord for reasons completely beyond their control.

I’ve you’ve never grown up in an environment where the roof over your head isn’t a certainty, and indeed having a different roof over your head every few years is a certainty. Then it can be rather hard to understand why not everyone considers property just an investment opportunity.

> I.e. a literal roof over their head, that they can’t be taken away with little notice by their landlord for reasons completely beyond their control.

Yeah. Before I bought my home four years ago, three of the last four landlords I'd had had promised long term stability, only to non-renew the lease after the first year (for "other" reasons: "Wife thought she'd like the country, we're moving back to the city", "We want a smaller mortgage payment on our primary home", We're going to renovate and sell"). It's a lot of fun moving a family every year. Especially when around here you also have to come up with first, last, security and other fees and can easily be looking at $10K+ just to move.

That's not technically a business, it is a business, and it can be a tough time consuming one. I've known more than one person who sold their investment properties because they were tired of being a landlord, which is a job.

Not saying it can't work. It can. But it's a business and a job/sidehustle not magic free money.

Don't ever look into where the money you make with "passive income" comes from, I guess?

Passive income just means other people are working for your income. At some point, someone has to be poor enough to have to do the actual labor. You can abstract this away with as many financial constructs as you want but it boils down to that. If you can "make money" from mere ownership, we can't all own things that make us money because then we wouldn't have to pay anyone and nobody would have to pay us.