Financial sovereignty is attained by understanding that debt is financial cancer, eating away at your future
There are only four situations that I can condone the use of debt:
1) Purchase of a home
It is very difficult to just show up and pay cash for a home, especially as a first-time buyer. However, you do not want to be over leveraged and end up underwater with the loan if housing prices ever take a dive. I recommend the 20% downpayment, or at least enough to be sure that you do not have to buy mortgage insurance. Also, be sure that you could handle a raise in interest rates if you intend to take a variable rate mortgage.