Jean Chatzky Quotes

To contract new debts is not the way to pay old ones.

If you put a purchase on a charge card, you're paying it off forever. You have to know how to pay it off before you go deeply in debt.

A lower interest rate doesn't make a debt go away.

A consolidation makes sense only if you can lower your overall interest rate. Many people consolidate by taking out a home equity line loan or home equity line of credit (HELOC), refinancing a mortgage, or taking out a personal loan. They then use this cheaper debt to pay off more expensive debt, most frequently credit card loans, but also auto loans, private student loans, or other debt.

Absolutely pay off credit card debt. If you're not getting a match in your 401(k) and you've got credit card debt, you've got to get yourself out of credit card debt. When you get out of credit card debt, your credit score goes up and interest starts to go down.

There are no shortcuts when it comes to getting out of debt.

Borrowing and spending is not the way to prosperity.

You'll get the biggest bang for each buck by paying off the highest interest rate debt in your portfolio first, while making minimum payments on the remainder. It's called the avalanche method, and it gets you out of debt cheapest and fastest.

The idea that somebody is going to come in and make your debt go away and all be well for the future is really a fantasy.

When you borrow money, you should always think how you're going to pay it back.

If you're trying to get out of debt, you have to be willing to treat everything as expendable.

You can't be in debt and win. It doesn't work.

Let every man, every corporation, and especially let every village, town, and city, every county and State, get out of debt and keep out of debt. It is the debtor that is ruined by hard times.

The answer to too much debt is not more debt; it is less debt.

There are but two ways of paying debt—increase of industry in raising income. increase of thrift in laying out.

We all have to resist the temptation to finance growth with increased debt yet again.

I often say that paying off your debt is like dieting. There are no miracle cures; it takes discipline and hard work.

First, pay off your high-interest-rate debt. If you have student loan debt - that's low interest rate; that has a tax benefit - you can leave that out. A mortgage can be an OK one. Credit card debt is poison. That needs to be paid off right away.

I've had to take out a couple of loans; I'm not gonna lie. I want to pay off my debts. I want to start stacking some cash and set myself up for the future.

Imagine you owe on five credit cards, you owe five debts. So which debt should you pay first? And the answer is very simple: You should pay the one with the highest interest rate first. But that's not what people do.

I don't think a bankruptcy is a good thing.

Once you get into debt, it’s hell to get out. Don’t let credit card debt carry over. You can’t get ahead paying eighteen percent.

If you owe money, you can't pay them out. You just pay for everything, you do smart things, you eventually get very rich.

There's nothing as short as short-term debt.

What would you think of a person who earned $24,000 a year but spent $35,000? Suppose on top of that, he was already $170,000 in debt. You'd tell him to get his act together - stop spending so much or he'd destroy his family, impoverish his kids and wreck their future. Of course, no individual could live so irresponsibly for long. But tack on eight more zeroes to that budget and you have the checkbook for our out-of-control, big-spending federal government.