Jean Chatzky Quotes

Do not accustom yourself to consider debt only as an inconvenience; you will find it a calamity.

When I bought my first house I had all these red flags on my credit report because I bounced a bunch of checks to places like Pizza Hut and stuff like that for $13 or $15 because I was trying to feed my O-linemen.

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

Good debt is a powerful tool, but bad debt can kill you.

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

You'll get much better results by being upfront, answering creditors calls, and responding to their letters. Delaying the inevitable only digs a deeper hole.

When your bank account is so overdrawn that it is positively photographic, steps must be taken.

When I went to law school, which I put myself through for $100,000 dollars of debt, I didn't expect anybody to pay for my health insurance, which I had none of. No health insurance.

It wasn't until I stood in my truth and told everybody that I had $250,000 in credit card debt. At that point, everything turned around for me. I had to reveal the truth about what I didn't have, more than pretend about what I did. That was interesting.

If you have a debt issue or credit card issue, start dealing with it. If you have a tax issue, don't just say, 'I'm not going to file.' There are ways to deal with these things, but you must communicate with your creditors, whether it's a credit card company or tax department.

We all think we're going to get out of debt.

Bankruptcy laws allow companies to smoothly reorganize, but not college graduates burdened by student loans.

There are lots of families who - who make irresponsible purchases. There are also a lot of families who have debt on credit cards because they use those credit cards to pay for medical bills.

You wait till the money is there before you give it back.

The reason we vote on the debt ceiling is to pay for past spending. It has nothing to do with what we are going to spend. What you are really saying is “I’m sorry, I am so mad that I don’t want to pay my past debts.”

To suggest that we can't pay our debts - that's absolutely not true.

Millions of Americans have bad credit because of mistakes from credit agencies, and it can ruin lives, stopping people from getting a job or owning a home or car.

Unfortunately we were living beyond our means. I didn't do the bills, I didn't have any idea what our financial situation was. We had the cars, the boat, the motorcycles and the houses. I didn't even know. And then when we got a divorce there wasn't a lot of money to split up and what there was, was spent on the divorce. It was really difficult.

On New Year's Day 2008 I had two bailiffs turn up on my doorstep and because I had so little income I had not been paying bills, and I respect the concept of paying bills, I'm very much in favour of it, I just couldn't quite get it together.

Marco Rubio, as an example, he's got no money, zero.I think that's fine, that's OK, maybe it's good politically to say you owe money because you overborrowed on your credit cards. He's got nothing. I mean, he's got nothing.

You really don't need to hire a debt settlement company to negotiate with your creditors.

Debt is not caused by spending, it is caused by buying things that you don't pay for. Or, it's caused by cutting revenues that you don't offset ... by cuts in spending.

I heard a Lannister always pays his debts." "Oh, every penny....but never a groat more. You'll get the meal you bargained for, but it won't be sauced with gratitude, and in the end it will not nourish you.

The man who avoids debt doesn't have to worry about avoiding his creditors.

Let us avoid debt as we would avoid a plague; where we are now in debt, let us get out of debt; if not today...tomorrow.