"Remember this: debt is a form of bondage. It is a financial termite. When we make purchases on credit, they give us only an illusion of prosperity. We think we own things, but the reality is, our things own us.

"Some debt—such as for a modest home, expenses for education, perhaps for a needed first car—may be necessary. But never should we enter into financial bondage through consumer debt without carefully weighing the costs" (Joseph B. Wirthlin, "Earthly Debts, Heavenly Debts," Ensign, May 2004, 40-41).

"I am grateful to be able to say that the Church in all its operations, in all its undertakings, in all of its departments, is able to function without borrowed money. If we cannot get along, we will curtail our programs. We will shrink expenditures to fit the income. We will not borrow.

"One of the happiest days in the life of President Joseph F. Smith was the day the Church paid off its long-standing indebtedness.

"What a wonderful feeling it is to be free of debt, to have a little money against a day of emergency put away where it can be retrieved when necessary" (Gordon B. Hinckley, "To the Boys and to the Men," Ensign, Nov. 1998, 54).

"The old couplet 'Waste not, want not' still has much merit. Frugality requires that we live within our income and save a little for a rainy day, which always seems to come. It means avoiding debt and carefully limiting credit purchasing. It is important to learn to distinguish between wants and needs. It takes self-discipline to avoid the 'buy now, pay later' philosophy and to adopt the 'save now and buy later' practice. Owning a home free of debt is an important goal of provident living. . . . Homes that are free and clear of mortgages and liens cannot be foreclosed on. . . .

". . . Independence means . . . being free of personal debt and of the interest and carrying charges required by debt the world over" (James E. Faust, "The Responsibility for Welfare Rests with Me and My Family," Ensign, May 1986, 20-21).

"Avoid the philosophy and excuse that yesterday's luxuries have become today's necessities. They aren't necessities unless we ourselves make them such. Many of our young couples today want to begin with multiple cars and the type of home Mother and Dad worked a lifetime to obtain. Consequently, they enter into long-term debt on the basis of two salaries. Perhaps too late they find that changes do come, women have children, sickness stalks some families, jobs are lost, natural disasters and other situations occur, and no longer can the mortgage payment, based on the income from two salaries, be made" (Thomas S. Monson, "Constant Truths for Changing Times," Ensign, May 2005, 19).

"Interest never sleeps nor sickens nor dies; it never goes to the hospital; it works on Sundays and holidays; it never takes a vacation; it never visits nor travels; it takes no pleasure; it is never laid off work nor discharged from employment; it never works on reduced hours; it never has short crops nor droughts; it never pays taxes; it buys no food; it wears no clothes; it is unhoused and without home and so has no repairs, no replacements, no shingling, plumbing, painting, or white-washing; it has neither wife, children, father, mother, nor kinfolk to watch over and care for; it has no expense of living; it has neither weddings nor births nor deaths; it has no love, no sympathy; it is as hard and soulless as a granite cliff. Once in debt, interest is your companion every minute of the day and night; you cannot shun it or slip away from it; you cannot dismiss it; it yields neither to entreaties, demands, or orders; and whenever you get in its way or cross its course or fail to meet its demands, it crushes you" (J. Reuben Clark Jr., in Conference Report, Apr. 1938, 103).

"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, then tomorrow" (J. Reuben Clark Jr., in Conference Report, Apr. 1937, 26).

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