125 Living Debt Free Quotes to Motivate & Move You
Debt Inspirational Quotes That Get You Moving!
If you live in America, chances are you have debt. According to the Federal Reserve, American household debt hit a record $14,600,000,000,000 in the spring of 2021. And this means you could be paying tens of thousands of dollars extra over time.
But you don’t have to! If you’re on a journey to eliminate or reduce your debt, check out the following debt free quotes and sayings. They’ll inspire you to keep at it, even when the going gets tough.
How to Use These Money Freedom Quotes
Motivation is easy to come by at the beginning of a goal, but can vanish in an instant. Here are great ways to use these debt free quotes:
- Write one on the mirror with a dry erase marker
- Pick one quote each week to highlight in your journal
- Read one to your family at mealtimes (discuss what the quote means)
- Say one to yourself when you wake up in the morning, or go to bed at night
- Pull one out of a jar when you need a debt motivation boost
- Read one quote before you look over your finances for the week or month
Debt Freedom Quotes And Sayings
First, these debt free living quotes highlight how owning your things helps you own your destiny.
1. “When you don’t have debt, your money can do anything you want it to.” –classycareergirl.com
2. “More important than how we achieve financial freedom, is the why. Find your reasons why you want to be free and wealthy.” –Robert Kiyosaki
3. “Do not save what is left after spending but spend what is left after saving.” –Warren Buffett
4. “He looks the whole world in the face for he owes not any man.” –Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
5. “For women, financial independence is a matter of necessity.”
Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz (See women BOSS quotes here)
6. “When you buy a bigger house, another luxury car, or a fancy boat, you are showing people you used to have money.” –Christopher Manske
7. “Debt is a form of bondage. When we make purchases on credit, they give only an illusion of prosperity, we think we own things, but in reality, our things own us.” –Joseph B. Wirthlin
8. “A big part of financial freedom is having your heart and mind free from worry about the what-ifs of life.” –Suze Orman
9. “Debt is the slavery of the free.” –Publilius Syrus
10. “Today, there are three kinds of people: the have’s, the have-nots, and the have-not-paid-for-what-they-have’s.” –Earl Wilson
11. “Rich people plan for three generations. Poor people plan for Saturday night.” –Gloria Steinem
12. “Financial education is self-defense for your money. Regain control of your money, so you can regain control of your life!” –Robert Kiyosaki
13. “I have two amazing things in my life: I’m pain-free and I’m debt-free.” –Stephen King
14. “Home life ceases to be free and beautiful as soon as it is founded on borrowing and debt.” –Henrik Ibsen
15. “Every time you borrow money, you’re robbing your future self.” –Nathan Morris
16. “If you can’t pay cash, you can’t afford it.” –Unknown
17. “In every conceivable manner, good debts contribute to your wealth and bad ones take it away. Hence, good debts build you up and bad debts bring down your financial house of cards.” -Ramit Sethi
18. “Before borrowing money from a friend, decide which you need most.”
–American Proverb
19. “A fool and his money are easily parted.” –Thomas Tusser
20. “Financial freedom is available to those who learn about it and work for it.” –Robert Kiyosaki
21. “Debt is like any other trap, easy enough to get into, but hard enough to get out of.” –Henry Wheeler Shaw
22. “If you have debt I’m willing to bet that general clutter is a problem for you too,” –Suze Orman
23. “You deserve a debt-free life way more than you deserve those shoes.” –Unknown
24. “Budgeting isn’t about limiting yourself–it’s about making the things that excite you possible.” –Unknown (See this great 50 30 20 budgeting pdf)
25. “Never spend money before you have earned it.” –Thomas Jefferson
26. “No man’s credit is as good as his money.” – E.W. Howe
27. “Debt is the new American slavery, and its chains are made of credit cards.” –Elizabeth Warren
28. “A healthy and debt free living person is the RICHEST and the HAPPIEST.” –Sushmitha Maddulo
29. “Most of us will never be rich, but we can feel greatly unburdened when we are debt-free.” –James E. Faust
30. “Get into the habit of asking yourself, ‘Does this support the lifestyle I’m trying to create?’”–Unknown
31. “Financial peace isn’t the acquisition of stuff. It’s learning to live on less than you make, so you can give money back and have money to invest. You can’t win until you do this.” –Dave Ramsey
32. “Your decisions from today forward will affect not only your life, but also your entire legacy.” –Dave Ramsey
33. “Only buy what you need and can afford. Even though something is a good deal, it doesn’t mean you should buy it.” –Anne M.
34. “It is the debtor that is ruined by hard times.” – Rutherford B. Hayes
35. “When you know the impact of little expenses, you will realize that there is nothing little in this world.” –Manoj Arora
36. “Debt erases freedom more surely than anything else.” – Merryn Somerset Webb
37. “Live below your means but within your needs.” –Suze Orman
38. “Being debt free comes down to how bad you really want it.” -unknown
39. “Make your money and buy your freedom”. -Tamara Mellon
40. “Stop buying things you don’t need, to impress people you don’t even like.”
–Suze Orman
41. “When I look at my savings account, I don’t see pounds and pence, I see freedom.” – Merryn Somerset Webb
42. “Credit buying is much like being drunk. The buzz happens immediately and gives you a lift… The hangover comes the day after.” – Joyce Brothers
43. “Debt is not a tool; it is a method to make banks wealthy, not you. The borrower truly is slave to the lender.” -Dave Ramsey
44. “Money looks better in the bank than on your feet.”― Sophia Amoruso
45. “I make myself rich by making my wants few.” –Henry David Thoreau
46. “Debt is not just a financial vulnerability, it’s also an emotional one. To let go of the things that are weighing you down in life and leaving them behind gives you freedom and security.” -Barry Cripps
47. “Money often costs too much.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson
48. “Students who acquire large debts putting themselves through school are unlikely to think about changing society. When you trap people in a system of debt, they can’t afford the time to think.” – Noam Chomsky
49. “I use my financial values to set my limitations. I have three children I want to put through college debt free. So that means I can’t spend wildly or with disregard.” –Michelle Singletary
50. “Financial planning is like navigation. If you know where you are and where you want to go, navigation isn’t such a great problem. It’s when you don’t know the points that it’s difficult.” –Venita VanCaspel
Best Quotes about paying debt
Next, these famous quotes about paying debts will jumpstart your efforts to kick debt to the curb for good.
51. “Whether you want to exercise more often, or you’re hoping to become debt-free, real change happens in stages. Slow and steady progress is great–as long as you’re taking steps in the right direction.” –Amy Morin
52. “The secret to getting ahead is getting started.” –Mark Twain
53. “The man who never has enough money to pay his debts has too much of something else.” –James Lendall Basford
54. “Where you’re headed is more important than how fast you’re going.” –Stephen Covey
55. “The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.” –Winston Churchill
56. “Do what you have to do until you can do what you want to do.”
–Oprah
57. “You can’t get out of debt while keeping the same lifestyle that got you there.” –Dave Ramsey
58. “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” –C.S. Lewis
59. “The day I’m able to be debt-free is the day I’m going to be the happiest guy around.” –Steve Garvey
60. “There are no shortcuts when it comes to getting out of debt.” –Dave Ramsey
61. “A lower interest rate doesn’t make the debt go away.” –Dave Ramsey
62. “I vowed never again to create more bills than I could pay. I just hated the way overspending made me feel.” – Oprah Winfrey
63. “Pay off your debt first. Freedom from debt is worth more than any amount you can earn.” – Mark Cuban
64. “Whenever you see a successful person you only see the public glories, never the private sacrifices to reach them.” –Vaibhav Shah
65. “Just because you can afford the payment, doesn’t mean you can afford the item.” –Unknown
66. “The only way not to think about money is to have a great deal of it.” – Edith Wharton
67. “If you want something you’ve never had you have to do something you’ve never done.” –Thomas Jefferson
68. “A debt problem is, at its core, a budgeting problem.” – Natalie Pace
69. “You will either learn to manage money, or the lack of it will manage you.” –Dave Ramsey
70. “Owning your story is the bravest thing you’ll ever do.” –Brene Brown
71. “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” –Tony Robbins
72. “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” –C.S. Lewis
73. “Success doesn’t come from what you do occasionally. It comes from what you do consistently.” –Marie Forleo
74. “You might get 85 years on this planet–don’t spend 65 paying off a lifestyle you can’t afford.”
–Cait Flanders
75. “Nothing happens without focus. Don’t try to do everything at once. Take it one step at a time.” –Dave Ramsey
76. “Sometimes we’re tested not to show our weaknesses, but to discover our strengths.” –Unknown
77. “The best thing that money can buy is freedom from worrying about money.” –Unknown
78. “Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.” – Newt Gingrich
79. “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” –Nelson Mandela
80. “Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure when he’s really selling himself to it.” – Benjamin Franklin
81. “Interest on debts grow without rain.” –Yiddish Proverb
82. “Cash is King. It is so simple, yet so difficult for people to understand. Do not spend more than you have.” – Sophia Amoruso
83. “If you learn to control your finances, you won’t find yourself stuck in jobs, places or relationships that you hate just because you can’t afford to go elsewhere.” – Sophia Amoruso
84. “Investing is important, but get debt-free first. That’s what frees up your income so you can win.” –Dave Ramsey
85.“It takes as much imagination to create debt as to create income.” -Leonard Orr
86. “Wars in old times were made to get slaves. The modern implement of imposing slavery is debt.” – Ezra Pound
87. “If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else.” -Dave Ramsey
88. “Gold is the money of kings, silver is the money of gentlemen, barter is the money of peasants, but debt is the money of slaves.” –Unknown
89. “It is thrifty to prepare today for the wants of tomorrow.” -Aesop
90.“In the long run we shall have to pay our debts at a time that may be very inconvenient for our survival.” -Norbert Wiener
91. “Out of debt, out of danger.” – Jerry Voorhis
92. “You’re never ready for what you have to do. You just do it. That makes you ready.” –Schreiber
93. “In God we trust; all others must pay cash.” -American Proverb
94. “Many folks think they aren’t good at earning money, when what they really don’t know is how to use it.” -Frank A Clark
95. “Some debts are fun when you are acquiring them, but none are fun when you set about retiring them.” – Ogden Nash
96. “A hundred wagon loads of thoughts will not pay a single ounce of debt.” -Italian Proverb
97. “Without self-discipline, success is impossible, period.” –Lou Holtz
*See great examples of self discipline >>
98. “Debt is the worst poverty.”
–Thomas Fuller
99. “One of the greatest disservices you can do a man is to lend him money that he can’t pay back.” – Jesse H Jones
100. “You cannot spend your way out of recession or borrow your way out of debt.” -Daniel Hannan
*Related: Don’t miss these money questions to ask yourself. They’ll help you explore what you want out of life. And whether you’re covering your financial bases.
Debt Free Life Quotes and Sayings
And finally, in this section you’ll find debt free motivational quotes that also share life wisdom.
101. “The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.” –Samuel Johnson
102. “The stronger the why, the easier the how becomes.” –Jim Rohn
103. “A goal without a plan is just a dream” -Brian Tracy (See great money goals examples here)
104.“ Rich people have small TVs and big libraries, and poor people have small libraries and big TVs.” – Zig Ziglar
105. “The best view comes after the hardest climb.” –Unknown
106.“ It is your determination and persistence that will make you a successful person.” –Kenneth J. Hutchins
107. “Act your wage.” –Dave Ramsey
108. “Learning is never done without errors and defeat.” –Vladimir Lenin
109. “It is our choices, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” ― J. K Rowling
110. “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” –Walt Disney
111. “The stronger the why, the easier the how becomes.” –Jim Rohn
112.“At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can.” –Frida Kahlo
113. “Rich people believe ‘I create my life.” Poor people believe ‘Life happens to me’” – T. Harv Eker
114. “It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt
115. “Creditors have better memories than debtors.” – Benjamin Franklin
116. “All you can change is yourself, but sometimes that changes everything.” –Gary W. Goldstein
117. “Rather go to bed supperless, than rise in debt.” -Benjamin Franklin
118. “This would be a much better world if more married couples were as deeply in love as they are in debt.” -Earl Wilson
119. “Your mind will always believe everything you tell it. Feed it faith. Feed it truth. Feed it love.” –unknown (Find great money success affirmations here)
120. “Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.”
Suzy Kassem
121. “Don’t wait until you’ve reached your goal to be proud of yourself. Be proud of every step you take towards reaching that goal.” -Karen Salmansohn
122. “It’s good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it’s good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure that you haven’t lost the things that money can’t buy.” – George Lorimer
123. “Debts and lies are generally mixed together.” -Francois Rabelais
124. “What can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience?” – Adam Smith
125. “If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.”
–Napoleon Hill
Grab four free debt tracker worksheets here to help even more! >>
To Consider With Debt Free Living Quotes
I hope these quotes add pep to your step as you get out of debt. And if you ever need more motivation, think of your why.
Are you getting out of debt to build a brighter future for your kids? To allow for beautiful vacations? To quit your crummy job?
Imagine all of the beautiful things that will be possible when you kick that debt to the curb. And then take action.
Even a small amount leads to stunning change over time. What are your favorite debt free life quotes? Leave a comment and let me know!
Other HHI Posts You’ll Love…
- Free Challenge: Savings Printable
- 100 Good Things to Save Up For
- How to Make a Fast 500 Dollars
- How to Treat Yourself on a Budget
