Short answer is yes. Long answer is yes but debt is hard to avoid in todays world.    Today everyone, including your bankers, grocery store, car salesmen and even TurboTax is trying to sell you debt because they make a killing off of it. Think about how many offers for loans, credit cards and other forms of debt people try to sell you on a daily basis.    Credit cards, car loans and personal loans are terrible, just don't do it. Most of America is broke because of this kind of debt. These are all for things that depreciate in value sometimes as soon as you get it (like a car). Not only are you paying extra for it, it loses value over the term of the loan so you will never gain anything except a bill every month.   The "good" debt is debt for an item that appreciates in value. This is debt like mortgages, business loans, etc. Any sort of investment can be considered good and is sometimes unavoidable. Don't fall for credit card rewards because you don't make any good money off it and if you miss a single payment you aren't making any money off that.    Read financial adviser books. A good one is Dave Ramsey. He is radically anti-debt but he even concedes that not everyone can pay cash for a house or business venture (although this is the goal and if you save and invest right it is possible).   The best debt is no debt. If you want to raise your credit score use the auto-pay trick (put a monthly bill on a credit card and pay it off automatically every month). This will raise your score because it will keep a credit card open for a long time and show good money management. Don't buy into getting more cards you don't need or rewards.  ... View more