According to Yahoo! Finance some experts say its okay to carry debt to buy a house or education.  However, while I think it is okay to carry some debt to buy a house (but not one of these crazy zero down deals) I do not think acquiring debt for an education is a good idea.  Not anymore, not for more than $10,000 anyway.  The fact is that you can find an inexpensive way to get an education if you look hard enough.  And don't ever go to school just to go to school.  In other words don't go and get your PhD in Latin just because you can't find a job.  There are kids graduating law school with $150,000 worth of school debt hoping to find $40,000 per year jobs.  Yeah, you do the math.