Anyone who has bogged down in quicksand will tell you it's easier to stay out of it than get out of it. The same applies to debt.

Many who blame the economy for all their financial woes have the wrong target in their sights. The problem, most likely, isn't so much a lack of money as it is the mismanagement of money.

With escalating debt, bankruptcies abound. We've already mentioned in this publication that Utah now leads the nation in the number of bankruptcy filings. (See Church News, Aug. 3, 2002, p. 3.) This is disturbing news, particularly because of the high density of Latter-day Saints among the population. Many, it seems, have not adhered to the counsel of the Brethren concerning debt.

With credit cards so readily available, far too many people have lost sight of how much money they really have or what they can realistically afford. Even before credit cards came into vogue, people began a habit that has become a financial quagmire — the concept of "buying on time."

At the April 1975 general conference, President Spencer W. Kimball said, "All my life from childhood I have heard the Brethren saying, 'get out of debt and stay out of debt.' " He spoke of the terrible situations he saw many people in while he worked in banking, and of some people's ignorance of how interest rates work to the advantage of the creditor and disadvantage of the debtor.

He told of keeping books for some of the stores in the town where he lived. He knew the people in the community and what their income was and then "saw them wear it away. In other words, I saw they were buying their clothes, their shoes, everything they had 'on time.' " Many of the people couldn't pay their bills, or even the installment payments, at the end of the month. "I could understand how a person could buy a home on time or perhaps could even buy an automobile on time. But I never could quite understand how anybody would wear clothes they didn't own. Or eat food that they had to buy 'on time.' "

President Kimball spoke of seeing some friends at a grocery store and noticing the small supply of food that cost $80 that a woman had bought. When he bought just a few items, she asked how he could manage to buy so little. He replied, saying that his wife was careful and didn't waste anything. "And instead of buying the prepared things, we can buy as many potatoes probably for a dollar that it would take many, many dollars to put into chips and in other preparations."

The late Elder Marvin J. Ashton of the Quorum of the Twelve gave advice in 1975 that has endured the test of time. At a Welfare Services meeting in conjunction with April general conference, he counseled: "Learn to manage money before it manages you." Further, he said, "A bride-to-be would do well to ask herself, 'Can my sweetheart manage money? Does he know how to live within his means?' " A prospective husband who is engaged to a young woman "who has everything would do well to take yet another look and see if she has money management sense." (Ensign, July 1975, pp. 72-73.)

President Heber J. Grant said, "If there is any one thing that will bring peace and contentment into the human heart, and into the family, it is to live within our means, and if there is any one thing that is grinding, and discouraging and disheartening it is to have debts and obligations that one cannot meet." President Grant made that statement 70 years ago. It is as valid today as ever. (Relief Society Magazine, May 1932, p. 302.)

The allure to buy is strong, but must be controlled. We should question every purchase we make, asking ourselves if we really need or can afford it.

"God help us to realize that money management is an important ingredient in proper personal welfare," Elder Ashton said. "Learning to live within our means should be a continuing process. We need to work constantly toward keeping ourselves free of financial difficulties. It is a happy day financially when time and interest are working for you and not against you."