This is Motley Fool Answers. Welcome to the show. I'm Allison Southwick, and as always, I'm

joined by Robert Brokamp and Dayana Yolk, personal finance experts here at the Motley Fool. Hey guys.

Hello.

So today we're going to talk about so-called good debt. Specifically, we're going to expose some myths

about the common, most common good debt

by which we're talking loans and mortgages, student loans and mortgages. And by the end of the show,

you'll be able to save yourself from bad debt in sheep's clothing. Or might I say, bad debt in sheep's

clothing? They can't all be gems, folks.

And then after that, we'll introduce you to someone who is fantastically bad with money,

also known as our money moron of the week, because if you can't be a good example,

you can still be a horrible warning.

So let's get started here.

And first, let's explain a little bit about what are we talking about when we talk about good debt?

So good debt traditionally has a few characteristics. Number one is that it's a low interest rate.

We're talking single-digit interest rates, low single-digit interest rates.

Number two, that you're borrowing this money

to pay for something that's going to appreciate in value, that's going to go up in value.

So essentially some of the most common ones are a mortgage and school loans. So we're going to

break down these two. We're going to look at some of the myths as to why people think

it's good debt. And also, I mean, we'll talk about how it can be good debt, but how it can

also be bad debt and how to keep your good debt from going bad. So first off, mortgages,

true confession. We are all homeowners here. In fact, one of us is even amassing a real

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