Text field returning a null value - jtextfield

Question

I am working on a code for school where you would have choose a type of loan and then it would take the amount you owed and tell you how long it will take to pay off the loan. I used some basic JTextFields to allow user input and then used the .getText() to retrieve the information. However when ever i use that field it returns a nullnull in my console. I have been trying to solve this for a while and have changed the code quite a bit, and i am fairly new to coding, so it might be a little hard to follow. I would apreciate if someone could help me out on why it is returning a null?
CODE HERE
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.util.Scanner;
public class Loan1 extends JFrame implements ActionListener
{
String paymentTotal, total;
double a;
double b;
double g;
String Total;
FlowLayout flowLayout = new FlowLayout();
private JButton bl = new JButton("Business Loan");
private JButton pl = new JButton("Personal Loan");
private JButton cl = new JButton("Create a Loan");
private JButton submit = new JButton("Submit");
TextField textField = new TextField(20);
JLabel thing = new JLabel("How long were you looking to payoff the loan?");
JLabel thing2 = new JLabel("you will have to pay " + g + " $ a month");
public Loan1(){
setLayout(flowLayout);
add("Business Loan",bl);
add("Personal Loan",pl);
add("Create a Loan",cl);
bl.addActionListener(this);
pl.addActionListener(this);
cl.addActionListener(this);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
{
if (e.getSource() == bl || e.getSource() == pl
|| e.getSource() == cl)
payment();
if (e.getSource() == submit) {
Submit();
}
repaint();
//b = new Double(Total);
System.out.print(Total);
System.out.print(paymentTotal);
add(thing);
TextField textField = new TextField(20);
String text = textField.getText();
add(textField);
remove(bl);
remove(cl);
remove(pl);
if(text.equals("1")){
a = 1;
//g = paymentTotal/a *12
add(thing2);
}
if(text.equals("2")){
a = 2;
//g = paymentTotal/a *12
add(thing2);
}
if(text.equals("3")){
a = 3;
//g = paymentTotal/a *12
add(thing2);
}
if(text.equals("4")){
a = 1;
//g = paymentTotal/a *12
add(thing2);
}
if(text.equals("5")){
a = 1;
//g = paymentTotal/a *12
add(thing2);
}
}
public static void main(String[] args)
{
Loan1 JBL = new Loan1();
JBL.setSize(250,250);
JBL.setVisible(true);
}
public void payment() {
JLabel thing1 = new JLabel("How much money
were you looking to get a loan for?");
add(thing1);
add(textField);
add(submit);
}
public void Submit (){
String Total = textField.getText();
paymentTotal = Total;
System.out.print(Total);
remove(textField);
}
}

Answer 1

first: In your method payment(), you have forget:
submit.addActionListener(this);
and why you did not specify for each button its own actionPerformed ?