What's the matter with cash?..............

My daughter purchased a new bedroom set the other day, and paid cash for it. Besides feeling great that she had saved the money up instead of using credit, it was a funny experience dealing with the sales person. It seemed, that no matter how many times she told him she wanted to pay cash, he kept coming up with one more "deal" for her. She held firm, and he finally gave up and took her cash. How silly is this, and how many of us fall into these "great deal" traps?

My favorite one at the moment is one of the mortgage company commercials. They brag about how they helped so and so just days before she was to go bankrupt. Not only did they help her avoid bankrupcy, they also consolidated all of her credit cards, AND got her eleven thousand dollars in cash to use for whatever she wanted. Sounds great doesn't it? The part that they conveniently forget to mention is that the odds are good that so and so's habits have not changed, and soon the eleven thousand will be gone, and the credit cards will again be maxed out. In addition to this, as things begin to snowball and she cannot make her payments, it will be very likely that she will end up losing her home. And they call that help?

I have to confess that I speak with athority here, (except for the losing the home part thank goodness) because I have one of those home equity loans. At the time, we were justifing all of our poor finacial choices in the name of getting the business up and running. Now, every month that I pay just the interest for that month, (that has risen to over four hundred dollars) I am reminded of my mistake. I call it my stupid tax, and it has turned out to be a very expensive lesson.

It has always been a source of pride for me that I had (past tense) a great credit score. I bought into all of those lies about needing credit to get ahead in life. Because I am an over achiever, I figured if a little credit is good, then lots of credit is better. When I woke up, and closed all my accounts, it upset their perceived "good balance" and now my FICA score sucks. Well guess what? The sun still comes up in the morning, and I continue to have my needs met with lots left over. Dave Ramsey (daveramsey.com) refers to a FICA score as an "I love debt score." This guy is a multi multi millionaire, and he doesn't have a FICA score, because he doesn't use credit. Can you see the humor in that?

I listen to Dave every afternoon on X-M radio (# 165), and as I was writing the above he was saying that someone cancelled their capital one credit card and when ask why, he replied "I am tired of being slave to the lender." (Another of Dave's sayings.) The lady at the card company said "That ___________, (she called Dave names) he's going to lose us all our jobs." Wouldn't that just be a shame? Dave's message is getting out, and the credit card companies are shaking in their boots. This is a good thing!

One of the best parts of my vacation, is that it was paid for before we went. Having gone on vacation both paying cash and using credit, I can tell you the prior is the way to go. hanging out on the ship, I couldn't help but over-hear couples either arguing or worrying about what they were spending, or how they would pay for it when they got home. (Those drinks are expensive!) How can you have fun doing that? The left-over cash we brought home with us goes back into the bank to start the savings for our next trip, so there is always something growing in that account. We fund this account with what we call "found money." This is money like coupon clipping, rebates, bottle returns, and money I get for providing respite care. I am amazed at how this adds up without taking a dime out of our paychecks.

Give cash a try. You too can find out what a power trip this can be, as well as how much peace it can bring to your life. Blessings for you today and always!