I Prefer Cash

For the longest time, I didn’t believe in credit cards. If I didn’t have the outright cash to pay for something, then I thought I shouldn’t get it. Up to, oh say, 2004, I still upheld that belief. I remember having breakfast with a friend and our boss. My friend told our boss that she would like to apply for a credit card and he told her to talk to the finance officer about it. He asked if I wouldn’t want one myself and I said that I didn’t believe in credit cards. He looked gobsmacked. “What?! It’s not like ghosts or God you have to believe in.” When it was time to pay, he made an elaborate show of hiding his credit card from me because he said he didn’t want to shock me. Haha. Anyway, the more things got virtual and the more the online world was accommodated, my regard for credit cards shifted. I still believe you ought to have the money for things you get, but you can use a credit card for transactions where its use is most convenient. It is clear to me though that the utmost discipline and responsibility are necessary for using a credit card. It can so easily be abused and before you know it, you are in debt and having the most difficult time getting out of it. That story is more common than we all care to know, but with the proper principles of debt management, you can prevent yourself from sinking lower and gradually work toward being debt-free.