JumpStart by Robb Armstrong for December 15, 2016

Yay, Clarence and Charlene! Don’t spend what you don’t have. Good advice for individuals, families, and governments.

I only use debit cards, so anything I “swipe” (as in swipe your card in the slot), I already have the money to pay for.

Using cash is easy if you have a 5 year NFL contract for 68 million.

Cash is still king, for a while yet. The banks and govt are trying to get rid of it so every transaction will have a nice little profit making fee and a transfer tax.

Having somewhat more discipline than the average arrested adolescent-brained adult, I can use a credit card for everything and pay it off at the end of every month without interest, December included. And the card earns me airfare to Paris for two each year and more. Can’t do that with cash. So guess what’s in my wallet.

Good plan,but ….. you cannot shop on-line with cash.

And that’s how you sensibly handle the economics of xmas. If you can’t afford it, leave it where it lies. Tomorrow is another day which has its own set of monetary requirements…..mortgage, tuition, car payment, utilities, food trash pic up, gas, ….get it???!!

cash stops the possibility of hackers getting to your bank or credit card accounts and wiping you out. Even better, stock up on silver, copper and gold rounds. When this economy collapses; which it shall in the future either due to cyber warfare or a sell off of the dollar when another currency becomes the basis for international trade, hard precious metals will be the solely acceptable currency of trade.

I remember that one too: “Never borrow money needlessly, but if you need to borrow: use HFC.”

I use credit cards, and I pay off my credit cards. Good luck trying to get loans for buying a house or car if you have no credit history. But I suppose they pay cash for those, too.

I put $80 of each paycheck into a separate account, and by Christmas, I have $2,000 to spend. That’s more than enough.