The horror stories of big credit have had an impact on upcoming generations. More and more consumers are stepping away from credit cards, car loans, and mortgages. There is a movement towards living off the credit grid. Studies show that just 56% of consumers are carrying credit card debt compared to 87% prior to 2008.
How can you be a part of the movement?
How?
Your first question when you think about living off the credit grid is probably, “How do I buy a house then?” How do I deal with emergencies? That’s called putting the cart before the horse. Living the cash lifestyle involves a discipline and a desire that’s a bit different. You have to have the horse in the right place.
To live credit free, you must have a builders mentality. You will pay for everything before you can have it. You will be laying aside and exercising restraint. There is a glorious waiting period as you build the reserve necessary to make your purchase. More often than not, you will have to consider: “Is it really worth saving for? Is it worth all the work I have to do to buy it?”
The Benefits of Cash
Cash is sexy, cash in hand motivates, and cash has power. A wad of bills pulled out of a pocket and counted out in front of you causes your pulse to rise. Cash in hand is a mighty bargaining tool, it does the bargaining for you. “You can wait or take this much right now” has settled more than its share of negotiations.
Cash Has Meaning
The volume and weight of cash, the recognition of what it took to have it, weigh on you when you part with it. Plastic has no heft, it has no passion, no relationship to you. In cash we see president’s faces looking at us, considering us, bringing solemnity and dignity. Plastic gives us candy colors and pictures of mountains, but no mass and meaning.
Breaking the Chains
Just as leaving a job you have been at for too long is fraught with fear, leaving the comfort of credit has it’s own white knuckled moments. Our consumer mindset has been manipulated for so long, we hardly recognize the malevolent intent of marketing. “You deserve, you need,” has been the mantra we have marched to in glazed eyed stupor. Breaking from the chain gang to run free is fear filling to our very core. Cutting loose the shackles of debt to run in freedom should be our vision, but our vision is clouded by the lenses of materialism gone mad.
It’ll Take Time
Patience and more patience is the virtue paid for in cash. Cars are bought in stages. Buy what you can afford, sell it for what you can. In every purchase, a new intentionality exists. How can I earn more when I sell it? House purchases can be done, moving from one to the other is the method, moving up and forward. Starting small, living in your means, living for your needs and not your wants.
Living the cash lifestyle is becoming easier though. With debit and prepaid cards, you can have the convenience of credit without the high penalties. You can make your online purchases, you can book your rental cars, and you can pay your bills.
Though it is bending to the will of the system, sometimes you’ve got to bend, just don’t break.
