Do we still need credit cards? No, absolutely not! We need to plan, save, and a have a road map for our money.

An article on Yahoo Finance explores this idea and I do agree with some points of the article, but overall I find that it supports the use of a credit card and not the use of cash. At one point in the article it states this:

“Here are a couple of big ones: Who wants to walk around with $10,000 in their pocket to pay for a home-theater system or even $500 for a new suit, shoes and accessories?”

Uh, hello? There is this thing called a debit card. Yeah, it may be a little inconvenient to save that money for a period of weeks or months, but I bet that new home theater will sound a lot sweeter when their isn’t a minimum payment month after month.

Another point:

“And don’t forget about all the perks that some credit cards offer, like redeemable mileage for air travel, hotel stays or a bevy of discounts. Some will even help pay for prescriptions and other health-related items.”

Perks? Are you serious? Failing to mention that you need to accumulate points, spends $X,XXX.XX amount to redeem those perks. Usually to get that free round trip ticket you need to accumulate 10,000 points. I know there are certain promos where you can double or even triple the amount points you earn per dollar, but come on. Lets say you are earning 3 points for every $1 you spend, you need to spend at least $3,333.33 to get the voucher for the ticket. Keep in mind that some cards have points that will expire and then you are stuck in a perpetual loop of spend, spend, spend for that free ticket. Why not put aside $50 a month to plan for that ticket? Your money is not going to expire the way a point would.

For too too long we have been in a cycle or rampant consumerism with the ease of swiping a credit card. Our economy is in the mess that it is because of this, but let us spend our way out of it.

Why not start your own plasectomy today?