Thursday, August 16, 2012

What's In Your Wallet?

No I'm not trying to pitch you a credit card.

While I was working diligently today, I came across this news article. Apparently some loser had stolen a number of items from the late Steve Jobs' home last month, including his wallet. The police caught the criminal mastermind when he decided to log on to his iTunes account while using not one but two of the stolen Apple devices.

The interesting part to me was what Steve Jobs' had in his wallet. A driver's license, some credit cards and a one dollar bill. A single dollar, that's it.

Of course my first response after reading this article was to look in my wallet and see what I had for cash. Since I have an increasingly large man crush on Mr. Jobs, I was hoping I would only find a dollar. Turns out there was $68. Oh well, something to aspire to.

Even though my man crush is reason enough for me to trim my wallet's cash reserve to a single dollar, I thought I'd look up some other reasons to not carry cash.

  • You will be more like Steve Jobs, wait these were OTHER benefits, sorry.
  • If you lose your wallet or if it is stolen by some loser, or even if it is stolen by a winner, your cash is as good as gone.
  • It's harder to keep track of your spending habits because you can't hook cash purchases up to Mint or Adaptu. Yes, I know you say that you'll write them down, but you won't, I know you.
  • You're more dependent on bank and/or ATM visits. This could cost you in the form of ATM fees. It will cost you in the form of time.
  • If a robber tells you to give him or her (it could be a her, we believe in gender equality here at Get Worth), all of your money, you can politely hand over your one dollar bill. Although this may come across as sass and get you pistol-whipped, so be careful in this situation.
Pretty convincing? Now time for some unconvincing.
  • There are always some places that only accept straight cash homey. Plus, you'll be more like Randy Moss.
  • It could help you spend less. You may find it more difficult to hand over little cute president after little cute president. Somehow paying cash makes it seem more real than just swiping a card.
  • It can stop you from spending more than you have.
Personally, I usually have a pretty good handle on my spending and as much as I enjoy Randy Moss, I don't think I want to be more like him. Which means I am comfortable with carrying as little cash as possible.

So I find the article, have this mini-revelation on how I can be just a little tiny bit like my hero, come up with this list of justifications and what happens next?

Mrs. K and I go to Subway for lunch and I'm greeted by a sign that reads, "Servers are down, no credit cards, cash only." Great, just great...

How much cash do you have in your wallet/purse/murse?

8 comments:

  1. I never have any real money. We pay for almost everything with credit so I rarely have more than 50 cents or a dollar in my purse! If anyone ever robs me, they will be sadly disappointed!

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    1. That is my ultimate goal but Mrs. K isn't on board yet. She likes to make me to keep $60 for each of us whenever I make deposits.

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  2. $70, but that's because I just did a market research study on Pizza (that's right they paid me to eat pizza for an hour) and they paid cash. It was $75, but I bought lunch yesterday.

    -Brian

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    1. That's got to be the most awesome market research study ever. $75 an hour to eat pizza.

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  3. I avoid carrying cash because if I do I find I spend it on small stuff I don't need. If all I have are credit cards to use, I don't buy those one or two dollar things so I can avoid being that guy who charged an iced tea to his Amex card.

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    1. I never used to pay for small purchases with my credit card either just to avoid being that guy. Now I'm proud to be that guy. No matter how small the total you better believe I'm getting my 2% cash rewards.

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  4. I like to carry $37. I know a strange number, but I have a 20, a 10, a 5, and a couple 1s. Diversification, right? I always need a little cash in case I want to buy a school lunch, or if a co-worker is going to pick something up. There is also the possibility of a must stop garage sale. And I am fairly certain none of them will take my American Express.

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    Replies
    1. That is a strange number but makes sense when you break it down. I understand must stop garage sales, they seem to be everywhere.

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