How To Buy Anything

Life, Money and Gratitude #10 How To Buy Anything

Just Charge It

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Be Smart

Let’s imagine for a minute that you see an item that you want to buy, it’s a high ticket, high price item. You look at it and you’re filled with this tremendous feeling that you must have it. So you go to the website, click on the item, place it in your shopping cart, and hit the “Buy” button. You are now the proud owner of that item.

Wow. Without much effort or thought you are able to buy things instantly.

What makes this possible? I’m glad you asked.

A credit card.

A little piece of plastic with some numbers on it.

Simple on the outside with a web of payment systems in the background that makes it all work. If your credit limit is high enough you can buy anything.

The convenience of the credit card makes it so useful. This also makes it easy to overuse and put yourself into a large amount of debt. Remember last weeks newsletter about compound interest, where the bank pays you interest on your savings account. Well, the bank or credit card issuer chargers interest on the amount that you are borrowing on your credit card. It’s common for a bank to charge 25% interest on your credit card and it’s compounded on a regular basis. Your $100 purchase can quickly morph into $200 worth of debt that you owe.

If your smart you’ll use your credit card like a payment tool and pay it off at the end of each month or as soon as possible. Or, you will pay a lot of interest and create a lot of debt that you have to pay back later. Be smart.

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In my pocket

In a way I was lucky when I got my first credit card back in 1990. Before there was the internet, yes there was life before the internet, you had to physically go to the store to buy something. Having a credit card was nice but I didn’t use it that much, cash was still the way I paid for things. This kept me honest, I could only spend what I had in my pocket.

But the lure of the credit card was tempting me. I could buy more, I could travel, and just charge it to my card.

On a brisk winter day I'm having lunch at school and my buddy says, "Road Trip, you wanna come?", I don’t have the cash but I want to go. Do I pull out the credit card? Do I go on the trip?

Yes. I was weak, I went on the trip. Play now and pay later was in full effect.

Ahhh, life's lessons. Sometimes you have to learn the hard way.

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Benefits of your Credit Card

There are just a few things out in the world that makes life simpler and more user friendly and near the top of that list is a credit card. Use it wisely and it will help you, use it poorly and it will hurt you. Mission Lane on YouTube has a good video about the Benefits of your Credit Card , the link is below.

Benefits of your credit card

Until next time, God Bless and be well.

M. Joseph Benric is the author of Graduation Gift, A Step-By-Step Guide to Financial Literacy for Young Adults