Guest Post Featured on Poorer Than You

by Eric on July 22, 2009

Stephanie at Poorer Than You put up a guest post I wrote this morning. Please head over and check out How Can I, A Broke Recent Graduate, Start Investing.

Leah PettePiece
A bit of advice, we should all invest, the poor student, the working folk, and yes even the elderly. I am attempting to put togethter a group of 50 people who would be willing to give up their credit cards, their atm cards and try to live on a real time basis using only cash for purchases and checks only for bills. We must stand up to the credit card companies and the banks and say ENOUGH, no more fees for me please, no more credit cards out of control . We will form an organization to beging to take back our real lives, outside the credit pushing, bank drowning world, help each other as needed and deal only in cash for the next 6 months. A risky experiment I know but I believe that we could end the crisis in America if we could do this together. If Interested please email me.

http://poorerthanyou.com Stephanie PTY
I have never been charged a fee by either my bank or my credit card company. Yes, I paid interest on my credit card when I carried a balance, but now that I pay the balance off every month, I pay them nothing except for what I spend.
YOU are ultimately responsible for what you pay. If you can't avoid fees and can't control your spending, then perhaps you are just not the type of person who should have a credit card.
http://intensedebate.com/people/eric1985 eric1985
That does sound like an interesting experiment. Like Stephanie, I pay off my card in full every month. That way the credit card company pays me, not the other way around.
I would love to hear an update when you get it going. Good luck!

Leah PettePiece
I don't have credit cards any more, but the experiment is something that I think would help a lot of folks who are in over their heads. I am a retired social worker, but I like to start projects like this and see what happens. We did it in our family over a one period, we went from 5 credit cards to 0 and after the first six months we began to save and invest what we were saving in fees, and in interest. We also switched from the higher end grocery chains to small independent and farmers market stores, we are really doing well now and I have helped several friends get into the cash only and checks just for bills part. It has also made us feel more self sufficient, say all the banks caved in, or credit companies disappeared I would be willing to bet that a good 40% of our population wouldn't know how to survive.

http://intensedebate.com/people/eric1985 eric1985
That is definitely a big commitment. Do you ever miss the convenience of cards. Not even credit cards, but check cards. Isn't it more work to get cash on payday than direct deposit? I just want to get your viewpoint after trying it out.

http://poorerthanyou.com Stephanie PTY
Thanks for the guest post, Eric! Did you see it was featured on Student Bloggers' featured blogs of the day? http://studentbloggers.org/2009/07/22/7-22-09-fea...

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