Do you pay cash or credit?

One way to measure your financial habits and immediate financial future is by the amount of credit you borrow.

Have you bought anything on credit lately other than a well priced house?  If so, shame on you. If not, you’re on the right track.

I talk to so many people that are like yes of course I bought my car with a car loan, how else do you buy a car? Well personally I’d love to have a new car and I could definitely afford the monthly loan payment but - it’s just downright stupid.

Financially intelligent people collect interest, financial stupid people pay interest to banks or to financially intelligent people. Banks LOVE financially stupid people, without them they would not be in business.

I did away with using credit years ago when I got my financial habits in order. I was a complete disaster. I actually moved to Miami for 1 year and bought a brand-spanking new car (my parents lent me the money for the down-payment of course because I didn’t have any money.) Then I found out my license was suspended because I didn’t pay a speeding ticket a couple years back. Then the car dealer looked at my sad credit history and finally agreed to sell me the car.

I drove it to work for one year, 2 hours per day from Miami Beach to Fort Lauderdale. After making $300 monthly y car payments for that year I left back to Europe and my brother had to sell the car for me. After selling it I had to pay $2000 to clear the debt- talk about a financial disaster!

Now I only buy things with debit cards or credit cards that will bill the full amount the following month to my bank account. I refuse to pay a cent of interest on anything that’s not a house. During the sum of every hour, day and minute of your life all this stuff ads up in your favor or against you. If you still use credit you’ve got to kick the habit now or you’ll always be a slave to money.