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- Apr 4, 2006
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I often am amazed that so many people actually walk around with NO CASH! Seriously, I know people that won't carry more than two dollars on them. I am not advocating people carry thousands of dollars on them, but at least $50 - $100 makes sense to me.
Yes, credit cards, debit cards, Paypal, iPhones, etc. make life simple, easy and easy to do cash free transactions HOWEVER.... there are some times that only cash will do!
True Example:
One of my friends daughters (who is a Doctor living in NYC) was driving her new Jeep down the Cross Bronx Expressway around midnight on a Saturday night. Now for those of you who do not know, the Cross Bronx Expressway is about the worst place for a young beautiful female Doctor (traveling by herself) to have a tire blow out. Well, she had one! She pulls off to the side and then realized in short order that her model Jeep does not have a spare tire. In a panic, she calls her Dad who lives on Long Island and the Dad does a search and finds an all night tire repair place two miles off the next exit. He rapidly jumps in his car and about 55 minutes later gets to her locked in her car. Luckily because of the cold weather and late hour she wasn't robbed, raped or worse. Anyway, he removes her tire, they throw the wheel in his car and they drive to the all night tire repair place. He described the place to me but I will purposely leave those details out as I don't want to receive any more dings here! They had a hand written sign that after 6pm, CASH ONLY! Luckily he did have the $285 for a relatively cheap junk tire he bought, but hey, he was very happy to get that at 2 am. They get back to her car (still intact) and put the new mounted tire on her car. Then he says to his daughter, if I had not been able to come here, would you have been able to pay for the tire? She responds, "no- I only have 8 dollars in my wallet". She IS a Doctor and can afford to carry more. While no one want s to loose hundreds of dollars, she is quite successful and the loss of a few hundred dollars wouldn't change her life style.
Now even if she had $100, it would not have solved her dilemma (in this case because of the amount), but this is just ONE example that sometimes cash is still King! There are many instances that after hours, in unique emergency situations - credit cards are useless. I always carry a few hundred with me and it has come in handy many many times - not just for emergency's. When neighborhoods loose power, when you break down at off hours on the road, when you want to buy something and they don't accept credit cards, unexpected tips, gratuities, etc.
I find that my own kids rarely have more than a few bucks in cash on them. After explaining the multiple benefits many many times, I have all but given up! I guess I truly am a Dinosaur!
Yes, credit cards, debit cards, Paypal, iPhones, etc. make life simple, easy and easy to do cash free transactions HOWEVER.... there are some times that only cash will do!
True Example:
One of my friends daughters (who is a Doctor living in NYC) was driving her new Jeep down the Cross Bronx Expressway around midnight on a Saturday night. Now for those of you who do not know, the Cross Bronx Expressway is about the worst place for a young beautiful female Doctor (traveling by herself) to have a tire blow out. Well, she had one! She pulls off to the side and then realized in short order that her model Jeep does not have a spare tire. In a panic, she calls her Dad who lives on Long Island and the Dad does a search and finds an all night tire repair place two miles off the next exit. He rapidly jumps in his car and about 55 minutes later gets to her locked in her car. Luckily because of the cold weather and late hour she wasn't robbed, raped or worse. Anyway, he removes her tire, they throw the wheel in his car and they drive to the all night tire repair place. He described the place to me but I will purposely leave those details out as I don't want to receive any more dings here! They had a hand written sign that after 6pm, CASH ONLY! Luckily he did have the $285 for a relatively cheap junk tire he bought, but hey, he was very happy to get that at 2 am. They get back to her car (still intact) and put the new mounted tire on her car. Then he says to his daughter, if I had not been able to come here, would you have been able to pay for the tire? She responds, "no- I only have 8 dollars in my wallet". She IS a Doctor and can afford to carry more. While no one want s to loose hundreds of dollars, she is quite successful and the loss of a few hundred dollars wouldn't change her life style.
Now even if she had $100, it would not have solved her dilemma (in this case because of the amount), but this is just ONE example that sometimes cash is still King! There are many instances that after hours, in unique emergency situations - credit cards are useless. I always carry a few hundred with me and it has come in handy many many times - not just for emergency's. When neighborhoods loose power, when you break down at off hours on the road, when you want to buy something and they don't accept credit cards, unexpected tips, gratuities, etc.
I find that my own kids rarely have more than a few bucks in cash on them. After explaining the multiple benefits many many times, I have all but given up! I guess I truly am a Dinosaur!
