{"id":32,"date":"2009-04-09T03:02:18","date_gmt":"2009-04-09T03:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/yourcharmedlife\/2009\/04\/the-miracle-of-a-cash-economy.html"},"modified":"2009-04-09T03:02:18","modified_gmt":"2009-04-09T03:02:18","slug":"the-miracle-of-a-cash-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/2009\/04\/the-miracle-of-a-cash-economy.html","title":{"rendered":"Pay As You Go: The Miracle of a Cash Economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good Lord, we’re in a lot of debt! We’re in debt as individuals and we’re in debt as a nation. This is bad metaphysics. You cannot dig yourself out of a hole by digging the hole deeper. But you can do something in your own life to say, in paraphrase of the classic film Network<\/i><\/a>: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore!” <\/p>\n

\"shelter_for_the_spirit.jpg\"<\/span>A simple first step is to establish a cash economy in your own life:
\ngood old green currency. “In God We Trust.” Change back from a dollar
\n(well, change back from a twenty anyhow). Here’s what I had to say
\nabout this back in 1997 in my book Shelter for the Spirit: Create Your Own Haven In a Hectic World<\/a>. It’s more relevant today than it was when that book was new:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 “I’m not opposed to shopping. I like it in fact. And I like
\nit more since I chopped up nearly all my credit cards. I did. Right
\ndown the middle and again through that corner that said ‘expiration
\ndate.’ Since then, I have sought to live by the principle of, by and
\nlarge, only spending money I have. A hundred years ago, that was common
\nsense. Today it seems wildly radical.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “What has happened since I stopped shopping with money I
\ndidn’t have is that my life has simplified on every level…Operating
\non pay-up-front basics, I rarely make impulse purchases and therefore
\ndon’t acquire a lot of intensive-care items: bric-a-brac that demand
\npolishing, clothes that demand dry cleaning. I am released from the
\nculturally entrenched notion that anything I admire I should buy, and
\nanything cheap that I even remotely admire I must buy….<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “However you wish to conduct your personal financial
\ndealings, making even a minimal effort to charge less and pay cash more
\ncan guarantee your the following:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “You will end up with less junk you wish you’d never bought, and your environment will be less cluttered.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ‘You will look better in your clothes and feel better in your
\nhouse because everything that goes on your body or in your rooms you
\nwill absolutely adore.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “With fewer bills, you’ll have additional discretionary
\nincome, and the satisfaction of being more fully in charge of your
\nfinancial life.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Your expenses will be easier to keep track of, and because
\ncash is so tangible, money itself will become more meaningful.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “When you buy something you truly want—especially something
\nyou’ve ‘saved up for’—you’ll feel like a million bucks. And you’ll
\ngreatly improve your chances for having<\/i> a million bucks since
\nyou won’t be shelling out a fortune in interest every month and getting
\nbills for lunches that you forgot you ate.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good Lord, we’re in a lot of debt! We’re in debt as individuals and we’re in debt as a nation. This is bad metaphysics. You cannot dig yourself out of a hole by digging the hole deeper. But you can do something in your own life to say, in paraphrase of the classic film Network:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":177,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-solving-problems"],"yoast_head":"\nPay As You Go: The Miracle of a Cash Economy - Your Charmed Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/2009\/04\/the-miracle-of-a-cash-economy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pay As You Go: The Miracle of a Cash Economy - Your Charmed Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Good Lord, we’re in a lot of debt! We’re in debt as individuals and we’re in debt as a nation. This is bad metaphysics. You cannot dig yourself out of a hole by digging the hole deeper. But you can do something in your own life to say, in paraphrase of the classic film Network:…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/2009\/04\/the-miracle-of-a-cash-economy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Your Charmed Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-04-09T03:02:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/yourcharmedlife\/files\/import\/shelter_for_the_spirit.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Victoria Moran\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pay As You Go: The Miracle of a Cash Economy - Your Charmed Life","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/2009\/04\/the-miracle-of-a-cash-economy.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pay As You Go: The Miracle of a Cash Economy - Your Charmed Life","og_description":"Good Lord, we’re in a lot of debt! 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