Credit card article written by Columbia and Florence attorney Daniel Stone
We have all seen the Capital One credit card commercials that ask the question, “What do you have in your pocket”? For my clients, I haven been trying to promote the attitude of “just cash” as the reply to this popular tv commercial. While most of us as a society need debit cards or even secured credit cards to function, I try to challenge many of my clients to stop using credit cards all together. Furthermore I try to remind my clients that our grandparents didn’t have credit cards and didn’t buy things unless they had the cash to pay for it.
The problem many of us including myself have living in today’s credit card society is we feel like we have to live up to this misconception that our neighbors with the shiny new car are living the American dream. The truth is that our neighbors are in serious debt and the shiny new car is in danger of being repossessed. I challenge my clients to live like millionaires. Dave Ramsey, the popular debt education personality tells us that most millionaires don’t have shiny new cars. They actually drive paid for beat up used Hondas because they put any disposable income into savings and not flashy cars.