Let’s talk about money shall we. Here’s some information to help you stay out of debt, and hopefully let you retire rich.

You don’t learn about money in school – at least not the important stuff. And you really need to know this stuff!

I’ll tell you what I learned about money, and I learned this the hard way I promise.

The biggest problem with the way society teaches us to live today (and it started for me when I was a kid too) is to go for the instant gratification.

So what does instant gratification mean? It means “I want it now. I don’t want to wait until next year, next month, — not even next week. I want it now!"

So we go out and get the item we want with a credit card, and we don’t bother to think about what the thing costs us in the end.

And it costs us a LOT.

Why? Because most of us only pay the minimum payment on that credit card. That means we pay the interest on a loan, and very little more. Most of the actual price of the item (whatever it was) we still owe to the credit card company.

You see, when you make minimum payments like that you always owe most of that original amount – and you’re always in debt.

That item that you just had to have right now ends up costing you four or five times more than it was originally worth.

So how do you escape this prison of debt? Don’t get caught up in instant gratification thinking. Learn now to save your money, wait until you have enough to buy the thing you want and pay cash for it.

Credit cards are an important part of life because you need one if you travel. 

Most car rental agencies won’t let you rent a car without a credit card.

Once on a trip to Grand Cayman Island I decided not to use a credit card. When I got to the car rental agency I had to shell out a one thousand dollar cash down payment before they’d give me any keys.

Here’s another reason a credit card is good to have…

One time I paid cash for airline tickets to fly from Indianapolis to Las Vegas. You can pay cash for airfare and it isn’t a problem but it did involve some hassles for me, and I expect that today the hassle factor is much higher because of the increased terrorist activity.

My trip went fine until I went to the Las Vegas airport to return to Indianapolis. Because I paid cash for my ticket the airport security decided to look through everything I had. They checked my computer bag with a drug detector wand, which never happened to me before.

And they even told me they were doing it only because I paid cash and did not use a credit card.

So be ready to get hassled if you pay cash to fly. And probably if you go by bus or train. Security is tighter everywhere. A new fact of life.

Credit cards are also very nice to have when you have a sudden emergency.

You’ll run into plenty of emergencies in your life. I hope this article helps you to prepare for them but sometimes we just can’t be ready for everything that happens.

Maybe your car will suddenly fall apart on you, and you don’t have the money to get it fixed. What will you do?

The best plan is to save your money so you’ll be ready for emergencies, and don’t have to use a credit card.

And if you’re fortunate enough that you don’t need to use any of that money you save for emergencies in your life?

Well, I suggest you just retire rich.