Christmas is coming, which means most of us are busy shopping for gifts for family and friends. It’s definitely a hectic and stressful time of year. There is so much to do on top of our regular jobs and all the other end of the year things that need to get done. Fortunately, we can use credit cards to buy whatever we need now, and worry about paying for it all later. How great is that!
Dave Ramsey, the famous financial guru, says it’s not so great. In fact, Dave says nobody should ever use a credit card… ever! We should use a debit card. His reasoning is two-fold. First, credit cards make it possible to spend money we don’t have, which is never a good thing. And second, if we use a debit card, we know the money is going to instantly disappear from our bank account, which forces us to stop and think about how much money we have in the bank, and whether or not we really want to part with it.
And that got me thinking… When I put Dave Ramsey’s philosophy together with the Christmas spirit, at first they seem at odds. I want to do something nice for my family and friends versus I shouldn’t spend money I don’t have.
But maybe they do make sense together! The most valuable things I have are the love in my heart (my internal bank account) and the time in my life (my real currency). That’s what I should give to my family and friends! And it shouldn’t be like a credit card where I pay it down the road. It should be like a debit card, where I part with it right now!
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