The Experience of living a Cash Life Style by The Outlaw Micheal Tomsik

WHAT DOES LIVING A CASH LIFE STYLE MEAN ANYWAYS ?

Maybe in the past you have seen a blog or two about CASH LIFE STYLES. 

So what exactly defines a cash life style ?

Here is my thought on the idea and subject living a cash life style means you do not have CREDIT CARDS or any type of CREDIT, also you do not take LOANS or have any type of  LOANS. 

This to me is what a CASH LIFE STYLE MEANS.

In 2016 my family agreed to go along with me and enter a CASH LIFE STYLE. We managed to pay off all our debts, cut up and toss any credit cards, and pay off any loans we had at the time. So here are some of the issues we experienced and in 2018 we had to break the LOAN part to buy a car.

PAYING BILLS:

So in a cash life you have to plan things out and budget your money to be able to pay the bills. However I found this harder than I thought it would be. So many places of business will not take a cash payment believe it or not. So the choices become to pay by MONEY ORDERS or by TELEPHONE or PAY ONLINE. If you choose the MONEY ORDER system you have to pay for the MONEY ORDER usually between $1 to $3 depending on where you get it. Than you have to buy envelopes or sent the envelope back to the company your paying the bill with. 

This means getting stamps and mailing the bill to the company. 

Many companies charge you a fee to pay by TELEPHONE between $3 to $5. 

To pay ONLINE (INTERNET) you need a card to pay the bill and some companies still charge you to pay that way as well.

I really think it is shame I should have to pay a FEE to pay my BILL but it is a reality.

So at first I did the whole Money Order way but after a while I got tired of going getting them and mailing them. I finally broke down and just got a DEBIT CARD from my bank.

 I still feel this is a CASH LIFE STYLE because I made sure I could not  overdraft the account, and the debit card is directly to the account. This way when using it we can pay bills, do our daily activities and not have to go to the bank a million times a day (EXAGGERATION) to make sure we have money on us at all times. 

Since doing the card it has made it much easier to live a  cash lifestyle. 

It is the only card we use.

We do not have any credit cards.

SAVING MONEY:

I would love to sit here and tell you all we have managed to save a  lot of money living a  Cash Life Style but it really is harder than you think. We have managed to save a little but we also ran into issues cars breaking down, family emergencies, unexpected expenses, and other issues that have dipped into that savings a few times. 

I will tell you this however when or if you choose to live a cash life you will watch your spending habits more carefully. We are constantly watching our bank account and planning out our expenses and attempting to put money away for a rainy day as they say.

CREDIT WHILE LIVING A CASH LIFE STYLE:

Either way you look at it credit scores and credit is a huge part of our culture. It does not really matter if you agree or disagree with it. My advice if you choose to live a CASH LIFE STYLE is you still keep track of your credit. After all there are plenty of reasons to do so. Identity theft, fraud and other issues that can be prevented by keeping track of your credit. 

There are ways you can live a cash life and still have credit.

SECURED CREDIT ACCOUNTS are one way this  can It be done.  It is where you put a amount of money usually $250 to $500 in an account and you are issued a credit card that only goes to that amount. You still get charged interest but if you use it the cards or bank company reports it to the credit companies that do reports on your credit.

EXPERIAN, TRANS UNION, and EQUIXFAX are the three main companies that do credit reporting.

We have chosen not to do this but if you want to maintain some credit and a good credit score or re build your credit and live a  cash life style it is a good way to do it.

OUR CAR ISSUE:

In 2018 we had to break our history of no loans or credit due to multiple car issues. Though we had saved some money we could not find a decent car with the cash we had to we decided to finance one. So we did it is the only thing we currently have that has a loan and we are attempting to pay it off faster than the loan was set up for. 

EXPENSES:

You really can not avoid buying food, paying rent or a mortgage, gas, insurance, health care expenses and just daily living expenses. However living a cash life style you will watch these expenses more closely.

HOUSING:

Face it most of us do not have enough cash to buy a property. I mean here in Reno and Sparks a  property runs over $300,000 any where you go. Renting runs high as well in this area. My advice is that if you have to get a  loan or credit to buy a home than so be it. 

You can make that your only loan or credit to have and live your life in cash.

OWING A BUSINESS:

My family owns a few companies and I will tell you that operating a company without taking Credit or Debit cards is nearly impossible and will really hurt your company.

So we do use a company called SQUARE for our companies this allows us to take credit cards and debit cards for payments.

However it is not a credit line or loan that we can use for ourselves it is simply so we can take payments.

FINAL THOUGHT:

It is  your life live it how you want!

There are draw backs and positives for everything we do. 

Maybe a total cash life is not for you or maybe you can do a partial cash life or dive totally in.