Like, Love and Don't Like

This week, I like taking my lunch to work. Brown-bagging it every day not only saves money, it also helps me keep my sanity. I work in the Riverchase area of Birmingham. Lots of workers here. Lots of single-passenger cars here. Lots of single-passenger cars trying to go to lunch at the same time here. Plus it's still pretty hot outside. Personally, it's not worth sitting in hot car in a long line of traffic to just to go get something to eat (that probably isn't good for you).

This week, I love my debit card. Though I don't have much money to speak of, you will rarely find cash on me. From paying for gas to buying movie tickets online, all of my transactions are performed with my debit card. There's A LOT of people out there that still carry cash and part of my job is to promote my employer's debit card service. I was recently trying to think of new and creative ways to enlighten people about debit cards when it hit me: there's only so much you can say about a debit card. It's like this: if you are under the age of 32 and carry cash as opposed to a debit card, there's no hope for you and no, I would not like to supersize my order. If you are between ages of 33 and 70, you have a window of grace because you most likely grew up in a cash-only world. If you're age 70 or above, you are scared of technology and there's probably no chance of getting you to convert at this point. Plus, actually remembering the presidency of the guy on the $20 bill gets you off the hook. Regardless of your age, debit cards are time savers and once you cash-carriers die off, the US Mint will likely shut down and paper money will be no more.

This week, I don't like insurance. I don't mean health insurance or automobile insurance. I mean the concept of insurance. Where you might argue that insurance helps us afford visits to the doctor or car repairs, I counter by saying the price of visits to the doctor's office and car repairs would not be so expesive if insurance never came to be. The existence of insurance has spawned an upward spiral of costs and has only help pad the price of medicine, car repairs, etc. Think about it this way...if everyone canceled their insurance policies, then we wouldn't be able to afford doctors visits/car repairs, right? Ah, but if no one can pay for their doctors visit/car repair, then the doctors office and collision center have two options: close up shop or reduce their prices. I think that if push came to shove, you would see prices fall overnight. President Obama's proposed health care plan touts that it will make it possible for more Americans to have affordable health care insurance. But what we really need is fewer Americans with health insurance.

So my point is...having to factor insurance into our everyday expenses robs us of the ability afford the nicer things in life.