I use the Google blog reader to read the blogs I follow and I am way behind. Currently it says have 383 posts unread. I pretty much stay current on my favorites like Ronni Bennett's Time Goes By and Flight Level 390. Of course my favorites also include the blogs of my friends like HD's Soapbox , Easier Than Scrapbooking, and Chuqui 3.0. Chuq the author of Chuqui 2.0 also does a great job of using Google reader to share items that he finds of interest and I subscribe to his feed of shared items.
That feed of shared items was one of the things that was contributing to my 383 unread posts. As I was scrolling through the more that 50 unread shared items from Chuq I came across a post on Mark Cuban's Weblog – Blog Maverick, titled How to Get Rich.
Cuban wrote this post back on October 4. What he says is absolutely right. Saving is key, "if you use a credit card you don't want to be rich" and his other advice is not something I always followed but I learned it late in life and I know it works.
I think that the reason that this caught my eye is that with all of the current economic problems I have been thinking a lot about credit and debt lately. It is only in the past 40 years or so that everyone has carried a credit card and assumed that they would always have a mortgage. My Dad still remembers the first time, sometime in the late 60's, when he was traveling on business from his job in Australia and a hotel made him pay for his room every day because he didn't have a credit card. He used to say that paying for things on credit was like paying for a dead horse.
Of course I use credit cards and like the ability they give me to track my spending and there have been times in my life when I didn't pay off my balance every month. But I have to tell you that living debt free is incredibly empowering.
I also think that having a goal of being rich may mean you want to live rich now which of course is at odds with living debt free.
This is a subject I would love to have a conversation about. As I said I have been thinking a lot about what advice I would give about money and what advice I would have liked to receive. I know that I have some pretty strong ideas but I haven't figured it all out. If you are reading this I would love to know what your thoughts are. What does it takes to get rich or what does it takes to reach your financial goals?
Marion's Blog 
The smart aleck in me says that insider trading helps, if you’re in the position that it could benefit you to the tune of $750k.
Seriously, though, I think you have it exactly right. Every time you break out the credit card you’re ensuring that you won’t be saving that amount of money later. The people who talk about it that I tend to trust more say that before you start saving you should pay off debt. It makes economic sense, in that you’re paying off something that costs ~10% or more versus putting money where it could earn ~3%. That seems simple enough, so let’s pay off those bills.
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Ghuquuh,
You make very good points. Not everyone uses credit cards to spend beyond their means but a lot of people do.
Marion
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I love your post..I found a few new people to follow – thank you!
And thanks for including me as the genesis of your idea.
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Thank you for this wonderful post.It makes sense.Good job!
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Great post. Wonderful blog. BTW, do you accept guest posting?
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