bluntmoney.com

I confess that we are currently taking advantage of a 12 months-same-as-cash type offer. We did so because we thought we’d rather earn a little interest on the money that’s sitting in our bank account, instead of paying it out up front.

I felt comfortable with the idea at the time, because we had (and still have) the money. We just didn’t want to pay for what we bought with it yet. But I don’t think I’ll be doing that again in the future, and here’s why:

1. Yes, we have the money, but we’re still making payments on something. I hate payments. I don’t like something hanging out there, being owed.

2. The offer makes it easy to have a distorted view of reality. Because the money is still sitting in the bank, and we see the amount every month, it feels like we still have the money — even though for all intents and purposes it’s already spent. It’s too easy to feel better off than we actually are.

3. There is a big potential for error, and of course everyone makes mistakes. But in this case, making a mistake (paying a payment late or not having the entire balance paid in full by the due date) could be very costly. That 0% rate would jump to something like 25% overnight — and not just on the remaining amount. We would be charged 25% on the whole amount that we borrowed. It’s silly to be tempted by the possibility of earning, what 1% interest in exchange for the risk of paying 25% interest.

• Save Time, Money and Space in Over 80 Ways If you're looking for handy gadgets, tools and various items that can save you time, money or space (or all three!) this list of more...
• Getting Out of Debt 103 Debt Elimination Step #3 - Finally, you have to implement what is known as a debt snowball. The third and final step of this process,...
• Drive Free Cars and Retire Rich! Drive Free Cars for life! While taking part in Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace University", we heard a great example of how you could turn traditional...