Before I begin my ramblings on "cash", I need to share Jane Bryant Quinn's (she is a financial author) observation on controlling the spigot on your cask. There are only 3 reasons NOT TO CONTROL YOUR SPIGOT:
1. You are so rich you can buy anything you want and you still have plenty of money left over in your cask.
2. She forgot the other two reasons.
Cash has always been a dilemma for me. The only cash that ever seemed real was the dollar bills I carried in my pocket. I could buy a dairy queen, pay for my golf, go out to lunch and even buy a Starbucks coffee whenever I wanted. You get the idea. It is a low level of power in a sense because it was my money and I could do what-ever I wanted with it. I could touch it, feel it, and count it.
Cash is also available from a savings account. Somehow that was never the same as the cash in my pocket but it is cash never the less. I guess in my mind, savings meant is was set aside for future uses. Like down payments on houses, boats and cars. Like tuition for Catholic private school systems. Like weddings and graduations. Like repair of my cars when someone backs into them in my own backyard. Never the less, I could get in my car, go to the local credit union and withdraw savings anytime I wanted. It is cash, but different.
Cash is good. Cash is power. Terry Kohler's dad had several rules concerning money and one was "never snear at cash" meaning if someone pays you in cash, take it.
The textbook definition of cash is that it is money in coin or bills. My defintion of cash is anything you can get you hands on in several days. My list for cash:
1. Cash in bills or coin
2. Checking account - can be converted to cash immediately
3. ATM - Withdraw anytime
4. Money Market Funds - always get check writing privleges and these
funds pay interest.
5. Debit Cards - Immediate deduct from your checking account.
6. Credit Cards - They buy things now like cash, but you don't have
to pay until later. Dangerous cash!
7. Savings Accounts. Go ahead. Drive down to the bank, credit union
or Savings and loan and make a withdrawal. Or transfer to
checking electronically.
8. Instruments that are the same as cash. Stocks for example can be
sold with a telephone call and deposited in your checking
account in 3 days. To me that is the same as cash but there is a
time delay.
Your mother defined cash as green paper that you can touch and crinkle and has power. And you thought she didn't understand cash.
Don't confuse cash with wealth. Wealth or Net Worth is the subject of another musing. For example, you could have $1,000 in you pocket and think you were flush. At the same time you are past due on your mortgage payment of $1,000 so in essense you are worth nothing but can touch and feel the $1,000. There is no power in that! Paul would say that is an unrealistic example because who could ever get $1000 in their pocket? Ha.
Your paychecks are new cash into your "cask system". The money already lying around in your cask is "old cash".
Cash is good. It creates good feelings. It gives you the power to buy things. Get as much of it as you can. Here is another key to getting rich. FILL YOUR CASKS WITH CASH.
Love,
Dad (Just Chas.)