Primer Magazine

In a world of PayPals, Credit Cards, and e-Checks, cash is slowly disappearing from our wallets, literally. On the street, cash is still king and if it’s not in your pocket, well, you’re bound to look a fool. Real men are prepared for every situation and real men carry cash.

You’ll owe no one anything. How many times have you had to borrow a few bucks to cover the pizza? Or to leave a tip behind at the restaurant? Or to pay the door charge at a club for a couple of the guys who don’t have the bills? Cash opens doors, literally, in ways that plastic does not. There is always a need for cash, whether its to tip the valet, a Coke from the vending machine, or to pay the taxi driver. If you don’t have the bills, you don’t get the service; or you borrow and that leaves you, literally, indebted to someone else. And no one wants to owe money or be the guy who always has to borrow it.

Cash is cool. We all want more money. High rollers don’t throw credit cards on tables, they throw stacks of bills. So why is your wallet light on greenbacks then? People have started to shun cash for the “ease” of just using plastic, when the exact opposite is true. Cash is freedom, plastic is slavery.

Cash is accepted everywhere. Have you ever stood in a long line only to get to the register to have your cash turned down? Exactly, hard currency is always ready to be exchanged. Not true with credit or debit cards, which some businesses, especially smaller ones, turn away, charge a fee or have a minimum purchase amount. Plastic cards charge everyone – the business is charged a fee and if you use your card wrong, you’re charged a fee. Credit cards do not forgive, cash does not accuse.

Managing cash is easier than managing money. With the swipe of a card, you can spend hundreds, or thousands, and think nothing of it. Leave your card behind the bar when you’re out and a week later your statement has a damaging $230 bar charge on it, you’ll wish maybe you paid more attention to all those rounds you were picking up. If you carry cash, you can visually and physically see and feel your money leaving your pocket. The real cost of five DVDs? Five twenty-dollar bills leaving your pocket, not a swipe and a signature. Walk into a bar with a set budget and a specific amount of cash and you can control your spending. Just make sure to keep enough cash for the taxi ride home.

So forget the “ease” of plastic and opt for the true flexibility of cash. The perfect clip full of cash is $58, as it gives you a handful of ones for tips, two twenties for big purchases, a ten for lending to your slack-ass friend, and a five, just because. There aren’t many situations you can’t handle with $58 in your pocket. So pack cash and carry it proudly. Cash can not be denied. Credit limits are not sexy. And when you’re sitting in the car, waiting for your three friends to line up at the ATM to get money to get in the front door of the bar, you sit there smugly, cash already in hand.