Great post!

I think if more teens were brought up this way, credit would not be such a bad issue for so many.

I hope I didn’t offend you, but it’s nice to read your response. Also, having six kids is tough, I imagine. My parents, sending me to a private school, don’t have much money to spend on themselves either.

Interesting about your net worth, and nice stories.

Do you have a good history with paying bills on time, with not going into debt with credit cards, with not having to pay a lot of interest and late fees? If you don’t have any temptation to spend more than you take in, and can pay your cards in full, then I would say that using credit cards would work well for you, and could be a good tool.

However, many people have had problems with credit cards, and for them (and that’s a majority of people), I would say to avoid debt and use cash. Credit cards can be a useful tool, but they are very dangerous.

Also, I would warn that if you are going to use credit cards, you should have a very healthy emergency fund. Because if you rack up $1,000 on your card, let’s say, planning to pay it before the bill arrives, but then an emergency comes up and you can’t pay the bill … you’re stuck with a $1,000 debt plus high interest. Not only that, but if you don’t have an emergency fund, you might also be tempted to use your card for your emergency, in which case your debt and interest would be much worse. That’s the danger of credit cards … but again, if you have a very good emergency fund, they can work for you.

Lastly, I’d like to point out that yes, my net worth is low, but part of the reason is because of credit card debt — and also because I made some bad financial decisions. But not because I don’t use credit cards. In fact, it’s when I *stopped* using credit cards that my net worth actually became a positive, and is steadily on the rise each month. By next year, my net worth should be pretty healthy.

Who’s right? They’re both peices of advice, but very conflicting ones at that.