6 reasons why this broke grad student hates cash

"Broke Grad Student" would like to have a big honking wad of cash as much as the next guy. But that's a dream because of his big honking student loan debt. In a post called "6 reasons why I hate cash," he explains why he otherwise has little use for bills and coins.

For instance, if you lost that big wad of cash, it would be gone. Poof. "You can't call an 800 number and have them cancel your $20 bills," he says in this humorous post at Broke Grad Student.

He's right. Cash is easily misplaced. It probably took us 20 years to train ourself to check our pockets for money before putting our clothes in the wash. Among his other reasons:

• It can be difficult to find. He writes: "This one applies to all the things we consider valuable enough to put them in a 'safe' place. Now if only we could remember where that place is."

• A big wad of cash in your wallet is bulky, but change is even worse. He says, "Why don't we make all prices whole numbers and then we can get rid of change altogether?" Um, because people who sell stuff would surely round the price up?

• Of course, then you never have change when you need it. When you go out to eat, everyone pulls out $20 bills when it's time to pay.

• Cash tends to get wrinkly or worse (although it does hold up well in the washer). "The only thing worse than getting stuck behind the person who can't get their dollar bill into a vending machine is being the person that can't get their dollar bill into the machine," Broke Grad Student says.

Bonus reasons: Keep reading his post and you'll get the benefits of the comments. It turns out our student loves credit cards because he gets about $500 cash back in a year for using them. (Of course he pays the balance off each month.)

• Bing: How to live without credit cards
  

"Vh" at Funny about Money tells the true story of a woman who found bills stuck between the pages of many books in the apartment of her ex-husband after he died. "It took days to unearth all the cash and old lottery tickets Willard had stashed away," vh says.

Amanda of Value For Your Life reminds us that money is "dirty and germy."

Published July 19, 2008