> There is nothing inherently wrong with that but it's a lot more risky then saving up.
Cash is king. Assuming 0% interest, it's financially better and less risky to do BNPL. This is separate from all the other financial decisions like savings, etc...
It's similar with CCs. I love my CCs and get a ton of value and free stuff by using them. I also have never carried a CC balance in 20+ years. Someone who is financially disciplined is leaving money on the table when not using CCs.
>Someone who is financially disciplined is leaving money on the table when not using CCs.
The trick is knowing whether or not you're financially disciplined. And usually one finds out the hard way. It often involves a credit card or credit facility of some nature.
This here. Not everyone can do that. I personally can. I try to teach my friends and family to save a bit and use credit cards as a tool to get a small bit of free stuff. However, those things are deadly if you have no skill in saving in the first place. They will wipe you out with interest payments and then some. That method only works if you have the ability to save first and put off impulse buys. Even having something simple like a checking account can be bad if you have poor ability to balance your budget.
My wife for example does not have this ability, however I can manage it by basically controlling the amounts we have and putting restrictions on how money is spent that teach the lessons of saving that her parents for some unknown reason skipped teaching her. Lessons like 'you have X amount of cash lets save up for that thing you want' 'lets review our purchases and see if they make sense on the amount of income we have' 'yes, your friend has a need of 100 bucks and we can cover it but will giving them 100 just make them ask next time for 1000 and will it actually fix their problem or delay it?'
I think the ability to manage money well and not get screwed over by credit facilities is highly correlated with ones level of trait conscientiousness. It's less about skills per se than it is about that particular trait. I would wager those high in trait conscientiousness naturally tend towards frugality and budgeting and those low in trait conscientiousness tend towards impulse buys and poor financial planning.
My wife is 99th percentile for trait conscientiousness and I'm 1st percentile. I'm amazed at the amount of money she's able to save and her level of discipline and she's generally gobsmacked at the amount of money I waste and the random shit I buy.
Having the information about what one should or shouldn't do is only part of the equation. 8t also needs to be something you can apply, and sadly some of us just can't.
Cash is king. Assuming 0% interest, it's financially better and less risky to do BNPL. This is separate from all the other financial decisions like savings, etc...
It's similar with CCs. I love my CCs and get a ton of value and free stuff by using them. I also have never carried a CC balance in 20+ years. Someone who is financially disciplined is leaving money on the table when not using CCs.