You may have heard of some car companies suggesting that you, “drive while you still can”.

drive-car

This statement is in response to the upcoming self-driving cars which you will monitor, but may no longer have the pleasure of driving.  In the not too distant future it is easy to imagine that once autonomous vehicles have a proven safety record, better than humans driving, that we could be banned from driving.

It has happened in a more subtle way with our cash economy.  We moved from cash, to cheque writing, to credit cards to smart phones over the past 50 years. With cash it was pretty simple, if you had it in your wallet you could buy if not, you waited until next pay day. Now you can walk into a store, touch a pad with your card or your phone and walk out with your purchase, you may not know what the item cost, or whether you actually have the money in your account to pay for it.

There are times when you monitor your expenses, when you see your bill at the end of the month.  Jim McCarthy, Visa’s innovation chief wants to improve on our spending so it is wrinkle free.  Do you currently use your Samsung Pay or Apple Pay or a debit card? When these are connected to your bank account and there is some compromise of one of the account numbers, Visa processing plans to work in the background to make corrections automatically so the transaction will always go through.  It will happen seamlessly without your knowledge. You will simply walk out of the store with your purchase.

You may never have to contact your credit card company or the suppliers you purchase through using your card as it will all be handled   automatically.

So why will you need cash, won’t we have reached that brave new star trek world where we work for “credits” or some kind of “bit-coins”.

and   are actively pursuing an agenda to have the world eliminate cash.  My concern as a Retirement-Income Specialist is that in our Canadian individuals and families will have less and less awareness of their income and expenditures.  Once you become unaware of spending, control of your goals and yourlife will be lost.