Every week it seems there’s another story about a retailer or even bank going cashless. You now need plastic to play at all sorts of fast food outlets, restaurants and shops around the country.
Meanwhile, ANZ is the latest bank under fire – again – for scrapping over-the-counter cash services from multiple Sydney branches. It has previously done the same in Victoria and elsewhere.
Children have determined that cards are more convenient than cash, but they don’t compare when it comes to teaching good money habits.
And the move follows Macquarie Bank’s announcement in September 2023 that this year it would stop dealing in physical dollars altogether. A Senate inquiry into banks backing away from cash heard more evidence last week.
It’s a big worry for particular segments of the community, especially the elderly, regional and remote communities (compounded by patchy internet access), and just because of the heightened tracking – and “future mapping” for marketing purposes – of our money moves.
But my main concern about the end of cash is for our kids.
Notes and coins counted out – whether into a jar, designated for various purposes in envelopes, or tucked away for a bit of bonus tuckshop in a school lunchbox – work for educating children about money.
Once it’s spent, it’s expended. And that’s the central difficulty: how do you teach your children that something they can no longer see run out?
For now, I use a combination of the digital and physical. Firstly, I pay regular pocket money into their bank accounts, but bonus bits – those they explicitly earn from the harder stuff like washing cars and mowing lawns – are delivered in cash.
Why the end of cash could be catastrophic for your kids
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23.02.2024
Every week it seems there’s another story about a retailer or even bank going cashless. You now need plastic to play at all sorts of fast food outlets, restaurants and shops around the country.
Meanwhile, ANZ is the latest bank under fire – again – for scrapping over-the-counter cash services from multiple Sydney branches. It has previously done the same in Victoria and elsewhere.
Children have determined that cards........
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