Tips for a life using Cash

[+ VictorPowers]

In our digital world, it can be tough to rely strictly on cash. Sometimes it gets tricky, but it is possible to only use cash. Here's a few methods I use:

 

1. Buy airline gift cards

2. Buy Uber/Lyft gift cards

3. Use cash for the Metro/Subway

4. Pay cash upon checkout at Hotel (Rates can be higher this way as it's a flexible and not prepaid rate)

5. Paying cell phone bill and other bills inside physical location

[Pulgasari1991]

Supermarket and tobacco, of course

[+ Avalon]

The small bookstore I use does not take debit or credit cards so at the grocery store I'd use my debit card and get cash back.

[+ StLouisOct]

In our digital world, it can be tough to rely strictly on cash. Sometimes it gets tricky, but it is possible to only use cash. Here's a few methods I use:

 

1. Buy airline gift cards

2. Buy Uber/Lyft gift cards

3. Use cash for the Metro/Subway

4. Pay cash upon checkout at Hotel (Rates can be higher this way as it's a flexible and not prepaid rate)

5. Paying cell phone bill and other bills inside physical location

Victor - I’d be interested to hear why you prefer cash over credit cards. Do you have any cards?

[+ Tarte Gogo]

Victor - I’d be interested to hear why you prefer cash over credit cards. Do you have any cards?

Because an escort gets paid entirely in cash. So you tend to accumulate lots of it.

[jjkrkwood]

Because it just looks so much "sexier" sticking out of an LV purse....

 

[wklucas]

Switzerland remains 1 country where using anything other than cash is suspect....plastic has made some inroads but still in many restaurants, hotels, stores, etc., - paying with a CC raises suspicions by biz owners if the customer can actually afford whatever they're buying.....again not as extreme as maybe in the 70's. 80's, 90's when plastic was not even accepted.....but still today, a high "cash&carry" kind of country.

[+ nycman]

In our digital world, it can be tough to rely strictly on cash. Sometimes it gets tricky, but it is possible to only use cash. Here's a few methods I use:

 

1. Buy airline gift cards

2. Buy Uber/Lyft gift cards

3. Use cash for the Metro/Subway

4. Pay cash upon checkout at Hotel (Rates can be higher this way as it's a flexible and not prepaid rate)

5. Paying cell phone bill and other bills inside physical location

6. Paying escorts

[jjkrkwood]

If escorts want to be cutting edge, they will start taking Bitcoin .

[+ VictorPowers]

Victor - I’d be interested to hear why you prefer cash over credit cards. Do you have any cards?

I do not prefer cash. I'm paid in cash, and spend in cash to avoid any sort of paper trail. Doing this allows me to choose my reportable taxable wage. I have two debit cards and a few credit cards through major banks.

[jawjateck]

I do not prefer cash. I'm paid in cash, and spend in cash......

 

I know it's a cash biz and simple convenience says use it when possible, but you may want to re-think the level of transparency you revealed here. Just a suggestion from someone who wants you to succeed to the max.....as a pro in this biz.

Edited December 10, 2017 by jawjateck

[Scorpio]

I do not prefer cash. I'm paid in cash, and spend in cash to avoid any sort of paper trail. Doing this allows me to choose my reportable taxable wage. I have two debit cards and a few credit cards through major banks.

 

all of your CASH earned for services rendered less allowable deductions is your REPORTABLE taxable wage....not just what you CHOOSE to report.

[mike carey]

In situations like this, I think it is unhelpful to quote what someone says and challenge them on it, as it denies them the opportunity to recast their words. By all means challenge them, but including referenced text is not necessary. Once in here, I said something regrettable and decided to delete it, but before I had done so someone quoted the whole passage and said it was a shitty thing to say. I edited what I said, but my challenger had ensured that the original remained on record.

 

In this sort of industry of course people should declare their income for tax, but claiming expenses is problematic, so it would be understandable if net income were declared rather than declare the gross income and run the risk of a censorious IRS agent disallowing valid business expenses.

[marylander1940]

Victor - I’d be interested to hear why you prefer cash over credit cards. Do you have any cards?

 

I'm sure he has CC, but he's an escort and I imagine 99% of the time he gets paid in cash. *

 

*it's an estimate, please don't yinz start replying saying: well, I get paid by PayPal 5% of the time, tomato/tomatoe

[marylander1940]

I know it's a cash biz and simple convenience says use it when possible, but you may want to re-think the level of transparency you revealed here. Just a suggestion from someone who wants you to succeed to the max.....as a pro in this biz.

 

As much as we appreciate your advice to @VictorPowers he is not saying how much he has avoided paying taxes in his career, he's just saying what we all know about him getting paid in cash most of the times.

[MikeBiDude]

As much as we appreciate your advice to @VictorPowers he is not saying how much he has avoided paying taxes in his career, he's just saying what we all know about him getting paid in cash most of the times.

Ummmmmm....

Doing this allows me to choose my reportable taxable wage.

[+ VeryHappyCustomer]

1. Buy airline gift cards

If you're not TSA pre-screened, this will raise your chances of being sent to the slow line at security.

[+ VictorPowers]

Well likely saying "choosing my reportable taxable wage" was definitely an oversight, I didn't quite mean it that way. I made my list really from a convenience standpoint.

@VeryHappyCustomer I often fly first class or use my airline status to enter the preferred security screening line. Someday I'll apply for Glibal Enry and use the TSA Pre line.

[BaronArtz]

You can make cash deposits into a bank account. If it is less than $10,000 per transaction it is not likely to raise eyebrows or trigger IRS scrutiny.

[+ Charlie]

This reminds me of when I went to work in a small city in Eastern Europe shortly after the Iron Curtain collapsed. There was no facility for using credit cards or even personal checks. Everyone was paid in cash--including me--and people bought even big ticket items like cars by saving their cash under the mattress. Everyone, even bankers, kept asking me how credit cards worked in the west, because it was such a novel concept for them.

[mike carey]

Here, Australia Post provides a bill payment facility for a wide range of utilities and similar billers. You can take your bills into the post office and pay with cash (or cheque or credit card). Is there such a system in the US?

[+ VictorPowers]

You can make cash deposits into a bank account. If it is less than $10,000 per transaction it is not likely to raise eyebrows or trigger IRS scrutiny.

Gotta keep away from that SAR and CTR!

[mike carey]

Hey Victor, hope the discussion here helps you, and doesn't detract from what you are doing.

[Rudynate]

In our digital world, it can be tough to rely strictly on cash. Sometimes it gets tricky, but it is possible to only use cash. Here's a few methods I use:

 

1. Buy airline gift cards

2. Buy Uber/Lyft gift cards

3. Use cash for the Metro/Subway

4. Pay cash upon checkout at Hotel (Rates can be higher this way as it's a flexible and not prepaid rate)

5. Paying cell phone bill and other bills inside physical location

 

 

When I was a young man, I didn't handle my money well, so my bank closed my account and told me to go away. Of course it was easier back then, but I lived on cash for years several years after. For things that couldn't be paid in cash, I bought money orders at one of those check-cashing places. There was a small fee for the money order, I don't remember what.

[+ oldNbusted]

A big issue here is the risk of civil forfeiture.

 

wikipedia.org: Civil forfeiture in the United States

 

Video for the TL;DR crowd:

 

 

Prior to the 2016 election, the US DoJ was beginning to reform this process but my understanding is all that was reversed after the new administration took over.