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What is In My Wallet?
15 02 06  17  19
-------- A fun meme.
| There is a meme going around where financial bloggers reveal the contents of their wallets and I thought I’d join the fun. You can learn a lot about someone from what they carry next to their money (purse, wallet, or handbag). Plus, it is a nice diversion from the serious financial advocacy I usually post about. Here are my very old wrangler black leather wallet’s contents (I think I acquired it in 1996) and why I carry each: |
- Drivers license – good for driving and ID.
- Key to my office building, behind the drivers license and hidden. I can go and perform my duties at any time I need and keep feeding my investments with the income I bring from work.
- Price Chopper discount card (covering license) – Not only I purchase at the cheapest supermarket in town, but I pay attention to the special prices and carry the card to get them. The card is not really mine (for privacy issues), but it gets the discounts anyway.
- Personal and Business Credit Cards – I use them for expense tracking purposes. Paid in full when balance comes due.
- Personal and Joint Debit Cards – Sometimes I need to get cash out of the ATM machine with my personal card, and sometimes I need to buy groceries with the Joint (common between wife and me) account. I keep everything separate for good accounting purposes.
- Medical Insurance Card – Useful in emergencies. To tell the truth, I have never had to show the card to anyone for medical or dental services. I just tell the clerk where I work and my social security number and they take care of the rest. Still, it is a good thing to carry it in case of an emergency – you never know when the emergency room clerk will be a nasty person that will recommend less than perfect medical services since there wasn’t an insurance card on the wallet – hey! It happens in some countries, and I never know if it may happen in the USA.
- Discount Cards:
- a. Discount Club Membership – Buy in large quantities and save! We use a business membership from an extended family business. It is only $10 to renew a year when it is done within the extended family business. That is well saved in all types of products including Turbo Tax for the tax season, meats for get together, Pantene Pro V for my wife’s hair, and Gillette Mach3 razors for my face – and everything in between.
- b. REI Card – Outdoor cooperative discount card. We do outdoors, and some products are only found in REI or EMS. In the rare instance we have to buy something for an outing, we want to save. I also use the card to stick my Appalachian Mountain Club membership stickers, to get discounts on high mountain huts, outdoor courses, and products. It is a paper-thin plastic card that doesn’t occupy too much space.
- Several Buy 8 or 10 and get one free. I carry Subway, Gloria Jeans, Borders, Einstein Brothers, and Borders Coffee. I travel quite a lot and I have to eat in these places from time to time – especially when in a hurry. They give me free stuff!
- Money – Usually around $20, and currently $15. I carry small denominations for tips and the occasional and unexpected bus or taxi. Not too much cash in my pocket because it is difficult to track. Plastic is better to track and quickly import into Money or Quicken for frequent expense analysis.
- Receipts – I keep them until they post on my credit or debit card accounts to verify their accuracy. If it is a product that I may need to return or service in the future it goes into the archives. Otherwise, to the trash it goes. I also have to keep receipts for business expenses which I forward to the expense department for refund – with extreme accuracy and religiosity.
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