During breakfast this morning, I was reading Sports Illustrated and ran across a bank advertisement that had a person saying the following:
I don’t like getting charged overdraft fees.
My coffee is expensive enough already.
“The price on the menu read $3, but it read $38 on my bank statement. So I switched to a account. Even if I’m short on funds, won’t let me use my debit card to accidentally overdraft. So my coffee never costs a lot more than it should.”
Wow! I know that coffee is priced high at Fourbucks, but I can’t imagine living in a world where I must worry about overdrafting my bank account with a simple purchase of a cup of coffee. EXCEPT FOR THE FACT THAT I LIVED THIS WAY FOR YEARS!
I would like to offer a better solution:
- Establish a margin in your bill pay/spending account of several hundred dollars. This will prevent overdrafting altogether!
- Buy coffee with cash so that you can not possibly overdraft! Cash purchases provide a 100% disconnect from overdrafting (or overspending) the bank account.
And, of course, prepare a written spending plan and force INCOME – OUTGO to equal EXACTLY ZERO!
