I believe that I am in a very small demographic that has never carried a balance on a credit card. My father taught me that cash is king and debt is bad. I took this to heart at a young age and have been fortunate enough to never wavered from my father’s teaching. Of course I have a mortgage and I do have a car loan from time to time. My last car loan was for a 2010 Subaru Legacy at 1.9% and we put half down and paid the balance off in 3 years. I think the total interest paid was just over $400. That seemed like a reasonable amount of interest to me and my bride. I truly believe that I have lived at a higher standard of living than other people in my income bracket because I have stayed out of debt. I have been unexpectedly unemployed twice in the last ten years and have never been hurt financially because I didn’t have several minimum monthly payments on credit cards to worry about. All of that being said, I do have two credit cards, an American Express and a Visa. Next week I will tell you how I use these two cards and a change that I am considering making to my current strategy.