Things are changing too fast in the world for me

[Cravingahappymeal]

I don’t do well with change, discussions today with family about digital currency and a cashless society and what that may mean in the future are scaring me to death tbh.
Is it all true or is it conspiracy territory?

I don't know what terrifying future you're referring to so I can't help, I'm sorry

I live pretty much cashless already, so the idea doesn’t bother me and doesn’t seem
terrifically far-fetched.

Apart from just the idea of change itself, what concerns you about a cashless future, OP?

Having no access to cash at all just makes me feel insecure 🤷🏻‍♀️Is that weird

I don’t know if it’s weird. It’s not weird you feel safer having a back-up stash of cash in case something goes wrong with your cards or access to internet banking etc. But if cash doesn’t exist entirely any more, then everyone is in the same boat and no one could accept cash as they wouldn’t know what to do with it - it would be worthless without the infrastructure/system that surrounds it. I just can’t get wound up about it.

Invest in some gold if you want to feel
super-secure of wealth, I guess.

Move to the Isle of Wight?

@Cravingahappymeal

im sorry you find it all so difficult, that must be a very stressful way to live. Are you getting any help with it??

I wouldn't worry about a cashless society. I wish I could remember the details, but I can't (brain fog is a bitch) but someone 'very important/knowledgeable' was on the radio a while back, explaining how this couldn't happened, not for many many many years anyway.

I don't think it's a good idea, but it's more nostalgia & for the teaching children about money (it means more when it's 'real'money) But it's probably not going to happen, certainly not for a very long time, if at all & not without a huge amount of warning/information.

Do you have a debit card?
do you use a debit/credit card?
Have you ever spoken to a doctor or psychiatrist? As it’s not normal to be “scared to death” at such feeble changes.

I do think the world is changing fast although the cashless society bit doesn't worry me too much but yes, social media/fake news, an ever changing political landscape, AI,etc. It feels hard to keep up!

things dont tend to dramatically change, change seeps into our lives without us even noticing and then we look back and can’t believe how we used to live.

Also, how old are you, OP? I feel like this is one of those ‘Twas ever thus’ things that the older we get the harder it is to accept change, but the world is always changing and things that were commonplace in one’s youth are now totally gone, or changed out of all recognition, but the world keeps turning and things become normalised really quickly.

@WinterMusings Thank you, that’s reassuring, I’d read/heard about it being much sooner and other countries were already living without physical cash

@NoSquirrels I’m 45

What makes you feel insecure about having no cash? I don’t think there will be a complete cashless society but the lockdown did definitely speed up the transition.

I have even seen buskers with a machine to tap to give to them money these days

I'm guessing society will go the way of the film demolition man, or at least as close as possible.

@Hawkins003 In what way?(haven't seen the film, although know of it obviously

I hate to tell you this, but we are just the same as anywhere else.

I hope we don’t go cashless….

I get my eggs and veg from an honesty box shed, so leave cash.

i tip my hairdresser, and when I use them, tip taxi driver and waitress/ service staff.

more importantly, as someone who doesn’t want to share my entire financial status with my husband, or others who can access my bank details, I prefer to have a wee stash, that is my money that I don’t have to justify what I am spending it on.

I can't remember the last time I used actual money to pay for anything. The pandemic encouraged us all to use contactless payment methods and I have never looked back. I did have an emergency tenner in my phone case but I gave that away last week, and my last coins went in a charity box at Christmas. The money is still real. There are far more scary things in the world.

But cash isn’t worth anything per se, any more than digital currency is. Look at countries that have experienced hyper inflation - some very recently (Zimbabwe and Argentina for example) - doesn’t matter how much cash you have, it can be rendered worthless overnight. So cash is no more secure than any other form of currency.

The amounts of £1s my DS’s school asks for I very much doubt we’ll be cashless anytime soon!

I haven’t used cash for so many years, I was shocked at how different it looks/feels when someone gave me cash in a card recently!

I think cashless is the way forward, but you really should try to get some help for your anxiety around change. Change is inevitable and in most cases it’s for the better. It must be really draining for you.

In all these instances, the honesty boxes and tips would just move to a ‘tap your card’ system and so life would keep turning. And presumably for the cash stash you don’t want other people’s scrutiny on, you need to draw the cash out from a bank account somewhere in the first place? Unless it’s all under the mattress? So just get a bank account that’s not linked to anyone else. Everyone should have one of those anyway, imo.

I don’t really know what you mean by a conspiracy theory , we are predominantly cashless now. I’m not sure why you’re terrified but it’s not a healthy reaction.

are you getting help? No one can diagnose but an unrealistic view of rhe society you live in currently a fear if something that’s happened to a large degree but you don’t know about, a concern it’s a conspiracy theory and a feeling of terror is very concerning and needs help

Cashless isn't coming any day soon.

Far too many people rely on it.

But it will happen in the future but no need to fret about it.

Going sort of against the grain here.

@Cravingahappymeal It sounds like your reaction to this topic is on the extreme side and you should get a handle on that.

But that being said, on this particular topic, I am not exactly happy about the push to a cashless system. So I can understand where you are coming from. A cashless society is an easily controlled society. But that being said…it doesn’t keep me awake at night nor does it terrify me.