Imagine this scenario: your daughter or son is heading home from school and they receive the following text from their favorite retailer. 



"Hey Suzie, we see you're in the neighborhood. Stop in today cuz we r having a HUGE sale. The first 50 kids that stop in, show this text and use their cell to pay will get 20% off their entire purchase!! Oh and here's a map to help you find the store from your present location. Hope to c u soon!"



Last week a friend forwarded the article A New Way to Pay from the Minneapolis Star Tribune that highlighted new ways we will be able to pay for goods and services using our cell phones. If you've attended one of my presentations in the past couple of years you may recall that I too have been highlighting this newest form of currency.



As hard as it may seem, plastic (debit and credit) will soon be yesterday's news.



As the article points out there are certainly some benefits to this new way we'll pay: the increased speed of moving through a checkout line, instant-coupons based on our spending habits and preferences and lightening the load we carry in our wallet or purse (think plastic, cash, and coins). 



All good, right? Well, not so fast. There are a few things you'll want on your radar before signing on the bottom line - especially for your kids. First, studies out of Asia (where this technology has been in use for some time) suggest that when you use a phone to buy stuff, you spend 10 - 20% more than when you use plastic. To put this in perspective, when you use plastic to buy stuff you spend 10 - 20% more than when you use cash. Get the trend?



If you haven't mastered the art of living within your means, this new technology could be a rather unpleasant wake-up call. When you add finder-technology into the mix - that is the ability for a company to know your exact location using GPS-like technology - spending habits may quickly turn ugly.



Which demographic was the #1 acquirer of cell phones last year in the U.S.? Tweens or kids ages 8 - 12. Get the trend?