NAPLES, Fla. - Imagine life without credit cards and loans.
Some worry if the nation's credit crisis isn't fixed soon, we could be headed down that road.
Others remember when that was normal..
Today, we talked with people who remember life when cash was all their families used.
While some say it has its pluses, others say it would only hurt now.
"If you didn't have cash, you didn't buy something that you couldn't afford," Virginia Nee says of her childhood.
"In those days, there was no such thing as a credit card," Linda Erbstein adds. "Everything was cash. It was only what you could afford."
But, in the days of credit, spending money on high ticket items, even if you could not really afford it didn't matter to many.
"People are living beyond their means," Erbstein says.
Now, with the current credit crisis, loans to buy homes or cars aren't as easily available, and may only become harder to get.
Some even think we may be heading backwards to a cash-only economy, and that is frightening to some who lived it first hand.
"People start losing their jobs and there's no credit afforded by banks, we're gonna be in a serious, serious situation," Nee says.
"You can't have a cash society. It's not going to work today. People have to have credit," Erbstein adds.
Some say the problem is they just have to learn how to handle it.
"I think the issue isn't credit cards versus cash, but how you plan to manage your life and manage your budget. Whether you choose to live within your means or not."