Separation of Church and State

I'm pretty sure that when the game of telephone was invented, this idea wasn't part of the plan. The New York Times had a recent article in the Sunday Edition entitled "Cellphones As Credit Cards? Americans Must Wait" that examines the crazy idea of using one's cellphone as a credit card. Like you just wave your phone over the little speedpay thingy at the gas station, even if you are on the horn with Mom.

This can and will create so many problems I don't even know where to begin.

The marriage of mobile applications with personal finance is all fine and good if you're just reviewing your online banking and whatnot. But all I can think of as I imagine paying for groceries with my Blackberry is the shifty folks who will then have access to my banking and credit card information. I don't open my personal finance kimono that frequently, and now I'm pretty sure I won't be enabling hackers to slurp up my financial information via Blackberry.

Because there are so many players who must agree on how to split the revenue of this sort of endeavor, it will take awhile to become more than a stupid idea. The bigger concern here should truly be focused on security. Your average Joe Consumer won't buy into this technology unless that piece of the puzzle is tried and true.

I'm a big proponent of keeping my music and phone from mingling together; maybe someday I'll get an iPhone and not feel weird about it. For now, I think I'll keep my cellphone and personal finances from having a torrid love affair. Keep it simple.