What if money expired?

[BTC Economist]

Let's say money had an expiration date.  You had to spend it by a certain date or it would become worthless.  This would sorta be a built-in stimulus.  What do you think the effects of this would be?

[Hawker]

People would stop using money for savings and buy gold or some asset instead.

[imperi]

People would switch to currency that doesn't expire.

[Grant]

Let's say money had an expiration date.  You had to spend it by a certain date or it would become worthless.  This would sorta be a built-in stimulus.  What do you think the effects of this would be?

Exactly what we have in RL. (in some countries faster than others). This is the reason we have boom and bust cycles (or bubbles and recessions).

[The_JMiner]

Let's say money had an expiration date.  You had to spend it by a certain date or it would become worthless.  This would sorta be a built-in stimulus.  What do you think the effects of this would be?

When you think about it money does expire already.

Inflation little by little causes your money to be worth less and less.

In a Hyper-Inflation period this happens in the course of hours, read about hyper inflation and you'll see how people at work get a paycheck every 2 or 4 hours so they can go buy something with it before it becomes worthless. Scary....

[koin]

Let's say money had an expiration date.  You had to spend it by a certain date or it would become worthless.  This would sorta be a built-in stimulus.  What do you think the effects of this would be?

depends.  

i would try to not use that money, or if i already held that money i would, as quickly as possibly, use it to buy something that retains its value.

i suppose though, even spending that money on bitcoins, gold, silver and real estate is an economic transaction.

ha, interesting that within ten minutes of asking your question you got about ten answers all saying the same thing.

[Mittlyle]

Let's say money had an expiration date.  You had to spend it by a certain date or it would become worthless.  This would sorta be a built-in stimulus.  What do you think the effects of this would be?

There is some fancy name for this idea. As you can believe this has been proposed quite a while ago. I just don't remember the name now.

I think the idea is flawed because people who need storage of value will just buy stuff that will have stable price, in this case maybe gold. It would just make things more complicated and wouldn't stop people from hoarding value a bit.

[Sannyasi]

how about a currency that restarts it's life with every transaction- if it's saved long enough it will expire.

[tsvekric]

The only way that currency doesn't collapse is that we don't know when it will end.  If we knew the end of the world/civilization/currency you use, then it would become worthless VERY quickly.  One of the functions of currency is that it acts as a store of value, and without that - even if it stops storing in the distant future - it would just become one big game of hot potato.  You would be willing to pay more and more for goods since one day the currency will be worth nothing, so it creates hyperinflation.
One of the Zimbabwe dollars had expirations dates on them, I believe.  Look how well that turned out...

[Arrow]

Well obviously people would spend their money before it expired.

Personally I'd save less in cash and invest in things other things- education, energy-savings, land, etc.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't take nor spend said money.

[imperi]

This money sounds like gold that could rust.

[TiagoTiago]

if it's a same date for all money, i think it would get less and less valuable, and eventually people would rush to exchange it for things that would survive the cycle

[FreeMoney]

Since this money sucks I guess you'll have a lot of armed guards making sure no one ever refuses it and merchants will get constantly screwed taking money in the evening on the day of expiry. Sounds like the perfect tool for making society more violent and hateful, look for the US to roll it out in 6-12 months.