Finances

Five Ways To Ruin Your Financial Life

April 7, 2009 by LuluGal in Finances with 9 Comments

Part of the challenge over at ProBlogger is to write a list post. Today I will be showing you five easy ways to ruin your financial life!!!

Don’t have an Emergency Fund
Don’t pay your bills on time
Don’t have a budget
Don’t use online savings accounts
Don’t use free services

If you follow the five tips listed above you are well on the way to making your financial life a nightmare in the future, especially with the state the economy is in right now.

Don’t have an Emergency Fund

If you do not have an emergency fund then when something happens you are left scrambling for money. You might end up putting things on credit cards that you are unable to pay off and this makes your money balance go out of sync.

Don’t pay your bills on time

Sure you can pay that electric bill on time…or you can ignore it for a few days. After all the reconnection fee is small right? Paying your bills late causes you to have late fees that really not necessary and could well be money saved.

Don’t have a budget

Budget schmudget! Budgets are for boring people who have no lives right. Actually, having a budget simply tells you where your money is going so that you can plan better. You might be surprised to find out that you are spending way more than you think when you track your money with a budget.

Don’t use online savings accounts

Online things are scary. I need to have a bank I can walk into and talk to people. None of this online banking for me!

Online banks usually tend to have higher savings interest rates so you can get more bang for your buck than at traditional brick and mortar banks.

Don’t use free services

Oh I have had this account since I was in college so why should I change it now?

If your local bank is charging you to write checks, get your balance and use the ATM then it is NOT your friend! Get a free checking account and save those fees. They add up over time.

Conclusion

If you really want to make a mess of your financial life then go ahead and follow the five tips listed above. You will be well on the way to mucking up your credit score and your bank balances by being careless with simple things that only take a little bit of time to work on.

However, if you can do the opposite of those things then you are setting a foundation for financial betterment as you will be able to manage your money and grow your wealth.

Tagged Finances

9 Comments

The WeakonomistApril 7, 2009 at 10:25 amReply
Common sense never looked so good. It’s amazing how much you can accomplish by writing this down. If you have trouble with this seriously write it down and put it in your wallet or checkbook or something.
The Weakonomist’s last blog post..How Twitter Makes Money
KellyApril 9, 2009 at 7:06 pmReply
Great list post!
I’m participating in the 31 day challenge as well, great stuff!
Just an FYI you are missing a space on #2.
Kelly’s last blog post..Centsible Life in Carnival of Pecuniary Delights
- LuLuGalApril 10, 2009 at 7:39 amReplyAuthor
  Thank you…fixed it.
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MoneyEnergyApril 21, 2009 at 12:15 pmReply
Nice list, of these five I’d have to say the emergency fund is most important. And although I bank online, I don’t use a fully “online bank,” so that is something I should also look into. But I don’t want to have too many accounts either. I’d advise people to keep things simple.
MoneyEnergy’s last blog post..How Should You Spend Your Tax Refund?
- LuLuGalApril 21, 2009 at 2:02 pmReplyAuthor
  If you need an ING referral (you get $25 bonus and I get $10 for referring you) just let me know.
  I firmly believe that once you go ING you never go back.
  You keep the number of accounts that work for you. I do like to keep things simple but the multiple savings are for various savings goals and I find it easier to track this way.
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