While sure, insurance can help you, but it doesn’t help any potential money mistakes that you could be making. There may not be a cut and dry answer to what is right and wrong, as everyone makes different amounts of money and have different financial goals, but across the board, if you can build up an emergency fund of a few months’ worth of expenses to give yourself a cushion, getting out of debt, while saving for the future you have a good start, but look to avoid a few behaviors that could set you back.
Trying to Keep Up
Sure, we have all heard the old saying about jumping off a bridge would you do it too, but I guess sort of the same thing goes when it comes to finances. You don’t know everyone’s finances behind closed doors, from what the salary is, to what expenses are, not to mention how much debt they’re in, so just because your friends or family are throwing around money, doesn’t mean that you have to as well. Keep in line with your budget and make sure your own finances are on track.
Paying Credit Card Interest
Credit cards are great in the fact that you can charge up and not pay until next month, but if you’re not careful that balance can get out of control and you could have trouble paying by the due date. If that’s the case and your carryover a balance, you will begin to pay interest, which depending on the card could be as much as 16% APR, and depending on how high the balance is, could start to add a significant monthly payment until the balance is gone, provided you pay more than the minimum to get rid of it more quickly.
Missing Out on Company-Matching 401k
Retirement may be decades away but that doesn’t mean you should avoid thinking about it until later on. The earlier you start to save, the more it has to grow over time and the more you are left with to continue to enjoy life when you finally do walk away from work. While you should increase contributions every year to maximize savings, don’t miss out on taking advantage of any company-matching contributions that would be leaving free money on the table if you otherwise didn’t use it. That could be tens to hundreds of thousands of decades from now!
Not Taking Advantage of Credit Card Rewards
I understand the resistance to use credit cards for some that may have a spending problem and don’t want to risk going into debt, but if you can keep spending within your budget, using a credit card for all purchases can actually make sense when it comes to rewards, points or dollars that you can earn just by making the purchases you were going to make anyways. Not taking advantage of that would be leaving free money on the table, adding up to hundreds to thousands a year depending on how much you spend and the significance of the rewards card.
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