Everybody is guilty of some money mistakes they’ve made in the past. It could be some sort of negligence that has set you back a huge amount of money. Or it could also be a simple disregard or inattention to the surrounding circumstances that has cost you additional expenses from the budget.
Here are some of those small money mistakes.
Not Keeping The Receipt
A receipt is kept for reasons other than proper accounting purposes. Aside from being proof of an expense for your books and ledgers, it serves as your proof that a merchandise is bought from a certain store. Before you could possibly return a defective item, store policy would require you to show a receipt or the warranty would be considered void. Imagine buying a defective laptop under 1-year warranty only for it to break down after a week – but due to your negligence, you could not have it replaced due to a missing receipt.
Buying Bulk Of Perishable Goods At 50% Off Only To Realize It’s Going To Expire By Next Week
Some grocery stores and supermarkets mark down snacks and other perishable goods which are nearing expiry date. Most shoppers who are eager to score discounts and save would grab everything by bulk – only to realize that these would not be safe for consumption after a week. Here’s a tip: don’t buy baskets of bakery sweets near their expiry date, no matter how tempting it is. Buy only what you can consume before their expiry because molds grow fast on them!
Purchasing High-End Gadgets Only To Use It On Basic Tasks
Consider it as a form of splurge-buying. That laptop with high-end specs looks so tempting. The salesperson told you it would make your life and day-to-day tasks easier because of its upgraded RAM and additional features. Weeks after, you’d realize that you do not really need all those specs. That’s a costly money mistake.
Selling All The Crashing Cryptocurrency Coins, Then Its Prices Skyrocket
This is one of the most common mistakes of beginner day traders. They get anxious over those falling prices and erratic chart movement. Remember when Bitcoin encountered a major crash back then only to recover and skyrocket in prices thereafter? Do your research first and don’t let your emotions click that ‘sell all coins’ on whatever crypto platform you are using.
Buying Something You Can’t Really Afford In The Long-Run
Buying a car is a whole new responsibility. Don’t look at the price of the car alone. Calculate the costs of insurance, financing/mortgage, interests, maintenance, and fuel as well. That’s how you can establish a realistic budget to buy a car.
Leaving A Balance On Your Credit Card
A credit card should help you in your living expenses when you run out of cash. Don’t make the mistake of reversing the scenario – that scenario when the credit card company earns a huge amount of money at your expense, in the form of interest.
Final Thoughts
Whatever these small money mistakes you’ve done in the past, make sure you learned a lesson or two from them. Mistakes are costly but they happen to teach you something. Some of these are not-so-minor mistakes. But consider it as a warning that grave consequences would follow if the amount of money involved is bigger and could cost almost all your investments!
