While sure, the bottom line is important when the month comes to and end, seeing how much you have left in your account after all the bills are paid, which hopefully there is more coming in than going out, but you could be jeopardizing yourself by skimping in some areas but still continuing with unnecessary spending in other areas. As you continue to make tweaks to your household budget, think about not only your short-term but long-term goals as well so you can strive to be financially independent and continue to enjoy life’s experiences well into retirement.
Not Building an Emergency Fund
You never know what will happen so it’s best to be as prepared financially as you can. As far as you know your finances can be in good shape throughout the month when all of a sudden you get hit with a significant vet bill or appliance repair that you have no choice but to put on the credit card and go into debt as you carry the balance over month to month with interest. By saving up a few months’ worth of expenses you can give yourself a nice financial buffer in case of emergency.
Putting Off Saving for Retirement
Retirement may be decades away but that is no reason to continue to put off saving. Sure, your priority now is now putting money aside every paycheck for something you won’t see for thirty years, but the earlier you start saving, not only will you get used to it leaving your account and can hopefully gradually increase contributions each year, but you’ll have more time for your retirement balance to grow year after year. With your extra savings you can make sure that your family can not only afford medical care, but other living expenses, and not to mention traveling, that you hopefully will now be able to carryout without work tying you down.
Only Buying Items on Sale
Looking for deals is a great way to pinch pennies, but sometimes going only after sale items is a way to purchase items that you would not have bought in the first place. Take coupons for example, clipping them out of the Sunday paper can highlight items on sale that week and spark you to purchase because they’re $2.00 off, but if they were not on sale you would probably would not have bought in the first place.
Making Minimum Credit Card Payments
Credit card debt gets the best of us at times, but it’s how you climb out and hopefully never repeat the same mistakes that helps you to grow financially, so carrying a balance and only making the minimum payment will sure keep your payments low to satisfy the account, but will do little to the balance and probably take tens of years to finally rid yourself of the balance. Since credit card interest can be upwards of 16% APR, getting out of credit card debt and putting your hard-earned income towards other areas of importance can then be your next priority.