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In my blog post today, in honor of the holidays The Twelve Ways to Not Become a Millionaire Nurse. I list twelve common money mistakes. Totally a take-off on the song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas".

I know all of us have made money mistakes, both general and specific instances. What are your most common money mistake?

My general money mistake is not being a stickler with my budget. My wife and I are frugal by nature, so this is not a real problem for us, but we try to use Quicken to help with our spending plans.

My most significant specific money mistake was buying real estate with no money down five or six years ago-which is one of the reasons that I got involved in learning/teaching/writing about personal finance.

So what are your "general" and "specific" money mistakes that you can share in a family atmosphere such as "Cash Commons" so we can all learn from each other.

--Dr. Dean

edited Nov 28 at 15:58

mbhunter♦♦

community wiki

3 revisions, 2 users
Dr Dean 59%

	Dr Dean: I made this post "community wiki." It's a fine money question, but for questions that have a lot of right answers like this one it's better to have the question (and answers) CW. I'll add an explanation in the FAQ, but the big points are 1) there's a lower rep threshold for editing CW posts, and 2) you can't earn reputation from them, but you can earn badges. – mbhunter Nov 28 at 16:05
	I have been trying to figure out how to use the "community wiki" feature-this makes perfect sense, thanks. – Dr Dean Nov 30 at 2:41

mbhunter · Accepted Answer · 2009-11-28 15:57:21Z UTC

My biggest general money mistake is not taking a lot of measurements on my finances. I can see my mortgage balance going down and my retirement going up, and I know the approximate amounts of each, but more detailed than that and things are fuzzy.

My biggest specific money mistake is likely eating out too much. I do it less than I used to but it's the biggest area I can cut the fat (literally) out of my budget.

Frugallawyer · Answer 2 · 2009-11-28 16:28:50Z UTC

General

The Frugal Lawyer is pretty much all about this, so I will try to give a summary. I suffer from an severe case of Yuppie Whining that causes me to lose focus on paying off the Danielle Deficit. It's the "I work hard and make a lot of money and I deserve a treat now and then" syndrome. However,the treats are typically expensive and not necessary. Not while my unsecured debt is around $150,000.

Example of how you can diagnose Yuppie Whining: I just billed 200 hours this month and I don't understand why I can't go get X like everyone else. The Yuppie Whining will continue and continue until it morphs and I convince myself that X is a need and not a want. Then I get X and I crash and feel intense guilt. (Thank you Catholic high school for teaching me how to do guilt right!) Sometimes the item gets returned. Other times, I keep it and revere it like a false icon (Lacroix Dragonflies).

Specific

I am addicted to the guacamole at Qdoba which has led to a dependence on their burritos as carriers of that guacamole. I am proud to say that I've had no burritos this week. However, I went out on Black Friday, which I swore I wouldn't do and it was bad. That trip fulfilled my addiction to necklaces.

Dogfood Provider · Answer 3 · 2009-11-28 19:06:40Z UTC

Food. Yummy, delicious, prepared-by-someone-else, food. Accompanied by wine or beer, not too much, just one $9 a pop glass.

I eat out like it's my job. In fact, if anyone wants to hire a restaurant critic, would you please call me?

I also use my busyness at work as an excuse not to plan meals or bring my lunch, which leads to eating out for lunch. This is a particularly gnarly problem because the crap i get for lunch isn't usually like the foodie goodies I swoon for when I go out to dinner.

Woe is me, woe is me.

What is your most common money mistake or problem?

3 Answers