In this confessional podcast mini-series, I talk about financial errors I have made based on my 13 Dumb Things I Did With Money Post. This episode covers why I didn't save. Click here to download. Click hereto add this podcast to your Itunes.
This recent article on how Plasma TVs are selling for more units at a lower price, raised an interesting question of when should one go out and buy new technology. I provide my thoughts on the issue in this podcast. Click here to add this podcast to your itunes.
“Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment.”
This is my first Thursday Thirteen Post on Bargain-Value. Today, I’m going to provide a brief summary of what I’ve learned through the school of hard knocks, by highlighting 13 financial bloopers I’ve made in the hopes that others would learn from them. I'll also be releasing podcasts on them in the next few weeks, so stay tuned.
1) Spending Everything
Savings is a habit I had to learn through painful lessons.
2) Not Getting Started with a 401 (k) immediately.
I was scared of my job going away, so I didn’t save anything, losing key years in the retirement battle.
3) Not reading the fine print when the health insurance plan changed.
A painful and ugly lesson.
4) Buying Cash Value Insurance while trying to pay off my credit card.
A light went on and I realized I was making a poor investment while trying to get rid of debt.
5) Going broke when moving into our new house:
Saving just enough to cover what I thought would be necessary expenses turned out to be a huge mistake when a double whammie hit.
6) Making purchases based on a grocery club membership.
I got clubbed over the head with my Green Points membership.
7) Turning down a good job
I was making “good money”, but was offered a chance to apply for a job in my field and like an idiot turned it down.
8) I Didn’t Realize What I Had
While others built blog empires, I was too busy being a sucker and failing to take advantage of the new technology I had at my disposal.
9) I Bought a Lotto Ticket
I was young and stupid, but at least I didn’t get taken for much.
10) I Bought a Used Camera from Overseas
There’s a right way to use Ebay and then there’s buying a cheap used camera from Hong Kong.
11) I Didn’t Take Care of a Minor Car Problem
And it became a major car problem.
12) I Was a Sucker
The dog ate the camera and more in my crazy adventures with Don Cyphers.
13) I Beat Up My Books
College Textbooks can be bought back, however when you carelessly abuse your books, that $80 textbook you bought becomes a $10 buyback.
I'll be doing a series of podcast in which I will detail each of these mistakes and why they were poor judgments and what the right thing to do is. Click [I]here to subscribe via I-tunes.