Posted on: 09 May, 2004
Author: David Wilding
... ideas come in all sorts of ... Bad debt, various loans, purchase ... ... savings. Most people reach the age of 65 with little or no savings. They live off ... Stupid ideas come in all sorts of packages. Bad debt, various loans, purchase decisions, anddelayed savings. Most people reach the age of 65 with little or no savings. They live off socialsecurity and what little else they have. It is no wonder the golden arches are filled with workers in their golden years. Anything that wastes your money and prevents you from becoming debt free can be a stupid idea.The only way to save and invest money is to not send it to creditors each month. Only when it isyours to keep can you put it aside to work for you as hard as you have worked for it. It is not your job in life to make your creditors rich. The goal is to make you rich. If you are going to make that happen, stay away from bad decisions. Decisions made in the absence of good, or even any, information. Time pressured, desperate decisions are seldom made with enough information. Anything that slows down spending and requires you to think twice before parting with yourmoney is a good idea. Fill out a Purchase Checklist for any decision that requires spending more than what you have in your pocket. Some questions you need to answer: Cost; is it on sale; can you pay cash; where will the money come from; do you know the cost of credit if you dont pay cash; with that cost added in is it still worth buying; is this a need or a want; could you justify this purchase to another person; and would you accept these reasons from someone else?Stupid ideas abound when ignorance, greed and pride, (definitely not the common sense triplets) form the basis of your decisions. Ignorance is simply an absence of knowledge or information.Greed is nothing but wanting more than you should. Pride is caring what your neighbor. orsomeone you dont even know, in an advertisement, thinks of you.So, understanding there is no winner in the contest to see who is the most stupid, here are some thingsto avoid in your financial life. Bad Debt. Defined as any debt other than a home mortgage, education loans and some businessdebt. Bad debt should be avoided. If you have it, getting rid of it should be your number onepriority. Then get rid of your other debt. The more money you can put away as opposed tosending to your creditors will make a dramatic difference in your financial progress.These particular types of bad debt need to be avoided at all costs. Auto title Loans Payday Loans Rent To Own Stores 125 Loans Credit Cards Pawn BrokersIf you find yourself even considering using any of these call a friend and have them talk you out of it.Other bad ideas include some of our habits. This is not moralizing here, just a hard look at howbad habits drain your financial resources. Smoking, alcohol consumption, buying coffee and adonut on the way to work, lunches at work, and anything else which has become a habit can costyou a tremendous amount of money per month. Money you could be putting away. Make a fastcalculation of what you spend each day on these habits. Then times it by the number of workingdays in a month (usually around 22). This is the money you waste each month. You need to put itin your pocket not someone elses. And lets face it, you will feel better too.There are plenty of people willing to benefit from your stupid ideas and bad decisions. If you find you have already embraced some of these stupid ideas, change your choices. Dont compound your mistake. If you make a stupid decision, you dont need to stick with it. Learn from it and move on. Decide if you are going to have some burned fingers or a ruined life. Live and learn from the burned fingers, let someone else ruin their life.David Wildinghttp://www.debtattack.comTake Care Of Your Debt BeforeIt Takes Care Of You Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com