10 Money Mistakes You Can Easily Avoid

Today’s post is from our regular Wednesday contributor, Cat.

I regularly write about my own money mistakes, from the time I paid 3 rents in one month to my crushing student loan debt.

However, Im happy that Ive wised up over the past few years and have been able to help others avoid common money mistakes, like the ones Ive rounded up below.

1. Incurring Late Fees. Always set a reminder on your phone or create automatic withdrawals.

2. Not Having a Budget. Set one up today. It will only take you a few minutes, and you can use a simple excel spreadsheet or an online program.

3. Neglecting Your Company Match. Youve been meaning to update this with your HR department for months now, right? Its time to head over there and make sure that you are getting as much of that free money as possible.

4. Being Impatient About Your Savings. Just like anything worthwhile, building wealth does not happen overnight. Instead, celebrate the small victories, and take it one day at a time.

5. Loaning money to friends and family. This one can be debated, sure, especially if you are a parent who is helping their child. However, I know from experience that when you loan money to a friend, you probably wont get it back. We recently loaned $200 to a friend who was having a really hard time, but my husband and I agreed that it was more of a gift than a loan. We dont expect to ever get it back, and its better that way.

6. Playing the stock market like a wild child. Lots of people are interested in getting their investing feet wet, but its not something you should do unless you spend a considerable amount of time planning and learning about how it works.

7. Taking out too many student loans. I wish I would have avoided this mistake like the plague. As many of you know, my husband and I will have over $300,000 of student loan debt combined to pay back starting in two years. Weve done the best we can with living on less, but I definitely took out too much in my younger years.

8. Saving cash in buckets. Like, literal buckets. I have a family member who does not trust banks and keeps all his savings in cash in his house. This was a big problem when Hurricane Katrina hit, and he had to go back and look for his lifes savings. Always put your savings in a bank, preferably in a high yield savings account or other investments.

9. Choosing stocks because they are popular. Warren Buffet is famous for saying invest in what you know. So, just because someone on the news is talking about a new technology stock does not mean you should go out and buy it. Always take the time to research and understand your investments before taking the plunge.

10. Buying a home you cant afford.  People young and old often fall into the trap of lifestyle inflation. Its natural to want to upgrade your house, but if you cant afford it, its not worth the stress.

What are some other common money mistakes that people make?