Comments on: Plug Your Financial Leaks

By: Gates VP

Gates VP — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:29:03 +0000

Hey Muzie;

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Jim makes a lot of posts on a pretty much daily basis. Personal finance is about both the big and the small things. There’s nothing wrong with a little “found money”.

Yeah, finding $100 / year is small potatoes to losing $10,000 / month. But nobody told you your investments were going to make money every month, right? If you want investing ideas, check out his previous post.

See a little bit of everything

By: jim

jim — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:46:39 +0000

I don’t think it’s awkward, you fix what you can fix. If you think investing is a bad idea, don’t invest and spend your money; I certainly won’t stop you. However, I would argue that everyone would agree that finding leaks beats letting them continue.

By: Muzie

Muzie — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:40:19 +0000

Isn’t it awkward to focus on financial “leaks” when most of us a financial torrent literrally gushing out of our collective investments?

I would prefer to see how this “prosperity blueprint” treats the case where perhaps investing isn’t going to pay off. Not likely, perhaps, but a blueprint is a blueprint.

I’ve found if the whole “investing” idea down’t work, then it kills the idea of “defer consumption to invest in your future” – a dollar spent now will always be worth more than a dollar spent in the future with inflation, unless investments come back in line.

By: Andy @ Retire at 40

Andy @ Retire at 40 — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 10:49:03 +0000

One thing I noticed the other week was that I had credit card insurance. Call me loopy but I pay it off every single month so I had absolutely no need for it. I got rid of that one quickly enough.

By: Mr. ToughMoneyLove

Mr. ToughMoneyLove — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:34:28 +0000

I think some of the “cures” for the financial leaks you describe can be worse than the disease. Using credit cards more often would be one example where you might not leak cash but you will likely spend more. If you are leaking money, you need to stop it at the source, not plug it.

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:18:15 +0000

One February I noticed a $40 charge on my card for a web music subscription I hadn’t used in 3 years. Every year it would renew itself and I never noticed it. Stopped that as quickly as I could.

Another big one is those free intro subscriptions you sign up for and forget to discontinue. You get charged for a while till you can figure out where to discontinue that service. This is why I don’t sign up for something like that anymore.

A goog suggestion is to increase your contribution to savings by the amount of the leak. If you can afford to pay $12 a month on a credit monitoring service you don’t use. Stop the service and save an additional $12 a month. It’ll add up so no amount is too small.

By: jim

jim — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 15:06:15 +0000

I’m a big fan of credit unions and I think the only reason why they’re not more popular is because they simply aren’t HUGE companies with a wide geographic reach. Outside of that, everything about them is better!

By: Funny about Money

Funny about Money — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 13:03:50 +0000

Good advice! I never use ATMs, partly for exactly that reason. And partly because cash flows through my fingers like sand through a colander.

IMHO, just about all bank fees are financial leaks. It’s outrageous that a bank should charge its customers for taking their money, investing it, and making a profit for the bank’s shareholders. Easy way to plug those leaks: move your money to a credit union.

Another financial leak — maybe too obvious to mention — is finance charges on a credit card. Never run a balance on a card. What a rip!