Personal finance management site Geezeo is running a neat little section where people can leave their “money confessions.” Here’s some of the best so far:
What things are you doing with your money that make you feel guilty? Leave your confessions in the comments.
Money Confessions [Geezeo]
(Photo: robinryan)
My main financial sins are buying shiny electronic stuff I don’t really need. That and I’m eyeing a new car despite the fact that my car works perfectly fine and only has 50k miles on it.
@karenw: OK, you lost that job and maybe made some mistakes. But that doesn’t make you a bad person. Anyone that thinks you’re a failure is a jerk and who needs those guys, right?
I ignored the investments/roth IRA?stocks my late father gave me for so long the statements were still coming to my mom’s house five years after I moved out. I finally kicked myself sufficiently hard in the ass in December to actually at least consolidate them in one place and get the statements set to me …so I can ignore them now without my mom noticing.
I also haven’t balanced my checkbook in years, I keep track of my money in my head to the nearest $5. I’m surprised sometimes that I have yet to not cover something, and the only times I’ve bounced a payment is because my bank failed to process a deposit on time (a check drawn on one of your own accounts, paid into another of your accounts should not take a week to clear).
I don’t directly put any money into savings. I’ve managed to compensate slightly for this by budgeting high for variable bills (cell phone, etc) and letting the excess roll into savings when the bill is lower. But it is way less then I *should* be putting aside.
I just don’t get the whole concept of money “sins”; Its as if being responsible about your money is something you “should” do as a “good” grown up to satisfy some unknown authority figure. Guess what? You are a grown up and no one other than your spouse and dependents care if you handle your money responsibly or not, and if you feel like blowing it all and not saving a penny then party on. Just don’t whimper too loudly 30 years from now when you are trying to figure out how to stretch your social security check to pay the rent on your studio apartment in the worst part of town plus pay for your meds and still buy something to eat other than catfood.
This thread has made me feel so much better about my level of savings, debt and my retirements accounts.
I feel like I’m on FARK.com. This is an awesome thread. Consumerist should do this once a month. My sin? Not balancing my “checkbook” and trusting the bank too much.
When I go to the grocery store, on the way out we pick up some pizza from their deli. We get home, put up the groceries, and then eat a few slices of cheap pizza. It’s an expense, but not as bad as ordering any kind of delivery : )
I find it far too easy to justify big expenses and put off savings. I do need a new car, but do I need it NOW? Our tv is terrible and doesn’t even have two speakers, but do we need a new one now since this one still works?
My gut reaction is yes, but thankfully my husband talks me out of it.
I pushed back paying my rent until today so that I could buy new clothes over my holiday trip last month.
And I buy all my alcohol with cash so that I don’t have to see how much I spend on it in my budget.
@meiran: I try to eat before going grocery shopping, that way I buy less junk food.
My wife handles most of our finances, and I don’t look at the books as often as I should.
Fortunately, she’s amazing at it, and does a better job than I ever could.
(Marrying a math teacher was a good move…)
Hey Ben, Thanks for the post about Geezeo Money Confessions!
And thanks to all the readers that have recently visited Geezeo to check out this new feature. Seems like everyone is enjoying it!
I also wanted to let everyone know that you can also follow the anonymous confessions on Twitter at [twitter.com]
Thanks again for the support!
Pete Glyman
Co-Founder, Geezeo
[geezeo.com]
looks like the twitter address got reduced…the twitter profile is “moneyconfession”
Willfull ignorance.
I have so fully convinced myself that I am frugal and good with money because I’ve nailed all the big stuff that I refuse to acknowledge the white elephant in the mailbox. My wife and I manage to put about 3k a month on the credit cards (which we pay off in full), but refuse to look into it any closer because we don’t want to have to restrain ourselves on the little things (that clearly add up quickly).
We contribute 8% of our salaries or so into our 401Ks, but beyond that we have very little savings and consider our home equity line of credit as our “emergency” money. I have a dreadful feeling that this is somehow going to come back and bite us some day.
About two years ago I was stupid and spontaneously bought a car on my birthday. I found out I got a horrible deal (first time buying a new car myself). I felt guilty and paid off the car asap to minimize how much interest I would be paying over the lifetime of the loan.
Since that mistake, I have read books on investing and stocks. I have been contributing 5% (max percentage matched by company) to my 401k ever since I got my job and recently opened a roth IRA.
Overall, I’m not doing too bad now, but the thing that scares me now is when I empty my online savings account for a down payment on a house. *yikes*
The way I see things now is: money is like life… could be better, but could be a lot worst.
I bring my lunch to work to save money, but drop $3-4 dollars on coffee or kombucha almost everyday. I feel like I have to bribe myself to go to a job I don’t like very much