10 Bad Money Habits

I am guilty of each and everyone of these. Even though i have handled money matters since teenage years still i find it difficult many times to do the very thing you MUST do: saving money. Anyway, these i took from Yahoo: Financially Fit section.

Let us see what are the 10 bad money habits we may inculcate into ourselves:

1. Contributing too little to your saving
     The suggestion is to save some 10% of your take home salary. And we can start little first and eventually get to the percentage and perhaps with increase in salary, hike up the saving to higher percentage.

(i am really guilty of this for at this moment, i am unable to save at all...BUT i must now...my next salary will see to that and it is never too late to start anything!)

2. Keeping quiet at raise time
   Men are four times as likely as women to ask for a raise, according to a study from Carnegie Mellon University. If you don't ask, you don't get, and the vast majority of people who do ask get something, whether it's a salary bump or another type of incentive. The more often you ask for raises (within reason), the more money you stand to make in the long run, which translates to more retirement savings, more college savings for your kids and a higher KWSP saving (if this is applicable to you), among other things.

(alahai, i am really guilty, guilty and guilty...i never really get involved with this at all. i let other people do the talking and i just get a hitch from there. But i suppose is because i work in an establishment where everything is already structured? But yes, when thing like SBPA came about, CUEPACS did all the talking, yes? )

3. Carrying a balance on credit cards
    It's wise to live within your means and pay down your credit card debt. Suggestion: Pay the minimum balance on all of your credit cards except the one with the smallest balance-and put as much money as possible toward that one until it's paid off. Once that happens, take the money you were throwing at that card and put it toward the next-highest balance, and so on until everything's paid off.

(hmmm....i should try this....)

4. Using too many credit cards
    When you spread your purchases out over multiple cards, it's tough to rein in spending. "It's harder to be aware of where your money is going," says one financial advisor. Instead, you spend a few hundred dollars here, a few hundred dollars there, and at the end of the month you owe more than you expected. Using a bunch of cards also may hurt your credit score. So stick to one or two cards with no annual fee and a good cash-back program.

(uhuh! agree to this and luckily i don't do this.)

5. Spending money without tracking it
    More than a third of women spend more each month than they make, according to a survey by Financial Finesse. If you don't know where your money's going, you can't accurately plan to meet saving and spending goals. Paying attention to cash flow will make you more mindful of your purchases-and less apt to fork out dollars for yet another pair of shoes. Create an account on Mint.com and use it to track your day-to-day expenditures by category.

(right! i have always  and in fact diligently track where my money goes but there are times when i just let myself go because i am tired of being too calculative about money...maybe, i should try Mint.com and see what that is all about?)

6. Skimping on emergency savings
     If you lost your job tomorrow, how long would you be able to last on your savings? A month? A week? (Good question!) "An emergency fund is a must," says another financial advisor. You should have enough socked away (in a money market account, perhaps) to cover three to six months of living expenses-which should be less than three to six months of income, since income includes retirement contributions, taxes and money for unnecessary spending.

(i never put any thought about this at all. certainly, this needs to be thought, right?)

7. Skipping disability insurance
    Your chance of becoming disabled is far greater than your chance of dying before retirement. Start with disability coverage. That will usually cover 60% of your base salary, not including bonuses or commissions. Consider getting a policy that replaces less of your earnings should you become unable to work. Some income would be better than no income.

(hmm...what say you? I have not bought any...)

8. Saving for college over retirement
    It's great that you're putting money aside for your child's higher education. But if you're doing this instead of growing your retirement savings, you'll need to work for a long time to make up for it. remember: While there are a variety of ways for your child to pay for a degree-scholarships, grants, financial aid, part-time jobs-no one offers loans for your golden years. You should put at least 10% of your household income into retirement savings before you send the first cent toward college.

(Sounds reasonable to me. When we don't have enough now, how can we think of tomorrow? but of course, we always strive hard for the better...at the end, where is the reward? We put so much thought of our children way and above ourselves, but will they be thinking of us in later years? What did our parent do to us? Not many of us are privilege, born with silver spoon, many work very hard to be where we are...can we not teach the same to our children? Having said this, just because our parent did not provide us with money, we ignore them at their golden age? No...we don't. In fact, some cases, the one with silver spoon who always forget their parents! )

9. Buying high and selling low
    This is all about investing. The advice is not to get panic when there is a shift in market value, do not remove all the funds, for we might miss some when the market rebound.

(am not into investment like this, once bitten twice shy...that's me. i'll leave this to people who knows what is good for them and having lots of fund, perhaps? But i do know of few people who did investment without spending a cent of his own !)

10. Letting your significant other handle all the money decisions
      Many women aren't involved in every family money move. Day-to-day budgeting? Sure. Women are less likely to deal with big-picture items such as taxes, debt payments and investments. (i suka je....) The problem with that: What if your significant other is more aggressive with your money than you'd like to be? What if he's doing things that you don't agree with? If you're not checking in regularly, you're vulnerable if your spouse mismanages the family finances-or in a real mess if you get divorced or your spouse dies, since you won't know how to take over. Protect yourself by swapping roles periodically and having frequent money chats.

(hmmm....what if i am the one doing all the tough decision? I think i am not guilty of this issue. )