Twelve Ways Not to Become a Millionaire Nurse REDUX

I told you I'd post about this earlier this week, and look, I'm actually doing it!  Dr. Dean's steps to avoid becoming a millionaire are quoted below, and I'll try my best to respond.

(1) Not paying attention to my money-no pending plan, budget, or clue of what to do.

Yeah, this is a big problem.  I'm improving on this one, working on my zero-based budget.

(2) Paycheck runs out before the month does.

See above - I'm working on this one.  But now the money is running out when I plan for it to run out.

(3) Buy/lease a new car.

Still paying off the 2004 Civic that I've had since 2007.  No plans to lease a car, ever, and, in 100K more miles or so, when I start thinking about another car, I'll be paying cash for it.

(4) Purchase any item without planning/study of item and how it fits into your budget.

Not anymore, no sireebob!

(5) Not having an emergency account.

Not anymore, no sireebob!  That balance will be up over $1,000 officially as soon as the ING transfer goes through.  There is already enough in there to count, but it's in separate accounts.  Now that I have $1,000 for emergencies, though, I really want to save another $1,000 for car related expenses.  And $800 to pay my car insurance in one lump sum next August rather than parceling it out . . . and so on.  :-)

• (6) Borrowing money for college, beyond bare minimum, and not being able to pay the student loans off quickly.  (Such a borrowing $100,000 for a job that pays $25,000/year-just doesn't make sense, but people do it all the the time.)

How about borrowing $100K for a job that pays about $40K?  Guilty as charged.

(7) Carrying a balance on a credit card.

Working on getting rid of these!  Paid off the Best Buy and the Belk's charge.  Closed the Best Buy and the Chase cards (they were already at zero, have been for a while), and will close the Belk soon.  Progress, progress.  Baby steps.

(8) Forgetting those once per year bills and not saving for them-such as insurance, or taxes.

See question (5)!  I'm budgeting for these items, but it is just so much easier to sock the cash away in ING.  I'm happier with it out of my credit union checking account.  I have never had to pay on tax day, I usually get a small refund or nothing at all, so taxes aren't a big worry.  The Civic is - I worry about new tires, new breaks, new whatevers.  I am going to have to save for that.

(9) Shopping without a list/plan.

I'd say 7 times out of 8, I do not do this at the grocery store.  In fact, I wandered into the shwanky grocery store and cheated on my beloved Aldi the other day, and promptly dropped $40 on what would have cost less than half of that at Aldi.  Sigh.  Aldi's not open 24 hours, though, you see, and I needed sweet potatoes and squash right that instant.  I do not let myself wander unsupervised and depressed through Target anymore

(10)Eating out/fast food daily.

But I love to eat out!  I confessed it on Ca$h Commons, too.  I'm working on this, but I can say for now just that I don't eat out daily.

(11) Borrowing money for routine purchases-not saving and paying cash forthe new "blank" that you really need.

Nope.

(12) Not saving money for retirement, and building wealth.

Getting rid of my credit card debt first, then I can start to save for retirement.  With my credit cards' interest rates where they are right now, my best investment is paying them down.

(13) Wasting time-TV, online, video games, reading celebrity mags.

I love to decompress online, but my doc and I agree that I need to find some ways to decompress that include moving more than my fingers.  Got to work on this.  :-)

Great thought experiment, Dr. Dean, thanks!