I am not a financial advisor nor am I CPA; I’m just a girl who made some money mistakes and want to share it with you. Please read my full privacy policy, disclaimer, and terms and conditions.
Now that I’m debt free, I feel like I’ve regained control of my money. I’ve been analyzing my past spending habits and have realized some mistakes I made my first year of working full-time.
Although I paid off my student debt, there were some mistakes that I made. I’m trying my best to not to be so hard on myself because I have accomplished such a huge milestone. I mean, I paid off my debt, so I did something right. I still have some room to grow though.
After all, we’re constantly learning.
I want to point out my mistakes, so that when you are on your financial freedom journey, you don’t make the same mistakes I did.
RELATED POSTS
- Let’s Get Real: Student Debt
- How I Tackled My Student Debt Straight Out of College
- How I Paid Off $20,000 of Student Debt in One Year During My 20’s
MONEY MISTAKES I MADE
Didn’t create a budget
Since I lived at home, I didn’t really have many expenses. I only focused on making sure I had enough money for my biweekly student debt payments. Although I made sacrifices while paying off my debt, I didn’t put much thought into saving the majority of my disposable income that was left over after my debt payments. This led me to overspend on shopping and food, and not saving as much as I could have.
I would literally go to the grocery store and spend $200+ on food every other week. I would also spend so much money on eating out and splurging on shopping.
With my retirement and other savings combined, I should have way more than I actually do.
With this being said, you should always create a budget for yourself from the start. This is something that I will be working on.
I want to try doing a no-spend challenge, which I’ve heard many people successfully accomplish.
Financial Youtube Channels:
I’m currently on the hunt for some new financial Youtubers and bloggers, so comment some of your faves!
Didn’t track my spending
This goes a bit hand in hand with the mistake above. I didn’t track my spending. Since I didn’t track my spending, I didn’t have a clear picture of where the majority of my money was going. This is important because you don’t realize how much your little purchases add up. When you learn where your money is going, you can see which categories you can spend less in.
I am now using the app, Mint, to track my spending and create a budget. I’ll let you know how I like when I put more use into it.
How do you like to track your spending? Is it through an app or by hand?
Didn’t put away my credit cards
Oof. This one is an important one. I would constantly swipe my credit cards because of the points and incentives. I also knew that my limits were high, so I didn’t have to worry about “having enough in my bank account”. This mentality is bad because I found myself at the end of the month having to pay off high credit card statements. It became a cycle each month.
Do not make this mistake. If you have credit cards, make sure to pay it off each transaction you make. For instance, if you spent $300 on your credit card for one transaction, make sure to pay that off the same day. This will give you a good picture of how much money you actually have. It will help you keep track of your money, not overspend, and get your points and incentives. Use your card responsibly. If you can’t, put them away!
Credit cards are dangerous when you’re not conscious about it.
Didn’t pretend to make less
You can probably see a pattern here, but my mentality changed when I started to make more income. I received my first job and I was making way more than I ever did in my life. I wanted to have fun with my money and celebrate my hard work by splurging on the things I wanted. My savings account was not getting the love it deserved.
Instead of splurging every dollar you have on your wants, pretend that you’re making less. Put your extra income in savings and save up for the things you want instead of buying them right away. Discipline yourself.
SUMMARY
Now that you’ve read through the money mistakes I made during my financial freedom journey, here is a quick outline of what you can start doing.
- Create a budget
- Track your spending
- Put away your credit cards
- Pretend to make less
AFTERTHOUGHTS
If you made money mistakes before, don’t beat yourself up for it. You can’t change the past, but you can work on a better future. When it comes to money, you’re constantly learning and evolving.
It’s ok to make mistakes, BUT if you are just starting your financial journey please keep these mistakes in mind. I want you to learn from the mistakes I made, so you don’t go through the same things I did.
Thank you for reading through my blog post. If there’s any topics you want me to write about, comment them down below!
