Thanks to the Consumerist blog for an awesome money post. I laughed, and then I winced. Their “10 Tips That Will Make Sure You Stay Broke” really work! Unfortunately, I can confirm that through personal experience with several of them (I won’t say which). (But I will say that #6 and I have met many times.) But the cycle can be broken! Turn it on its head, and you get some really good basic personal-finance advice. These are a few of my favorites:
3) Impress Your Friends By Buying Them Expensive Stuff You Can’t Afford.
If Betty registers a $10,000 silver platter for her wedding… you should get it for her. Yeah, so you went in to debt? Betty is your best friend . She’d do the same for you. What? You don’t want to look cheap !
6) Buy Lots and Lots of “Comfort Items” Without Considering The Cost.
You need your latte. You need your new shoes. You need Madden 08. You need a blu-ray player. You need cable. You need an iPhone. You need more DVDs. You need to buy a book instead of going to the library. You need to play a MMORPG . You need 150 shades of lipstick. You need to see every movie that comes out, then buy the poster and an action figure. You need to go to every concert. You need to buy the T-shirt. You need lots of brand new clothes every month. You need these things to be happy. If you don’t have each and every single one of them you will be so depressed that you may actually die. Don’t take the risk.
8) Run Up Lots Of Credit Card Debt Don’t worry, you’ll pay it off at some point. When? Um. When you make more money than you do now. Duh. Besides, if the credit card company says you can afford to take out $17,000 at 18% they must know what they’re talking about, right? They don’t want to lose their money!
10) Buy Your Children Whatever They Want
Your kid can’t go to school unless he/she is dressed in all the latest fashions. Also, he/she must have better toys than other children or you are a bad parent. Disappointment is bad for children. If children don’t get everything they want, it makes them bad at math. True story. Also, if you don’t sign your kid up for tons and tons of expensive classes and activities, he/she will fail at life and live under a bridge. And it will be your fault.
Frugality is a recurring theme among many of the personal-finance bloggers – and it’s not necessarily fun, but it can be very effective. These tips will not help with that at all.
