10 Bad Money Habits and How to Break Them
Contributing too little to your 401(k).
If you're putting only 3 or 4% into your company 401(k), you're behind. "Ten percent is the minimum for anyone in any situation," says Claire Emory, a financial planner in Arlington, VA. "But funding retirement is even more critical for women because they spend fewer years in the workforce, have longer life spans and earn less than men," says Emory. If you can't swing 10%, at least set aside enough to get the full employer match, if there is one-that's free money! Can't make the leap all at once? Consider bumping up your contribution by 1% a month until you get there. "It's better to take small steps you can handle than to feel overwhelmed," adds Emory.
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 Social Security check, among other things. "Even negotiating your salary just once can reap you more than $500,000 over the course of a lifetime," says Linda Babcock, an economist at Carnegie Mellon.
Carrying a balance on credit cards.
The average credit card balance in 2011 was $6,576, according to data from CreditKarma.com. With an average interest rate of nearly 17%, you'd rack up more than $1,100 in interest every year. So it's wise to live within your means and pay down your credit card debt, says Annapolis, MD, financial planner Ted Toal. Try the "snowball" plan: 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.
If you're putting only 3 or 4% into your company 401(k), you're behind. "Ten percent is the minimum for anyone in any situation," says Claire Emory, a financial planner in Arlington, VA. "But funding retirement is even more critical for women because they spend fewer years in the workforce, have longer life spans and earn less than men," says Emory. If you can't swing 10%, at least set aside enough to get the full employer match, if there is one-that's free money! Can't make the leap all at once? Consider bumping up your contribution by 1% a month until you get there. "It's better to take small steps you can handle than to feel overwhelmed," adds Emory.
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 Social Security check, among other things. "Even negotiating your salary just once can reap you more than $500,000 over the course of a lifetime," says Linda Babcock, an economist at Carnegie Mellon.
Carrying a balance on credit cards.
The average credit card balance in 2011 was $6,576, according to data from CreditKarma.com. With an average interest rate of nearly 17%, you'd rack up more than $1,100 in interest every year. So it's wise to live within your means and pay down your credit card debt, says Annapolis, MD, financial planner Ted Toal. Try the "snowball" plan: 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.
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