Done To Zen

John Cain over at SavingAdvice listed the seven deadly sins of personal finance. I thought it might be interesting to see how I’m doing in each of the 7 areas.

7. Failure to track expenses

I have never tracked expenses until I purchased my house. But then again, I was saving 95% of my salary. I was still living with my parents, so I think my expenses were less than $100 a month. But all this changed once I bought my house. Now, my expenses are significantly larger. However, I haven’t been tracking them as I should have been. While I know where I wasted money, I don’t have the exact dollar amounts. I’m trying to get better by creating a budget and actually sticking to it. Rating: 5 out of 10.

6. Emotional shopping

The only shopping I ever do is for e-books, which cost around $6. I purchase books on the spur of the moment, but this is very rare. Rating: 9 out of 10.

5. No savings

No problem in this area, though I could get better at budgeting so I can save even more. :-) Rating: 9 out of 10.

4. Failure to comparison shop

I think I do this, but (next to my house) my biggest purchase amounted to $30, maybe, so there isn’t much comparison shopping to do. I did get to tell people about exactly what I wanted for birthday gifts, though, and I think in one case I had them spend too much for something I don’t use enough, but otherwise, I usually do OK. Rating: a tentative 8 out of 10.

3. Paying for things you don’t use

Usually, I only pay for things I use. I can think of only two cases in my entire life where I bought something that I ended up not using much, but they did cost a lot (I didn’t buy them), so: Rating: 8 out of 10.

2. Nickel and diming

I eat out a lot. Does that count? Rating: 8 out of 10.

1. Failing to set priorities

I have a big-time problem in this area. I have “goals” in the back of my mind and tend to do whichever of them suits my mood. I’m working on it though. Rating: 6 out of 10 (because all my goals are “good enough” that it doesn’t matter so much which of them I work on).

Overall Rating: I think 7.5 - 8.5 out of 10.

What about you?