Member-only story
I’m not going to lie to you. I did the more wrong-than-right thing more times than I can count on two hands. Lucky for me, there are more important things in life than money, and I never starved. But there were definitely some major mistakes that shaped my life in small but significant ways.
1. Bankrupting myself to pay for a car.
It’s hard to believe that one bad decision cost me thousands of dollars, but I was dead broke after college. For months I lived off my credit cards and lived with my parents. I was proud of myself for working so hard and then going into debt to buy a car, but looking back the thing that really costs me money was buying a fancy car.
2. Joining a religion.
I was very excited to be a Mormon because I loved the idea of being part of a club (that was also trying to save my soul). They had nice snazzy suits, special numbers, and a really neat temple. The thing that really cost me money was not understanding the real purpose of life and searching for what the meaning of life is. As you can imagine, $500 per year in tithes and tithing payments started to get expensive.
3. Moving too much.
I moved a lot in my life, but it was the moving around that cut into my finances. If…
