How Complacency Can Kill Your Financial Life

At the beginning of the summer, I thought I was on top of the world financially. I was just done with my junior year of college, had no debt to speak of, and a savings account that kept on piling higher. I subconsciously thought that maybe it was time to relax a little bit in my frugality. At the time I was only spending about $700 a month on food, rent, utilities, clothes, gasoline, and the like (the joys of living in South Dakota!). Frugality was king in my life, and my net worth just kept on going up!

I decided that I could live in a nicer apartment this summer, so I ended up paying $425 a month to live in a brand new house with some room-mates rather than stick with the other offer I had which was only $300 a month and still a nice living space none the less. I stopped writing a grocery list, because after all I was only spending $25-$30 a week on groceries anyway. At first things were just fine because I was spending a bit more money, but was working full time doing a summer internship.

I was still saving the majority of my income but my expenses seemed to keep going up month to month. I took more weekend trips, went out to eat a lot more and bought some new toys that I really didn't need (such as the dart board that's now sitting on my wall). It's not that I wasn't doing anything terribly stupid with my money, it's just that I wasn't making saving and wealth building a priority in my life in the slightest. I reasoned that I was probably one of the two or three wealthiest individuals in my senior class in college, and I was doing fine, so it didn't matter too much.

At the end of July, I took a look over my expenses to see how much I had spent the month before, and my previous $700 monthly expenses jumped up to $1,100! For most people, a $400 increase wouldn't be much, but we're talking about a college student that makes under $30,000 a year right now! That's a 57% increase in my monthly expenses in three months, ouch! I guess that's what being complacent about your finances gives you.

I decided to move back to the envelope system so that there would be no possible way for me to spend more than I had budgeted, and things seem to be the most part back on track. I could have easily been another $1000 ahead of where I am now had I not made some of the financial decisions I did this summer. Everything I did this summer was a ton of fun, but I think I'd rather be more frugal and have that $1,000 back.

The moral of the story is that you shouldn't let complacency get to you when you think you're doing fine financially. You have to keep doing very smart things with money to get ahead in the world.