My 3 Financial Guilty Pleasures

Financial Guilty Pleasures

In my business, you get a really unique perspective on how people view things. Especially when it comes to money and finances. One of the often funny things I get to witness is people’s financial quirks. The things that each of us do make us financially funny in a way. For some people, it is how they track every last expense. For others, it may be how close they are to a magic investment number like a million dollars.

I find it interesting to see what guilty pleasures or secret motivators each of us holds on to. I know one of my partners checks his bank accounts every day to look at all transactions. The other takes great pride in writing that 529 check literally every pay. Regardless of what your idiosyncrasies are keep them as they are part of what makes you unique.

I thought it would be fun for a blog to write what my 3 monthly quirks happen to be. Maybe you’ll have some of the same or perhaps it will get you thinking about yours. In any event here is a look into my odd little world.

High Yield Savings Account

The first thing I am obsessed with is my high yield savings account. I have written a few blogs on it through the years . I love the fact my www.liveoakbank.com savings rate is currently at 2.3%. I get such a guilty pleasure every few months when they raise their rates .05%. So much so I email half the office about this great news.

However, my favorite thing about this account is my monthly interest amount. Once the end of the month comes around I start checking every day to see what the total amount will be. Will it be higher than last month because I’ve added money or actually less because it’s stinking February and there are only 28 days of accrual? Will the amount get me to the next thousand dollar mark or even a round number?

I’m not sure what it is about this simple little thing that gets me excited. Whatever it is it does motivate me to keep saving cash.

Mortgage

My second guilty pleasure is my mortgage each month. Man do I obsess over this one. Every month when I make my payment I log in the very next day to see the statement. I even get annoyed if it falls on a Sunday and takes an extra day to show up. Once it gets there I open it up immediately and see how much extra my newest payment went towards principal compared to the previous month. Even though I already know the answer, $5 each month, it still takes up 15 minutes of my day. I’ll start dreaming of it paid off and seeing how much equity this means I have in my house just in case. Don’t get me started on the times I make an extra payment. Logging in that next month, to see the more than $5 pay down, is like Christmas in July!

Credit Card Points

My third and final guilty pleasure is those lovely credit card points. Boy do I get enjoyment out of seeing them accumulate each month. So much so I almost hate to use those precious little guys.
On one credit card I accumulate cold hard cash and the other is travel points. I log in and click around every month to see which categories were wrongly charged.

I’ll even call my wife and say, “why did you use the restaurant card on groceries?” As you can imagine she loves when my quarterly categories change! I have to create mnemonic devices for her to keep everything straight (this clearly isn’t my wife’s guilty pleasure). Let’s just say I married an angel. Those points are like gold to me and the pleasure I get from watching them accumulate is something only the deranged would enjoy.

People are strange

In the words of the late great Jim Morrison people are strange. Well at least I am when it comes to financial quirks. Guess I chose the right industry to have a career in. I would love to hear your financial oddities if you’d care to share.

Shoot me an email @ andrew@diversifiedllc.com and who knows it may make for a great follow-up article in the future!