I have previously railed against the concept of the Bucket List with Buck the Fucket list. Someone on the web brought up the concept of the Anti-Bucket list. A list of things that you never want to do. I can wrap my mind around this idea, as due to my paranoid nature, I have a long list of things I never want to do (e.g. Pick a fight with Mike Tyson) or a financial anti-bucket list.
What things financially do I never want to do (or ever do again)? I will try to keep this list shorter and hope you all will join in with comments.
The Anti-Bucket List
- Declare bankruptcy, no matter what anyone says about how there is less stigma around declaring bankruptcy, I don’t ever want to do it.
- Get a Pay Day Loan, yes, I am still harping on that one as well. If I reach the point where I need this service, I am not sure what happened to me, but I will be very unhappy. I won’t have a point for get a loan from a Loan Shark. Assume this is the same entry on the list.
- Buy a new car that cost more than my first house, I don’t care how many hot women will throw themselves at me because of my phenomenal vehicle (because they assume I am rich), I view a vehicle as a means of transit only (although the bus I took for a while cost twice as much as my first house).
- Collect unemployment insurance, I am not sure this is genuinely on the list. I was unemployed for a year, and was never “eligible” to collect it. I suspect I never will collect EI, just by default.
- Get a reverse mortgage. I just can’t see how this would be a good idea either.
Are there other things we should be adding to the Financial Anti-Bucket list?
I never want to use my credit card when its avoidable. To me they are evil but also necessary!
For everyone:
Purchase mortgage life insurance. Run a credit card balance. Buy a new car at more than 0% interest. Buy penny stocks. The list goes on…
+1 – Buy something under pressure. I WILL always take time no matter how good the deal, when parting with my money. +2 – Never sell an asset when I feel panicked. I have enough financial history now in me to know I should never fear when everyone else is fearing. I’m very proud of this learned response. +3 – Will never enter a financial transaction without knowing full well what I am doing. +4 – Will never use welfare… there are always other alternatives. All your others I like too, except for the EI thing, as I did use it when I stopped working, so maybe that means since now that I’m still not, I’ll never be able to collect it? – Cheers.
I think it should have read, Not Get Laid Off (again). More Good points.
Purchase whole life insurance.
Take out a home equity line of credit in order to pay for things like vacations and weddings, or because I have paid for things like vacations and weddings and now need the HELOC to be able to renovate the house.
Now that is putting on your thinking cap.
May not have as much dramatic flair, but I hope I never ever have a late payment on a credit or loan facility. For some people, this happens because of limited resources; many though are from forgetfulness or lack of common sense
I have done that through forgetfullness, but if you usually pay on time (and have for the past 2 years) normally if you call the credit card company they will wave the late fee for this time only.
I did this once by accident. I had just gotten back from a vacation in Europe and was still groggy from the jetlag when I paid my credit card bill through web banking. I managed to send the $3200 to the phone company. The mistake wasn’t discovered until our next credit card bill came in.
I now make sure that I triple-check who the payment is going to, at each step of the payment 🙂
I do that a lot paying from the WRONG account and thus pay my day to day bills from my Savings (high service charges) instead of my chequing (free bill paying), very annoying.