Stupid ideas come in all sorts of packages. Bad debt, various loans, purchase decisions, and delayed savings. Most people reach age of 65 with little or no savings. They live off social security and what little else they have. It is no wonder golden arches are filled with workers in their golden years.

Anything that wastes your money and prevents you from becoming debt free can be a stupid idea. The only way to save and invest money is to not send it to creditors each month. Only when it is yours to keep can you put it aside to work for you as hard as you have worked for it.

It is not your job in life to make your creditors rich. The goal is to make you rich. If you are going to make that happen, stay away from bad decisions. Decisions made in absence of good, or even any, information. Time pressured, desperate decisions are seldom made with enough information.

Anything that slows down spending and requires you to think twice before parting with your money is a good idea. Fill out a Purchase Checklist for any decision that requires spending more than what you have in your pocket. Some questions you need to answer: Cost; is it on sale; can you pay cash; where will money come from; do you know cost of credit if you don’t pay cash; with that cost added in is it still worth buying; is this a need or a want; could you justify this purchase to another person; and would you accept these reasons from someone else?

Stupid ideas abound when ignorance, greed and pride, (definitely not common sense triplets) form basis of your decisions. Ignorance is simply an absence of knowledge or information. Greed is nothing but wanting more than you should. Pride is caring what your neighbor. or someone you don’t even know, in an advertisement, thinks of you.