Tossing Aside: Are you wasting money and not realizing it?

In actuality, they’re just throwing money away and sit in amazement as to why they can’t save.

Being wasteful, to some, is arguable. If you can justify the spending or answer the “why,” then why not keep doing what you’re doing?

The real issue is that more than 50 percent of the population doesn’t have a savings account, no reserve fund and are lacking big time in the retirement part of their saving, if they have a retirement account at all.

That would suggest two things: you’re not saving at all or you’re not doing it properly. The “at all” part means you aren’t budgeting, nor are you paying attention to what you spend or how much you make and letting those two work together in harmony to equate to money saved.

The “not doing it properly” focuses more so on how you spend, and if you’re really being as smart with your money as you see it. Most people believe, when you poll a 100 random individuals, that they are smart with money. They want more of it, but can’t figure out how to do it without blaming a lack of income.

The trick is knowing how to spot waste with one quick glance.

Think about that cable bill, your gym membership or the food you buy at the grocery store and then throw away because you’re always ordering out.

If you want to know if you’re wasting money in a less tangible way, what about focusing on bank fees and interest rates, the latter being quite substantial when you think about just how much debt you have and if you’re credit cards are working hard against you. A $4,000 credit card debt at 20 percent interest will take you 23 years to pay off if you do the minimum payment of around $50 per month. You’d have to pay $230 per month to have that $4,000 translate into $7,000 total paid, versus the alternative, more than $20,000 if you keep on the minimum track.

Knowing if you’re throwing money away might be harder to spot then you think because you’re so used to doing it in some instances (such as the interest rates or the bank fees you get sporadically).

The closer you look, the more money you can save just by being diligent and not taking for granted just how easily you can miss out on saving.

Keep reading with: Why These After Christmas Sale Items Can't be Ignored