{"id":85627,"date":"2025-08-21T18:54:27","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T18:54:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/85627\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T18:54:27","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T18:54:27","slug":"6-everyday-money-habits-that-quietly-destroy-your-wealth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/85627\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Everyday Money Habits That Quietly Destroy Your Wealth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When we think about wealth<\/a>, we tend to think mostly about building and maintaining it. But we need to look at the other side of the equation, too \u2014 losing wealth. It\u2019s easier to do than you think, and you could be losing wealth regularly with no idea that you\u2019re doing so. GOBankingRates spoke with financial experts to learn about wealth-destroying mistakes people make<\/a> every day, without even knowing it.<\/p>\n

Learn More: The No. 1 Key To Wealth, According To Wahei Takeda, the \u2018Warren Buffett of Japan\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Read Next: 9 Downsizing Tips for the Middle Class To Save on Monthly Expenses<\/a><\/p>\n

Got an iron-clad budget<\/a> in place to help secure your financial future? Great! But are you also meticulously managing and monitoring your daily expenses? If not, you\u2019re likely living paycheck to paycheck or even losing wealth.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany misjudge their expenses or don\u2019t keep an eye on their spending patterns,\u201d said Steven Kibbel, certified financial planner (CFP) and senior editor at InternationalMoneyTransfer.com. \u201cThe \u2018leak\u2019 may impede attempts to increase wealth. You may reduce wasteful expenses and increase your savings by keeping a close eye on your spending and developing a thorough budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

For You: The $50 Mistake Warren Buffett Says Everyone Should Avoid<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s crucial to have liquid cash easily available in the event of an emergency, but it\u2019s also important not to leave extra money in a savings account. By keeping too much in savings, you\u2019re losing money in the long run, especially when it comes to compound interest you could be earning on investments with much higher returns.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not only missing out on a huge opportunity to invest and grow your money, but you are also allowing your money to erode in value over time relative to inflation,\u201d said Carla Adams, founder and financial advisor at Ametrine Wealth. \u201cCertainly, you should keep a portion of your money in cash (an emergency fund<\/a> should typically be about 3-6 months of your living expenses), but long-term savings should get invested in stocks and\/or bonds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, investing in the stock market does come with risks, but there are ways to go about it so you still come out on top.<\/p>\n

\u201cInvesting in the stock market may seem incredibly risky \u2014 and it can be if you\u2019re investing in individual stocks \u2014 but if you invest in broad index funds, you can expect an average return rate of about 10% per year,\u201d Adams said. \u201cShort-term market fluctuations can be huge at times; but, for long-term savings, the risk you take on will pay off, and your money will double roughly every seven years if you\u2019re invested in an all-equity portfolio.\u201d<\/p>\n

Story Continues <\/p>\n

It can be tough to pay off your credit card balance in full every month, but you should try your best to pay off as much as you can<\/a>. By not doing so, you\u2019re thwarting your financial success and losing a lot of money.<\/p>\n

\u201cCredit card interest rates can be 20% or even higher,\u201d Adams said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t pay your credit card off each month, then you are going to end up paying a lot over time in interest. High credit usage also impacts your credit score, meaning you are likely to end up with higher interest rates on loans you take out, such as a mortgage or car loan, if you are even able to get approved for such loans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIdeally, you should keep your credit utilization rate at 10% or less, meaning that the outstanding balance on all of your lines of credit combined should be 10% or less of your combined credit limits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adams frequently hears a lot of excuses from people, particularly younger adults, as to why they\u2019re waiting to invest. In reality, there\u2019s never a good reason to push this off.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe truth is lifestyle creep is very real and, if you\u2019re not able to put away anything today, it\u2019s likely this trend will continue even as you continue to make more and more money,\u201d Adams said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s also incredibly important to understand the power of compound returns. Even if you can only save and invest a small amount each month right now, when you have decades until you actually need that money, your money will start to grow exponentially.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is one major mistake that too many people make that destroys their wealth over time and that is paying high fees for their mutual funds or exchange-traded funds,\u201d said Doug Carey, chartered financial analyst (CFA) at WealthTrace. \u201cMany investors have no idea they are even paying a fee on their funds because the payment is taken directly out of the fund return. Other investors think anything less than 1% won\u2019t make much of a difference. But it can make a huge difference over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an illuminating example.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn investor is saving $20,000 per year and is looking at three similar funds,\u201d Carey said. \u201cOne has an annual fee of 0.1% (typical of index funds), one of them charges 1%, and the last one charges 1.5%. At the same annual return of 8%, the lowest cost fund would have $1.5 million in it after 25 years. The fund in the middle would have $1.3 million, and the highest cost fund would have $1.2 million. These are very large differences, and most people don\u2019t even understand how big the impact can be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enlisting the help of a financial professional, such as an investment advisor, isn\u2019t free, but it\u2019s a very worthwhile expense. If you skimp on this, you\u2019ll likely lose money in the long run.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile not all advisors are great, a good one can save you from making emotional decisions that hurt your investments,\u201d said Joe DiSanto, founder and CEO at Play Louder. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to make rash decisions when you\u2019ve worked hard for your money and fear losing it. A third party can act as a sounding board and help talk you off the ledge during volatile times.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, finding a good advisor requires research, and many require a minimum account size. If you\u2019re just starting, even using a robo-advisor can be better than going it alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caitlyn Moorhead<\/a> contributed to the reporting for this article.<\/p>\n

More From GOBankingRates<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com<\/a>: 6 Everyday Money Habits That Quietly Destroy Your Wealth<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When we think about wealth, we tend to think mostly about building and maintaining it. But we need…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,63,99,64121,186,184,185,40266,15101,193],"class_list":{"0":"post-85627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-carla-adams","12":"tag-finance","13":"tag-personal-finance","14":"tag-personalfinance","15":"tag-savings-account","16":"tag-warren-buffett","17":"tag-wealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}