The Worst Things You Can Do With Your Money

Most days, we focus on making the right choices. But today, compounding returns is flipping the coin. Today, we are going to cover the top 10 worst financial choices you can make, starting with the bad and progressing to the inexcusable. So, without further adieu here are the 10 worst possible things you can do with your money.

#10: Don't track income, expenses or investments. If you want to screw up your finances, you can start by not tracking a dime. Who cares how much you earn, spend, or invest. That stuff is for the birds, cause you are going to be rich someday, right? You'll hit your numbers in the lottery, get a huge promotion, or strike it rich somehow! Who cares how easy websites like Quicken make it. You're not a math nerd and there's no way you're about to become one by tracking your expenditures.

#9: Leave it in a fee based checking account. More banks than ever are offering free, interest bearing checking accounts making paying for checking an unnecessary expense. If you want to spend money needlessly, don't even think about signing up with ING.

#8: Stash it in your mattress. Got a little extra dough? If you want to make sure it never gets put to good use, make sure you keep it in cash, and store it in a sturdy mattress instead of an interest bearing account. Lord knows its much safer in your bedroom then in an FDIC insured bank account.

#7: Spend it all. Some people don't make enough money to save yet, and are just barely getting by. But most of us know of some way we could stash a little more cash for the future. If you want to stay poor, then you'll definitely want to spend every dime, regardless of your income. That way you will keep the neighbors thinking you make more than you earn and never get ahead in life.

#6: Rent electronics. Speaking of impressing the neighbors, nothing says "I'm loaded" like a huge T.V. or sound system. Best thing about modern America is that you don't even have to buy them anymore. For only a small monthly payment, you could have the T.V. of your dreams! Who cares that it will end up costing you double what you would pay to purchase by the end of your contract... It's a sweet T.V.

#5: Rent furniture. Just like renting electronics, renting furniture will cost you much more in the long run than buying, with the added negative of significant wear and tear being placed on expensive consumer products that you don't even own. If you want to stay poor, you will want to rent the most expensive matching furniture set in the store, especially if you have children or pets.

#4: Finance vehicle customizations like rims and speakers. I'll tell you what will really impress your neighbors, not to mention keep you in debt indefinitely. Take some of your hard earned cash down to your local auto customization shop and buy the most expensive customization package you can get. Just make sure to finance the purchase over the longest term possible. This will cost you even more for a purchase that is likely to get destroyed by your daily driving habits.

#3: Don't invest. Buy lottery tickets. If you never want to retire, you will certainly not want to invest. You'll surely want to run down the local convenience store and pick up as many lotto tickets as possible. That way, you'll have a negligible percentage increase in winning chances, and be paying as much as possible. If you are lucky enough to win, great! You'll want to review this list so you can squander as much wealth as possible, and end up like the vast majority of lottery winners who soon go bankrupt.

#2: Casino gambling. If you want to stay poor, gamble as much as possible. Don't set limits, and definitely keep gambling when you get down. That way, you will just dig yourself deeper and deeper into the hole. Don't worry, this one will keep you poor, especially if you have an addictive personality.

#1: Spend more than you make. And that brings us to the #1 way to keep from building wealth. If you want to be poor for life, you will surely want to spend as much as possible. With the access to easy credit, you can easily spend at least twice as much as you make. That way, you'll maintain a negative net worth for as long as possible.

That's our top 10! Got any more to add? Please share in the comments below.