#225: Your Worst Enemy (Friday, April 22)

I keep this picture (it's me trapping myself under a wine glass) very close to me as a constant reminder of something I realized a long time ago: sometimes I’m my own worst enemy. Here a just a couple examples of how in this week alone, my errors ended up costing me both money and opportunities:

1. Opportunity only knocks once. Last week I saw a sale to New Orleans: airfare and hotel for a little over $600. I should’ve jumped on it, but I hemmed and hawed. By the time I finally decided to book it, the airfare alone was nearly $500 and the hotel deal was over, so I would have had to pay $150/night. I could have saved $300+ if I’d jumped on the opportunity. That wasn’t the only missed opportunity; I found out that Soledad O’Brien whom I absolutely LOVE would have been in the same hotel as I at the same time.

2. Early bird catches the sale. After my New Orleans deal fell through, I decided to go try somewhere else I’d never been. Providence, RI fell out of the hat. I had two options to get there: the train, which was $97 each way; or the bus, which was $23 each way—and they both took the same amount of time to get there. No brainer, right? For me, not so much. Once again, I debated the merits and disadvantages of both, and by the time I’d decided on the bus, it was sold out. I ended up taking a crowded train with a bunch of noisy kids that cost $109 (I didn’t buy it 3 days in advance so the fares were more expensive than the original price), $86 more than I needed to spend. 

3. One in a million chance? A couple years ago, a friend of mine sent me an application for a housing lottery in Bed Stuy. I never applied. Those housing lotteries are so competitive and especially for neighborhoods like Bed Stuy. What were the chances of me actually winning a spot? I thought. Turns out, they were pretty good. The friend who forwarded the application won a property—six blocks from where I live now and at a deep (think 40% discount off current brownstone prices). He moves in May. I know there’s no guarantee that my name would’ve been selected, but I’ll never know.

I know I’m not alone. Are you sabotaging yourself financially (or in any other part of your life, for that matter)? Are you doing things that undermine the financial goals you’ve established for yourself? Is procrastination affecting your income/earning potential? Don’t be your worst enemy.