We all make money mistakes — yes, even financial advisors.
The good news? Not every slip-up spells disaster. In fact, some of the most common financial missteps are surprisingly easy to fix once you spot them.
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GOBankingRates spoke with Andrew Lokenauth, money expert and owner of BeFluentInFinance, and Patricia Stallworth, certified financial planner (CFP) and CEO and founder of PS Worth LLC, to discuss the easiest money mistakes to turn around — with no shame, just solutions.
“I’ve worked with tons of clients on their finances, and let me tell you: Some money problems that seem huge can actually be fixed in just a few minutes,” said Lokenauth.
Here are some of the insights they shared.
“It literally takes five minutes to set up automatic transfers from checking to savings — I did mine while waiting for coffee last month,” said Lokenauth.
He said the results were amazing: He ended up saving about $400 more each month without even thinking about it.
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Lokenauth said he recently spent 15 minutes going through his credit card statement and found $75 in monthly subscriptions he wasn’t using.
And canceling them was surprisingly simple: He said most had a clear “cancel” button right on their website. No phone calls needed.
Another quick fix Lokenauth said was a game-changer: Switching to a card with 2% cash back on everything (instead of that fancy travel card he never maximized), and boom — instant improvement.
“The thing is, you don’t need some complex rewards strategy. Just pick one good general cashback card and stick with it,” he noted.
Here’s one Lokenauth said bugs him: Keeping too much money in checking.
He moved $5,000 from his checking to a high-yield savings account while watching TV one night. Now, he said that money’s earning more than 4% instead of basically nothing.
“Such a simple change, but it drives me nuts thinking about how much interest I missed out on before,” he said.
Speaking of quick fixes — turning off overdraft protection takes like two minutes max.
Lokenauth disabled his through his bank’s app during his lunch break.
Sure, there’s a tiny chance your card might get declined, but he said it’s way better than those $35 overdraft fees (which really add up).
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The wrong withholding amount on your W-4 is super easy to adjust too, said Lokenauth.
He noticed he was getting huge tax refunds, basically giving the government an interest-free loan.
“Took maybe 10 minutes to submit a new W-4 to HR and adjust my withholdings. Now I get about $100 extra in each paycheck instead of waiting for a refund.”
He said these might not necessarily be the biggest money problems you might have–but they’re the ones you can knock out quickly.
And honestly, fixing these small things builds confidence to tackle the bigger stuff–it’s like financial momentum.
The best part–none of these require any real sacrifice or lifestyle changes.
“You’re just optimizing what you’re already doing. And that’s exactly why they’re so perfect for getting started. No budget spreadsheets, no expense tracking apps, just quick wins that actually stick.”
Another of the biggest money mistakes, according to Stallworth, is overspending, and she said it’s easy to fix once you understand the steps to prevent it.
Here are three quick steps to fix it once and for all:
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Step 1: Determine how much money you have available to spend each month. Instead of dividing your annual income by 12, she advised actually using the bottom-line number on your paycheck which represents your actual income after taxes and deductions for retirement, healthcare, etc.
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Step 2: Review all of your necessary expenses for things like housing, utilities, transportation, etc. and subtract the total from your income number in Step 1.
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Step 3: Make a note of the remaining amount from Step 2 and ensure that your spending on any additional items does not exceed this number.
She said following these steps will allow you to live within, if not below your means.
The bottom line: “Not understanding what’s coming in, what’s going out and where it’s going can lead to a number of problems — from debt to not being able to achieve important goals.”
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: I’m a Financial Advisor: These Are the Easiest 7 Money Mistakes To Fix
