May 21, 2008

How many cents do you waste

By admin

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An old British saying states: "Take care of the pennies, that the pounds will take care of themselves". In real life, the facts support that statement. All about savings, isn’t it?

Unfortunately, most of US tend to dismiss the value of those coins that seem to weigh too much inside our packet as to pay much attention to them. Nevertheless, we should care as is the sum of the cents what adds up to the dollar.

How many cents do you waste on a daily basis?

I had not taken much account of the cents - i must admit - until one day i did not have any money at all, and start looking for some bucks through my clothes and boxes.

I found about 100 bucks amongst cents and small bills; ok, it was not a fortune, but it surely bought a coffee and a decent dinner. And after all, it was much better to have it available than just wandering over there.

Afterwards, i decided to go on with an experiment to trace the path of the cents. The results were amazing. Not that it would apply to every case, but you will have to find out for yourself. If you dare to.

Tracing the Path of the Cents

After 2 weeks taking care of the cents - as crazy as it might sound - i was able to conclude the following:

Roughly, 2% of my earnings are changed into cents and small money, on a daily basis. That is, 2 dollars out of every 100 USD in my budget pass through that state.
Most of the time i was not aware of the coins and used 20, 50 and 100 bills to pay for the small daily purchases.
Even though i used my credit card profusely, the coins were still there and i still needed paper money.
Most of the money in coins tends to disappear in the "Bermuda Triangle". If not taken care after, coins and change are easily lost.
A single person - in my case - can lose about 0.5% of his yearly earnings due to not taking care of the coins and small bills.

Assuming that my total yearly earnings were about 60000, it would represent an estimate of 300 USD per year. After only 20 years, it would be 6000 USD of loss, maybe more.

Are you ready to take care of the pennies?

Topics: Personal Finance Advice |