I committed the ULTIMATE millionaire no-no today.......It's so bad I'm embarrassed to admit I did it........I took money out of a foreign ATM. (OUCH, did I say that out loud?) I knew my bank was going to charge $2, but I almost went into cardiac arrest when I saw that the ATM's bank was also charging me $2. In the blink of an eye, a $200 withdrawal turned into $204.Did I know that already? YES, that's why I don't do it. (I can honestly say that it's probably been AT LEAST a decade since I've paid an ATM fee.) But, sadly, that $4 upcharge came as the result of my poor planning.
Now, $4 may not seem like a huge deal to most people. But to someone like me (and I'm not NEARLY as bad as Tina and Kim), who is always looking for bargains and don't believe in blowing money PERIOD, I'm now thinking about all the things I could have with $4, and how paying that fee won't happen again anytime soon.
Let me say that I'm still outraged by all those government bailouts that happened last year, and think that none of these banks should be getting a dime from me, you or anyone else. Banks make billions of dollars from ATM fees each year, and then have the nerve to take millions more in bailouts, while kicking people out of their houses for being $1000 behind on their mortgage.
But, this blog isn't about that, so I'll move on....begrudgingly.
As you may already know the 1-Year Millionaires are investors. So, Iwent to ING Direct's website, and saw that I could have bought stock...FOR $4! (Kicking myself a little harder now.) I also looked around my house and found a few other necessities that cost less than $4: toilet paper (gotta have it), dental threaders (I have braces), tuna, soap, tampons, oatmeal, cans of soup, shampoo, deodorant....well, you get my drift. And just in case you're thinking that you can't get all of these items for under $4, you need to visit Kim's Recession Lessons blog. Hang out with her long enough, and she'll show you how to get these items for FREE.
I'm not going to pine over the $4 any longer. I'll just plan better next time so I can get more out of my own money than the banks do.
What could you buy with $4.
Lisa
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