Financial Mistakes Archives — Page 2 of 11

Best Slot Games To Play

February 27, 2020 By Susan Paige Leave a Comment

Editors disclaimer: Beating broke does not endorse gambling, however some people enjoy gaming as a means of entertainment. This is okay provided that the amounts being wagered are very small. It should also be noted that relying on winning the lottery is not a good retirement strategy.

Now that that is out of the way, without further ado here are two games: Liliths Inferno and Spina Colada.

Lilith’s Inferno

This slot game has a huge range of special features to keep you engaged such as the free spins mode of play, activated by getting three scatters.

And the more of these scatters that you get, the more chances you have to get additional spins as well.

However, there is a catch. First, Lilith has to get past a beast in the beginning round for any of that to happen. Will you help her fight off the villain and earn free spins?

It is worth noting that during the free spins rounds, there are other symbols which become available on the fifth reel in the form of ancient relics.

Getting three of these will award you with a three times multiplier on all wins thereafter for any spins you have left to take.

However, should you have less than three relics collected, do not fret as even these are then treated generously and transformed into wild symbols and placed at random on the reels after the last free spin has been taken.

Spina Colada

Get back in the summer spirit with Ygdrassil’s Spina Colada slot game. One of the newer slots released by Ygdrassil, play to win with Pina Coladas and summer sun.

This online slot game is based around the theme of a tropical beach bar, and has multiple cool extra features including a re spin feature, where you can spin the reels and get more chances to win.

If you can manage three or more symbols on any one of the pay lines, then you will trigger this awesome feature, so long as you manage to get the same symbol in any space on the reels.

To get a multiplier, just fill a column and that gets you extra multipliers on top of randomly triggering four exciting extra features.

Extra features included with this fantastic Spina Colada online slot includes wilds, a second chance, a guaranteed win x3 and a full line – according to Ygdrassil.

Should you manage to trigger any of these features four times, you can then get a free spins round and a bonus activated.

And, don’t forget, you can always play at Umbingo.com.

Photo credit, Umesh Gopinath, Via Flickr.

Why It’s Okay to Make Financial Mistakes

February 24, 2020 By MelissaB 1 Comment

What’s the worst financial mistake you’ve made? Ask any adult, and you’ll likely hear about thousand dollar or even hundreds of thousands of dollar mistakes. Ouch. We’d all love to go through life with a great handle on our money, only making smart decisions and watching our money grow in investment accounts. But life isn’t that way. Sometimes we’re just stupid with money, and other times, we think we’re making a smart decision only to find out later that we were wrong. But that’s okay. In fact, there are many reasons why it’s okay to make financial mistakes.

Why It’s Okay to Make Financial Mistakes

Chances are you’re more financially savvy because of the mistakes you’ve made!

You Learn

The most important reason why it’s okay to make financial mistakes is that you learn from those mistakes.

When I was in my early 20s and just out of college, I was working at a job and was told that I would be getting a raise in the next few weeks. I increased my meager standard of living because I knew the raise was in the works. But week after week went by, and I didn’t get the raise. In fact, a few months later, the company went out of business. Not only was I out of a job, but I had accrued some debt by raising my lifestyle prematurely.

A few years ago, my husband was guaranteed a raise. It was supposed to come in August, but it didn’t actually come until December. Thanks to the lesson I learned in my 20s, we were very careful to avoid lifestyle creep.

You Can Help Others

When you’ve learned from your financial mistakes, you can help others avoid the same mistakes that you made.

Why It's Okay to Make Financial Mistakes — Photo by Irina Murza on Unsplash

When I went to graduate school, I did my best to avoid student loans. I chose a college that paid my tuition and gave me a small stipend for teaching two classes a semester. But after I graduated, I wanted to teach at a community college. Those full-time jobs are inaccessible if you don’t have experience. The only way to get experience is to teach as a part-timer, and part-time community college jobs pay next to nothing (about $1,000 for a 16 week class).

I went into credit card debt trying to maintain my college lifestyle (which was already frugal) while earning poverty level income. The next year, I did get a full-time community college job, but I entered that job with over ten thousand dollars in credit card debt thanks to trying to subsist on such a low income.

When it comes to encouraging my kids to save and plan for college, I urge them to try to get scholarships that will also help them pay their living expenses. We’re sending my son to SAT prep classes so he can score high enough to be in the running for a lucrative scholarship from our local college.

Final Thoughts

Making money mistakes is part of your history. Hopefully, you’ve grown and made smarter decisions because of your financial mistakes, which is an excellent reason why it’s okay to make financial mistakes.

However, if you find yourself making the same mistakes over and over again, i.e. running up your credit cards, paying them down, and then running them up again, you may need to explore more deeply why you keep following the same negative behavior patterns.

Why You Should Let Your Teen Make Money Mistakes

December 2, 2019 By MelissaB 1 Comment

As parents, we want to help our children avoid the mistakes we made. This is especially true with money mistakes as they can set people back years from achieving their financial goals. (Sad to say, but some adults never achieve their financial goals.) However, there are several reasons why you should let your teen make money mistakes.

My Biggest Money Mistake

Teen Money Mistakes — Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

I made so many money mistakes when I was young! Probably the costliest one was transferring to a university for the winter semester and choosing a dorm room. I called my future dorm roommate just to say “hi”, and she was so rude and gruff! Because I was shy and fearful about living with someone, I backed out of staying in the dorm, but I couldn’t get a refund on my money. I paid for that dorm for four months, and I never lived there!!

My mom never said anything; she let me make my own choice, and that decision was certainly one I learned from.

Watching My Son Make Money Mistakes

My son is now 15, and while he used to be a great saver, over the last few years, he’s become a spendthrift. If he has any money in his pocket, he will try to find a way to spend it, often on items he doesn’t even need.

I live in fear that he’ll move out, get a credit card, and rack up incredible debt, which will take years to pay off or cause him to file for bankruptcy.

Why You Should Let Your Teen Make Money Mistakes

As hard as it may be, as parents, sometimes the best thing we can do is step aside and let our teens live their lives as they inch closer to independence.

Better They Learn as Teens Rather Than Adults

Keep in mind, it’s better to let our teens make money mistakes now than as adults. My son is trying to save for a school-sponsored trip to visit some college campuses. However, he’s struggling with this goal because any time he makes some money, he feels compelled to spend it.

The worst-case scenario here is that he won’t be able to go on the trip. As an adult living on his own, he’ll face much more serious consequences if he can’t save his money. The worst-case scenario may be that he doesn’t make rent and is evicted. I’d much rather he miss the trip this year and be envious of those who did get to go. Hopefully that will motivate him in the future to save for large goals.

Experience Is the Best Teacher

While our toddlers soaked up every word we said and thought we were the experts, our teens our cynical and eager to break free from parental control. Simply put, they don’t like to listen to us. Sometimes as parents the best we can do is not say anything and let natural consequences take their course.

Think back to your own teenage years. Did you learn best from your parent lecturing you or the experience of making your own decisions and dealing with the consequences?

When your teen stumbles after a money mistake, don’t swoop in with an “I told you so!” No one appreciates that. Instead, be a sounding board and encourage them to make smarter decisions in the future.

Watching our teens make money mistakes isn’t easy, but as they crave more and more independence, letting them experience life, and fail sometimes, is exactly what they need.