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The Financial Dangers of Being Lazy

For the last few months I have been in a funk and I know that it has been changing my life in both known and unknown ways. This laziness has crept into my personal finance life and as a result I have been slacking off on my financial tracking. The good news is that I believe that I will soon be out of this funk. The bad news is that I may have opened myself to some detrimental financial dangers which may not be seen until sometime in the future.

So, I did what any lazy person, who realises their mistakes a bit too late, does. I went to Google and searched for “the financial dangers of being lazy.” I found several articles which highlighted a wide range of financial risks that I have essentially opened myself to. Most of the risks and dangers that I found were not at all surprising, but admittedly, there were a few that shocked me a bit.

Not Using Corporate Wellness Benefits

I’m not a big fan of exercise, but I appreciate the importance of health and wellness and just taking care of my body. My company provides an annual health benefit which can be used for any exercise or health programme. Last year I experimented with yoga and enrolled in refresher swimming classes. This year I’ve already researched a couple programmes that I might be interested in, but I’m just not in the mood to push on and actually make contact with the organisers. The downside of this is that I am sacrificing my health, but not taking in some form of structured exercise.

Oversleeping

I’m a lover of my bed and pillows, and I would prefer to spend a day in bed rather than get out and do some uplifting activity. Lately I’ve been sleeping a lot more and I know that the consequences are more than just wasted hours in bed. The bad news about this is that I could be creating a sleep monster in the form of insomnia. From what I read, insomnia can be very costly to treat and can lead to hypertension and sleep apnea. These conditions may require regular visits and pricey medication! So, the sooner that I can active, the better it would be for me.

Not Putting my Money in a Higher Interest Account

This is one of those financial dangers that is a hard pill to swallow, especially because I’ve talked about the importance of saving money time and time again. Although I still sock away a good chunk of cash each month, I’m not gaining the best returns possible. My laziness on this point can be attributed to not wanting to change from accounts that I’ve had for a long time and the fact that there are several things including credit cards, that are tied to these accounts. My solution at the moment is to keep a determined minimum on the low interest accounts and push my savings to the higher interest accounts.

Poor Organisation Skills

Since the beginning of 2018, I have been struggling to keep all of my financial documents in order. The sole reason for this, is that I changed my financial organisation style. In previous years, I kept all of my financial documents in a diary. I stapled all bills, bank slips and bank statements on the corresponding day. However, when I could not find an affordable diary in 2018, I changed to a file folder system. This was a tragic move that has left me feeling out of sorts with my financial records. For 2020, I will bite the bullet and get a more expensive diary, just to get back on track with my finances.

Not Acting on My Money Making Idea

In a previous article, I mentioned a business idea that I’ve been working on for the last two years. Unfortunately, my laziness has won the battle and I have not worked on the idea since I wrote that article. This is a bad move because I am stifling my bank account and significantly reducing my coins. The only way to move forward is to take action on this business as soon as possible. In the midst of writing I logged on to the site and ran updates that I was too lazy to run on a previous log in. The stats for this website are always increasing, even though I have not added new content in over a year!

Good News About Being Lazy

However, on the flip side, there were quite a number of articles that praised being lazy! One article stated that it’s ok to be lazy as long as you have systems in place that work behind the scenes whilst you do nothing! Another explored the possibility that being lazy can protect your mental health as you forget about financial pressures. And this one looks at how much money the author saved by being lazy, thanks in part to putting certain systems in place to counteract the laziness.

Financial Dangers of Being Lazy

If you’re also going through a lazy phase, and you’d like to read more about the financial dangers of being lazy, check out these articles:

I’m not sure when this phase will pass. But now that I’m aware of the numerous financial dangers that abound from being lazy, I may have to try a bit harder to get out of my funk.