The High Cost of Being Skint

Yep! Here’s all the things I don’t pay for that I did when I was poorer:

1) My bank accounts.
2) Money orders.
3) ATM fees. I can use any ATM anywhere in the world and guess what, it’s free!
4) Foreign currency fees.
5) Cashier’s checks.
6) Checks in general.
7) I get super-low interest rates. Like at or sometimes below prime.
8) Mortgage fees are either lower or non-existent.

Also, I earn higher interest rates, I can do free stock trades if I wanted to at my bank account, and many other things I am forgetting are free or waived. (And I know I am forgetting a ton.)

Being (relatively) well-off has saved me so much money I can’t even tell you. Being poorer would cost me at least $3,000 a year, conservatively. More likely in the $5,000 range.

Being poor costs in other ways, too. If you’re poor you have to take whatever job is on offer. You can’t afford to wait. If you have enough to wait, you can pick and choose (which I do). So this increases your potential and actual income greatly, too. I know it has mine, that luxury of being picky.