I Found My Brain at 30: Expensive Things I No Longer Do

If I could write off any decade in my life, I would probably write-off my 20s. At 18, I should have just taken a 12-year-age deficit, re-financed my youth and then fast-forwarded to 31. I re-discovered my brain at 30.

But if I had not been so stupid about money (and other things) at 20, I would not have been wiser now.

Here are 5 things from my 20s that I no longer do:

1. I no longer straighten my hair with expensive chemically-induced salon treatments that cost about $3,000 a year, plus interest beacause I usually used plastic for salon visits.

The worst part: I even paid a fortune for my hair when I had no groceries.
Even Worse: I straightened my hair because I had a bad self-image. (Straightened hair is fine, if you just like the look. But that wasn't my story.) A better self image has saved me a ton of money.


2. I've nixed the weekly manicures. Even at the frugal nail shops in Manhattan ($6-8, excluding tips), I was still paying about $500 a year for a service that would have cost about $3 a year based on a bottle of nail enamel. I should have put that money in a 401k plan.

It's like this: Nails break, paint chips, but money appreciates!

3. Credit Card meals: Hey, I'm 48 and I have still indigestion from all those Manhattan meals from the 1980s. I'm still chewing plastic & I have magnetic strips caught in my gums. Can we say: Painful!

4. Buy One-Get Two (in every color!). This is not a joke. One day, in New York, I went to every Ann Taylor in Manhattan...from the Upper West Side to Wall Street. I was hunting a shirt on sale. Found the shirt; found the sale; found every color.


5. Shopping while: hungry, angry, depressed, rejected, promoted or in Paris with no money.

Now, I Just Don't go shopping (as much).

And I recycle more, including posts. I now realize that I may have written a similar rant in November.
Blame my aging, but smarter brain.





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