Saturday, March 12, 2011

Leakage

Leakage sounds kind of gross, right? It is an annoying concept. Phone companies use it to describe calls that are routed through their networks that they don't end up charging customers for. Kind of like falling through the cracks. I started to realize that I've found some of those charges in my financial life. I'm now in the process of trying to fix them. Examples:

Old tickets -- I have a bus ticket from October that I never used. I have to try to get it as a credit. This is either $50 or $100.
401K fees -- Thanks to Mint.com, I've realized how much my old plan provider is charging me. I'm in the process of rolling it over to my existing IRA.
$ in FSA -- I think the deadline is about up on this. It's only $13, but still. It's my money!
Library fines -- Luckily I don't let these get too high, but I still end up paying some (less than $5 usually)
Health care -- I've made some mistakes here. First, I've been paying more than I need to for my scripts by not using mail order. Sent in the form for my one drug, so that should change soon.
Also, I bought my contacts through my doctor, who does not accept my discount plan. Finally, when I got said contacts, I ruined two pairs by leaving them sitting for weeks (they were all folded up and I couldn't undo them without tearing them).
Financial fees -- This category is pretty low, but I recently paid $10 because my National Grid bill did not get paid last month because in the process of closing my Chase account for charging me fees, the bill slipped through the cracks.
$ in non-interest bearing accounts -- Right now, I've got a lot of this. I'm in the process of trying to re-evaluate my asset allocation and make new investments, to ensure that my money is working for me.

When I add all of these up, I bet they come to a few hundred dollars. Oy vey. I'm happy to have identified them and have started fixing at least some of them.

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