Recently I had a misadventure with my cash. My car insurance broker called a several months ago to let me know that they wanted to give me a deal. I had the opportunity to switch from my old company to a different one and it would save me $30 a month. I made the switch with little hesitation. Those are the personal finance basics I like. I signed the paperwork and left it at that. Having a clean driving record does pay for itself. Normally I would suggest that you take care of these kinds of contracts well before they come to you, because let's face it, most insurance companies will usually avoid giving you a deal if they can.

I was thrilled. I was using an older savings account from which my old insurance was being withdrawn and decided to use a new account with my new insurance company. Mistake number one. I neglected to look at the old savings account. I more or less forgot it existed. The simple plan was to assume that all was well and planned to let the small amount of cash in the account collect a few cents worth in interest every week or so.

Fast forward 6 months. My bank calls me with an urgent message. One of my accounts is in a negative balance by almost $400. How can this be? I always pay attention to everything I buy and budget my finances accordingly. When I saw the statement from the old account the issue was obvious. My old insurance coverage plan wasn't cancelled by my broker. They had continued to withdraw money from my old dormant bank account for 6 months to the tune of nearly $900.

Monitoring your money is one of the personal finance basics everyone should take care of. It's simple to make a mistake like this and that is a type of mistake that is totally avoidable. I was both angered and embarrassed about what had happened. 'How could I let this happen?' I kept asking myself on the way to my insurance broker. I've always understood how to manage my money since I had my paper route when I was 12. Since that time I had never had a negative balance in my account.

I'm happy to say that my insurance broker apologized and fixed the problem ASAP. The problem might have been worse. Much worse. For that period of time someone with cruel intentions could have taken out massive amounts of money without me knowing and I could have been forced to foot the bill. My advise to watch your money is probably the most simple of the personal finance basics to follow. If you have any unused account terminate it. If you have a credit card you don't use, cancel it. Your hard earned cash can be fleeting if you don't stay on top of it.

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Until next time,

Conrad

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