Stupid Tax

Dave Ramsey has a section on his website where people write in with stupid things they've done financially. I like to read them from time to time, and I'm usually a bit smug while doing so. Ah, smugness. You are often my downfall. Well, now it's happened to me.

I just paid my first (and it will be my only) insufficient funds fee.

When I moved, I opened a checking account with Washington Mutual. It turned out to be more of a hassle than a convenience, so I decided to stick with my hometown bank. I only had a little bit of money (less than $200) left in the WaMu account, so I decided that I would just pay for everything out of that account and try to get it as close to a zero balance as possible.

Not a smart idea.

I mixed up some receipts between my two accounts and wound up not subtracting the right amount of money out of my WaMu register. Which led to an overdraft. $1.88 charge is what got me a $32.00 NSF fee. This was totally stupid since I have plenty of money in my regular account, and WaMu deserves the fee for my stupidity.

I've learned my lesson!