7 Routines That Can Cost You Big

clipped from finance.yahoo.com What dark corruption might be lurking behind your daily money routines, imperiling your road to wealth? What every day activities may be threatening your financial health? Here are seven: 1. Tossing out the "junk mail" from your credit card company The Credit Card Holders Bill of Rights Act goes into full effect in February. Ahead of that deadline, companies are changing the terms of customer agreements To skirt that provision, firms are notifying customers that their cards are now "variable rate." (Translation: We can jack up your rate whenever we please.) So watch those benign notices, and be ready to call and demand a fixed-rate card or take your business elsewhere. 2. Using a debit card without writing down the transactions in your account register. 3. Ignoring new bank charges. 4. Investing time in the wrong things. 5. Spending with no goals to guide you. 6. Failing to track spending 7. Failing to exercise. A Harvard study found medical bills are behind 60 percent of U.S. bankruptcies