Stupid is as stupid does?

When I was in college, I borrowed a friend’s wheezing old station wagon to run an errand. I drove it through a deep puddle and when I stepped on the brakes, nothing happened.

So I stepped on the accelerator instead. I drove the car at some speed into a concrete wall, and that was the end of my errand (and the station wagon).

Now, I’m not a stupid person. One of the ways I paid for that college was a National Merit scholarship. But deciding to step on the accelerator when the brake failed was a stupid act.

Some of you aren’t happy with my calling the act of carrying a credit card balance stupid. But in most cases, that’s exactly what it is. Otherwise smart people can do really stupid things with money, and that’s just one of them.

Some of the others, in case you’re interested, include:

• Not contributing to a retirement fund
• Not contributing when there’s a company match (stupid squared)
• Signing up for loans you can’t afford
• Co-signing loans for anyone, unless you’re making the payments
• Taking out refund anticipation loans
• Using a payday lender
• Rolling your debt from your last car loan into your next car loan

You can focus on your reasons/justifications/excuses for doing these things, or you can acknowledge, “Yup, that was dumb”–which could be the first step toward changing your behavior and actually getting smart about money.