What's the best money advice you ignored for years before finally taking it?

[Evan0]

Almost everyone has at least one piece of financial advice they heard early, dismissed or just didn't act on for whatever reason, and then years later finally followed, usually followed immediately by some version of regretting not starting sooner

Sometimes it's something genuinely simple that just felt unnecessary at the time, sometimes it's advice that required a level of discipline you didn't have yet, and sometimes you just needed to hit a specific moment in life before the advice actually clicked as something worth following rather than something to nod along to and ignore

What's yours, the piece of financial advice you heard, dismissed, and eventually took years later, and how much do you wish you'd started sooner

[Scholar]

Start investing in an index fund as early as possible even with small amounts, heard this constantly in my twenties, ignored it for years, finally started at 29 and genuinely wish I'd started at 22 instead

[Messi]

Build an emergency fund before anything else, thought this was overly cautious advice for boring people until an unexpected car repair wiped out my savings and I finally understood exactly why it mattered

[Layla79]

Track every single expense for at least one month, resisted this for years assuming I already knew where my money went, actually did it and was genuinely shocked at how wrong I was about my own spending habits

[Shane95]

Pay off high interest debt before investing anything, spent years splitting money between both because it felt more balanced, once I actually did the math the advice was obviously correct and I'd been losing money the whole time

[Policy Cipher]

Negotiate your starting salary, ignored this for my first two jobs assuming it would seem greedy or presumptuous, finally did it at my third job and it added up to a significant amount of money over the following years

[Drogba]

Automate your savings so you never see the money in your checking account in the first place, sounds so simple and I resisted it for ages assuming willpower alone would be enough, automating it completely changed my actual saving habits overnight

[Taker29]

This thread is such a good reminder that knowing advice is right and actually acting on it are two completely different things, half of these replies are things I've also heard for years and still haven't started doing

[Poppy96]

Buy a slightly used car instead of new, heard this advice constantly and always dismissed it as somehow beneath me, finally did it and the depreciation savings alone were substantial enough that I regret every new car I bought before that

[EdgeNode Joel]

Read your full insurance policy instead of just skimming the summary, ignored this for years until a claim got partially denied over something clearly stated in the fine print I'd never actually read

[LogicWitch]

Don't lifestyle inflate every time you get a raise, ignored this through several promotions and just kept spending more each time, finally started deliberately banking the difference and it's the single biggest financial improvement I've made