<prompt> Human: Here are my 2014 mistakes. all this stuff has been talked about here but I thought some of you may enjoy reading this:My mistakes: Let parents convince me to live in an unnecessarily expensive apartment. I got a fairly high paying job straight out of college. My parents who never had much money convinced me to sign a 1 year lease at a place that is very expensive in my area 900month rent. There are apartments right across the street that are fine and cost 300month with a roommate. I could have 7800 extra in AFTER TAX money by going with the cheaper place. It was nice to live is an upper scale complex, but nowhere near 7800 nicer. Obviously this will depend on how much value you place on your living situation - but dont underestimate rent. That shit is a money suck and it sucks to be locked in for a full year. Ate out way too muchIts been said a million times on here and its 100 true. If you eat out regularly you can probably save 50-100 per week or more by learning to cook. Master a few different bulk crockpot meals if youre crunched for time. You can easily make cheap and nutritious meals that require minimal effort. The only thing stopping you is your own laziness. Seriously though - youll be healthier, youll save, and being able to cook is a big bonus with the ladies. Spent too much at the barsUnfortunately the social pressure to drink excessively when going out didnt end with college for me. People may pressure you to keep up but you gotta learn to tell these people to fuck off. If youre set on getting drunk and going out...find a friend who lives close to popular nightlife areas so you can pregame with your own beer and avoid spending a 500 premium on drinks at the bar. Bring a flask if you have to but try to keep drinks at the bar to a minimum I do 2 or 3 max. Didnt sell stuff I no longer useYou have likely accumulated a bunch of shit over the course of your life that you no longer use but has value to someone. I recommend keeping anything that has sentimental value to you. However, put anything else on craigslist and sell the shit out of it. I realized that I havent played guitar in over 5 years and its unlikely Ill ever play again, so I sold my guitars. I went to my parents for Xmas and took back with me everything I thought I could sell. Reduced clutter at my parents house and the craigslist sales will net me enough to max out my Roth IRA. Should have done this long ago! Impulse bought thingsMy first time bringing home a big paycheck led to me buying a fair amount of unnecessary crap. Dont do this.Overall 2014 was a great year for me as Ive put myself in a great spot financially but it kills me to know I could have 7800 extra bucks to play with had I lived in the cheaper placeWhat were your biggest mistakes? Id love to know what to avoid in the future.  <response>: There are two kinds of mistakes: ones that were truly bad decisions, and ones that were bad only because of bad luck ie, it would have taken a crystal ball to know it was going to turn out poorly.In the first category, I honestly dont think I made any mistakes. I did drastically change my spending mentality in 2014, but on the whole I think that was a good decision because I learned a lot about what I value, and actually didnt spend much more than I would have normally.In the second category, I made at least 3 mistakes:1. Ended a week-long trip to Belgium with a day in Paris. Paris was nice, but a day isnt nearly enough, and in trying to cram in as much as possible we ended up missing a train, meaning we paid for two hotels that night and a lot of headache the next morning. I wish we had spent the extra day somewhere in Belgium and done Paris as an entirely separate trip.2. After reading about how Vanguards total equity indexes work and the ratio of US to foreign, I slightly increased my foreign equity allocation and decreased my US allocation, which in 2014 was an unprofitable change, but in the long run I dont think it will matter, so Im not going to switch back.3. I bought a van in March, and in hindsight probably could have gotten a better deal than I got, at least a few hundred dollars, but in the moment I just wanted to be done with it too much to hold out for a better price. Oh well. 