--- title: Don't Make the Mistake I Made with an Inheritance description: Financial blogger J.D. Roth 'fesses up about his biggest financial fail authors: - name: Farnoosh Torabi url: https://money.com/author/farnoosh-torabi/ at_money_since: 2014 articles: 10 covers: - Personal Finance - Career Advice - Housing - Lifestyle social: - https://x.com/FARNOOSH former_staff: true published: '2015-02-10T16:03:32.000Z' modified: '2024-04-16T05:13:38.000Z' section: Personal Finance tags: - '#financialfail' - deductible - GetRichSlowly - health insurance - Inheritance - J.D. Roth word_count: 442 canonical: https://money.com/mistake-inheritance/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![JD Roth](https://img.money.com/2015/02/150210_ff_inheritance_roth.jpg?crop=0px%2C1307px%2C2100px%2C1182px&quality=85) *JD Roth* Back in 2006, J.D. Roth started the award winning personal finance website [GetRichSlowly.org](http://www.getrichslowly.org/), which *Money* named the web’s most inspiring personal finance blog. He is also an author of the e-guidebook *[Be Your Own CFO](http://content.money.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/ug_getrich_sneakpeek.pdf)* and a creator of [www.moneytoolbox.com](http://www.moneytoolbox.com/). His biggest financial fail happened about a decade ago when he received an inheritance. Here’s how it happened, as told to me on my daily podcast [So Money.](http://www.somoneypodcast.com/) > I’m going to share a fail that typifies how I used to think, and then I’m going to share one that shows that I still don’t have it all figured out. > > In 1995, my father died after a long battle with cancer and he left a little bit of life insurance. I think I got $5,000 or something like that, and at that time I had over $20,000 in credit card debt. > > If I had been smart, I would have paid off some of that credit card debt, but I wasn’t. Instead, I went out and bought a new computer and video game stuff. > > So, here I am with a chance to knock off a quarter of my debt, and instead I end up spending even more money. And to me this is an example of the kind of failures that I used to have all the time... > > By 2004 I had over $35,000 in consumer debt. I was living paycheck to paycheck. I was in really bad shape. > > Now, more recently I feel like I’ve really got my act together... but I still make mistakes from time to time. > > One happened in 2014 because I was too much of a procrastinator. I knew that I needed to get three different medical procedures done and because of the way my health insurance works with the deductibles and all that, it would make sense to get them all done during 2014. > > Well, I dragged my feet and dragged my feet scheduling them and I wasn’t able to get them all done during 2014, so I’m going to end up paying the deductible twice basically because I didn’t think ahead. > > And to me it’s just an example of how, even for folks who write about money and know what they ought to do, we still make mistakes sometimes. *Every day, Money contributing editor Farnoosh Torabi interviews entrepreneurs, authors and financial luminaries about their money philosophies, successes, failures and habits for her podcast, [So Money](http://www.somoneypodcast.com/)—which is a “New and Noteworthy” podcast on iTunes.* **More from Money.com** - [The Woman Who Followed Her ID Thief for Two Years](https://money.com/dear-erin-hart-jessamyn-lovell-identity-thief/ "The Woman Who Followed Her Identity Thief for Two Years") - [Simple Steps to Avoid Outliving Your Money in Retirement](https://money.com/retirement-income-avoid-outliving/ "Simple Steps to Avoid Outliving Your Money in Retirement") - [How to Tell a Friend You Can't Afford to be a Bridesmaid](https://money.com/cant-afford-to-be-bridesmaid/ "How to Tell a Friend You Can’t Afford to Be a Bridesmaid") ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/mistake-inheritance/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Personal Finance", "item": "https://money.com/personal-finance/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Estate Planning", "item": "https://money.com/estate-planning/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Don't Make the Mistake I Made with an Inheritance" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/mistake-inheritance/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/mistake-inheritance/", "name": "Don't Make the Mistake I Made with an Inheritance", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2015-02-10T16:03:32.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/mistake-inheritance/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/mistake-inheritance/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-16T05:13:38.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Don't Make the Mistake I Made with an Inheritance", "articleSection": "Personal Finance", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2015/02/150210_ff_inheritance_roth.jpg?crop=0px%2C1307px%2C2100px%2C1182px&quality=85", "width": 1012, "height": 569, "caption": "150210_FF_Inheritance_Roth" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Farnoosh Torabi", "url": "https://money.com/author/farnoosh-torabi/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/farnoosh-torabi/#author", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/05/140530_bio_author_torabi.jpg?quality=85&w=190&h=190&crop=1", "email": "farnoosh@farnoosh.tv", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/FARNOOSH" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2015-02-10T16:03:32.000Z", "description": "Financial blogger J.D. 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