Shrink Your Bottom Line With Little or no Effort

Shrinking your bottom line is as easy as thickening your waist -- all it takes is the discipline to develop bad habits and consistently make the same mistakes over and over.

Some basic methods for subtracting from your net worth, such as simply spending all your money, may work for most people. But advanced techniques will help even the most diligent and financially responsible people fritter away their fortunes.

1. Spend too much
Maintaining a champagne lifestyle on a tap water income will enhance anyone's attempts to shrink his bottom line.

Spending more money than you bring in is the granddaddy of all financial problems. If more money goes out than comes in, it really doesn't matter what else you do.

"Living above your means is the number one disaster," says Cary Carbonaro, Certified Financial Planner and president of Family Financial Research.

So toss the budget and break out the credit cards to see your net worth slip away as quickly as the national debt mounts ever-higher.

"If you don't have a budget, you don't know that you're overspending or that you're under-spending or what you have leftover to invest and save. I feel like it's basic 101, but everybody hates (this advice)," says Carbonaro.

Only the incredibly wealthy can say, "I don't need a budget because I know I have enough money no matter what," she says.

Unbridled credit card use can hasten the decline of your fortunes. Even those with a low-interest credit card discover that money spent servicing debt can nickel-and-dime any savings plan to death.

Tip: Unless you're expecting a billion-dollar inheritance, start tracking your expenses using Bankrate's spending work sheet.

2. Don't save
Even if you're not spending more than you make, simply not saving anything can have a similarly profound negative effect on your net worth.

Except for the very rich with their swimming pools overflowing with silver dollars and cabanas fitted with gold-plated commodes, everyone will eventually run into a situation where they need savings: either to stop working or to deal with an emergency.

Tool: Think you got all the time in the world to start saving? Bankrate's "Delay savings calculator" shows how much delaying savings can cost you.

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