Even responsible people with household budgets can slip up. The following are easy-to-overlook 10 financial habits that can lead to financial ruin.

Everyone should have at least a few months' worth of living expenses in an easily accessible, highly liquid account. With no emergency fund, a person faced with unexpected expenses may be forced to sell long-term investments such as a mutual fund that is currently down. Instead of waiting for the fund to rebound, the person is forced to sell at the absolutely worst possible time and eat the loss. Worse, if there are no such assets, the only option may be personal loans with exorbitant interest rates.

Minimum monthly payments on most cards are so low, they barely cover the interest and fees accrued. This is deliberate. The low minimum payments ensure the debt stays virtually intact year after year, earning the credit card company profit as long as possible.

Having one or two credit cards is all but necessary to function in modern society, but four or more cards is trouble. Too many open lines of credit hurt your credit score, as it means you could theoretically rack up huge debt at the snap of your fingers. Multiple cards, especially with different due dates, make it much easier to miss a payment and get hit with penalty fees. Every credit card is a potential gold mine for an identity thief. Multiple cards are harder to keep an eye on when suspicious charges start to appear.

Habit and convenience make many miss out on better deals. Use the Internet to research all major purchases, from cars and washers to insurance and cable TV providers. This helps avoid wasting money on disappointing products that end up breaking or being replaced because they do not meet your needs. Many online merchants offer considerably lower prices coupled with free shipping; do not forget to check for rebate coupon codes before finalizing your purchase.

Credit scores play an increasingly large role in the kind of deals customers are offered. A lower score means higher interest rates when buying a new car or refinancing a mortgage. Car insurance and life insurance may be negatively affected by bad scores, as insurers believe irresponsible financial habits translate to reckless living. At the very least, make use of the annual free credit report to spot and correct any erroneous entries.

Borrowing money to buy a house or pay for continuing education is perfectly acceptable. This is money wisely invested for your needs and your future. Borrowing money to treat yourself to a spa weekend or a vacation cruise is not.

One of the most hazardous things a person can do it is put all bills in a pile of unopened envelopes. If one of the bills has a due date in the middle of the month, there is already a late fee on the account by the time the envelope is opened at the end of the month. There is also a risk the letter from the credit card company is something more urgent than a bill, such as a security alert about suspicious online purchases made in Bulgaria with your card.

Small habits such as grabbing a drive-through coffee on the way to work and getting an overpriced protein shake on the way out of the gym stack up in a hurry if done every day.

Researching the fine print of insurance coverage, phone service, car rentals and the like is not fun, and it is easy to just go with the all-inclusive option to make sure you get what you need. But add up overpaying for everything from unused cell phone data to unnecessary insurance extras already included in the factory warranty over the course of a year and it becomes real money in a hurry.

Setting foot in a payday loan office should be considered a red warning light blinking fiercely. These companies prey on unsophisticated customers to gain maximum profit. All their services, from loans to check cashing, come with steep fees and interest rates.