Small savings and big mistakes

As savers, we're getting better at the small stuff, the Harris Poll reports. We're buying generics, brown bagging, sipping tap water from our refilled Evian bottles and generally watching pennies more closely.

We aren't doing as well with the big stuff, though. New research from Hewitt Associates shows nearly half of us still cash in 401(k)s when we leave jobs, which is not good if you prefer not to eat cat food when you retire. (Though I must admit that some cat food now on the market sound a lot swankier than what we brown bag some days.)

Blogger Maria O'Brien last year put together a list of Ten Financial Mistakes That Will Put You in the Poor House. I look at this and similar lists every once in a while hoping I haven't made more than half the blunders the authors list. So far, so good. Sometimes barely.