Penny Wise and Pound Foolish

I finally found out there’s a name for this sort of thing.

Here are more examples of this fallacy, including one I am routinely guilty of:

Locating the gas station with the lowest gas prices, but driving 20 minutes out of the way to save $0.05 per gallon, or, looking for the lowest gas prices but buying a vehicle with poor gas-mileage.

This makes a nice counter argument to another axiom I have lived by: opportunity cost, which kept me from doing a lot of things out of a simplistic ledger-like approach to life experience.

I feel like these two balance each other out, and being aware of the two of them will help me make better financial decisions. That is if I have any money left in my 401(k), Mutual Funds, or stocks to be wise with.