If you were born before 1/2/1954 you may be leaving free Social Security money on the table. A once popular Social Security collection strategy called “Claim Now, Claim More Later” was outlawed with the budget act of 2015.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere,” retells the story of a patriot who shouts a harrowing warning to his fellow colonists, “A recession is coming! A recession is coming!” Well, that’s not quite the story, but given the seemingly non-ending talk about a recession, you might think that economists are channeling Paul Revere’s midnight ride. Yes, a recession is eventually inevitable, but is it imminent? And what should we do about it anyway?

“We do not have, never have had, and never will have an opinion about where the stock market, interest rates or business activity will be a year from now.” – Warren E. Buffet, the worlds most admired, least imitated investor, in his annual letter to shareholders dated 30 years ago today, February 28, 1989

Have you ever heard someone say that experience is the best teacher? Here’s another one–there are no mistakes, just lessons. Well, I would like to take a slightly different tack. Experience isn’t the best teacher. Someone else’s experience is. Learn from other peoples’ mistakes and you can save yourself a lot of grief. In that spirit, I’d like to review the biggest financial mistakes I’ve seen and offer you ways to avoid them.

As the end of the year nears, here are 7 ideas to keep in mind.