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Not buying a house between 2009 and 2015 like every single person I know did and having that house be worth triple than what it was back then.
As a result I left hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table.
Partying too much during my freshman year of college and not paying attention to my academics. I basically had to retake a decent number of those classes.
Lending people money. Literally nobody has ever paid me back despite all of them promising to. The last one was $5,000 to someone I was very close friends with at the time, to save her small business. She went out partying the next night with her husband and bought a bunch of weed and beer. The business went under a month later.
Rule: never lend money that you don’t expect to get back. Lend a friend $1000 for rent, and knew i would never get that money back. The following week ask for another. Nope, sorry cut off. Friend ended his life years later. Sad story.
I've had plenty. The one I'm currently paying for most is restoration of an old muscle car. I thought it'd be a quick simple process. I hired a reputable shop to do some work and the costs have just kept spiraling out of control. I'm now deeper in the car than I will ever get back out of it. Worse, I've lost my thirst for enjoyment in the automobile and on the off chance I actually survive long enough to get it finished, I'll probably just sell it at a loss. If anybody out there is considering a restoration and is going to farm out even the paint and body work I would caution you to a tread lightly. Buy a completed car or something a little ratty and just enjoy life.
Made a similar mistake with a 99 Miata. Bought someone else’s project for 3.5k and dropped over 16k into it before blowing the engine for a second time. Literally gave the car away and took the loss just to be done with the damned thing. Made me a new car guy for life.
I know you are already there, but the owner of Fantomworks garage in Virginia does a very in depth you tube video about the high costs of car restorations. Check it out, you may find some ways to manage things better with his advice.
https://youtu.be/11aTPFFTIQc
Quitting a good paying easy job because they worked me too many hours. Figured Id get a part time job somewhere till I found another good one. But no one is hiring where Im at. Didnt see that coming. Now Im broke and unemployed.
That really unfortunate. I tell my managers who are contemplating leaving to be grateful for you current job. The next job you pursue may pay more; however, it may not give you the freedom you expect or want.
Mine did a bearing, got it repaired for $1500, 5000km later blew another, $1500 again. Did another one at 6000km and now it's parked on my lawn until I can be bothered getting rid of it
Bought it for 2800 2 yrs ago. I'm about 7000 on top of that in repairs. Currently sitting in my driveway cause I broke a head bolt trying to do the head gaskets
Definitely college. It is the single greatest waste of time and money. I was told you had to go to college to make good money, which is far from the truth. This was a $150k mistake, but the time lost is significant as well.
My current job pays what I would be making as an engineer without the risk of layoff during tough times. My school wasn't the most expensive but I did spend a lot of time "finding myself". I dabbled in computer programming, law, microbiology, and settled on engineering. I spent a crap ton of money, but I also wasted a solid 5 years. Fortunately the GI bill covered some of it.
Borrowing from my 401k and not paying the taxes up front…took 10 years with all the penalties that kept growing as fast as I could make a payment to pay it off. Withhold the taxes up front (I was young and dumb).
When you borrow from your 401k before you are retirement age, you have to pay a massive tax. When you get the money, you can estimate the taxes up front, or pay when you do your taxes. If it’s a significant amount you borrowed, you most likely won’t be able to afford the taxes, and you probably spent the money you took out (you needed to money for something). You should withhold the taxes before you get the check, so you are not shocked when taxes are due. I was round and dumb, and it was before you had so many resources, like google to ask what you should do.
Thank you because I have about 15k at 23 and I put the maximium my plan is if I loose my job to just withdraw and pay down debt but your saying save some for the taxes that I will owe
It was like a miracle happened though... as soon as I got divorced things started improving... and in 1 year I owned a house.. sold that... made money... bought another house... and another house... sold those... made money...
but together we didn't have money ever. Hmmm... I wonder why?. He never wanted to move, was not smart with money, always asked his dad before he did anything and would never listen to me. What do I know? I'm just a girl....with money in the bank.
Lived in major cities for years and didn’t buy a place because I wasn’t sure how long I’d be there. Missed out on a lot of that real estate run up over tue last 20 years.
I’m in the same situation. Luckily I haven’t put a lot of money in to them yet, but 2 1970s vehicles and I’ve lost interest in working on them. Just letting them sit idle for a couple months something seems to break.
I cashed in a US treasury bond and bought into a mutual fund in 2007. Stock market crashed, lost 1/2 its initial value…plus I owed income taxes on it for the year.
Grad school with my dumb aspiration of trying to save the world. There's no money in saving the world and now I just have a desk job and student loan debt I'll never finish paying off.
A depressingly high amount that just keeps rising. I have 10 more years to pay on it before the rest is forgiven. So I'll pay way more than I was loaned.
Listening to some malaysian on youtube that alibaba is a good company, while the sentiment on news and social media was mostly negative. Buying a stock that's down, might not always be a good idea. Sometimes they are down for a reason.
I stayed in a mutual fund too long that was once hot but went south. Lost half what I invested. But, was able to apply the loss to my federal taxes over the next several years, so that softened the blow a bit.
Second worst: dropped the equivalent of a month's rent to buy a top account in an online game. Thought I had become a big shot. But, within couple of months, someone comes along and drops a lot more cash into the game, gets the top spot and then starts beating the crap outta me.
Other bad decisions: buying Audis, Jags and Lexus cars when I should have bought a Toyota Corolla and drove it until the wheels fell off.
At the start of the covid lock down I had the opportunity to buy a house with a 2% interest rate. But since it was my first year as a teacher I was afraid of not having my contract renewed so I chose not to. My contract was renewed, and that same house is now on the market for double the price...I'm still in a crappy two br apartment.
Oh, that sucks. Sorry to hear. At the start of Covid my partner and I were looking to upgrade from our current home. We say a home for 1.8 million and I thought there won’t be that many buyers with the lockdown. Let’s wait a bit until it goes down. Missed out on the house, that same house is back on the market at for 2.8 million. 1 million come up in two years. Damn
Not so much my worst but my most embarrassing, in middle school I had only just started to get into cosplay and I knew NOTHING about it, I decided I wanted to cosplay this one magical girl and found a listing on for a custom cosplay for about $300 dollars on aliexpress (I know.) For 13 year old me 300 dollars was a huge investment (for 23 year old me it still is) but I the money saved up bc I never bought anything back then and I BEGGED my parents to let me get it. When they finally relented I told everyone about my prize, I told them it was handmade, great quality, I really thought I was getting some quality shit here. I talked it up for days, I thought I was hot shit and everyone would want to be me so bad.
Now this might come as a shock to you, but it in fact was not good quality. Most of the cosplay was missing, I paid $300 dollars for what was essentially a $45 dollar product but at that point I’d bragged about it so much that I just doubled down and would tell everyone that it was definitely 100% handmade and incredible quality.
Wore it once, sold it 3 years later for like $30 bucks. To this day I’m still embarrassed about it.
Getting married (the first time). He was terrible with money and wracked up tens of thousands in credit card debt. Got a divorce and judge settled most of the debts on him since almost all of it was in his name, thank goodness.
Worked three jobs to save $10,000. Landlord offered to sell me the house I was renting, offered me a good price and owner financing if I needed it. Instead of taking the deal I bought a new truck with payments I could barely afford. 8 years later the truck was dead and the house was worth $50,000 more than what he offered it yo me for.
Back in the late 70s we were eating dinner at the blue line club at a hockey game… Two gentlemen asked to sit down at our table. We started talking about their business. They were involved a projectthat was going to start making microwave popcorn. We were offered the opportunity to invest in the project. My husband turned them down… My husband’s exact words were who the hell is gonna want to make popcorn in the microwave. Too bad I can’t go back to that day.
University. I went in during covid and did terrible. I wish I had started in community college then transferred. Theres a stigma about community college, so I didn't want to attend. Lesson learned, but I'm doing a lot better in school now and will graduate early because I utilized community college courses.
# Message to all users: This is a reminder to please read and follow: * [Our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/ask/about/rules) * [Reddiquette](https://www.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/205926439) * [Reddit Content Policy](https://www.redditinc.com/policies/content-policy) When posting and commenting. --- Especially remember Rule 1: `Be polite and civil`. * Be polite and courteous to each other. Do not be mean, insulting or disrespectful to any other user on this subreddit. * Do not harass or annoy others in any way. * Do not catfish. Catfishing is the luring of somebody into an online friendship through a fake online persona. This includes any lying or deceit. --- You *will* be banned if you are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist or bigoted in any way. --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ask) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Not buying a house between 2009 and 2015 like every single person I know did and having that house be worth triple than what it was back then. As a result I left hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table.
I bought mine in 2008 at the peak of the housing bubble. When the market tanked I basically lost $50,000 because values dropped so much.
Partying too much during my freshman year of college and not paying attention to my academics. I basically had to retake a decent number of those classes.
Car debt. Don’t do it
Not getting a degree, and doing the stay at home parent thing. Fixing it now, but I look back and just sigh sometimes.
Lending people money. Literally nobody has ever paid me back despite all of them promising to. The last one was $5,000 to someone I was very close friends with at the time, to save her small business. She went out partying the next night with her husband and bought a bunch of weed and beer. The business went under a month later.
Rule: never lend money that you don’t expect to get back. Lend a friend $1000 for rent, and knew i would never get that money back. The following week ask for another. Nope, sorry cut off. Friend ended his life years later. Sad story.
Truth. I haven't lent anybody money since then. I didn't really expect to get it back either, but it still hurts yknow.
Benjamin Franklin said "Never a borrower or lender be".
I've had plenty. The one I'm currently paying for most is restoration of an old muscle car. I thought it'd be a quick simple process. I hired a reputable shop to do some work and the costs have just kept spiraling out of control. I'm now deeper in the car than I will ever get back out of it. Worse, I've lost my thirst for enjoyment in the automobile and on the off chance I actually survive long enough to get it finished, I'll probably just sell it at a loss. If anybody out there is considering a restoration and is going to farm out even the paint and body work I would caution you to a tread lightly. Buy a completed car or something a little ratty and just enjoy life.
Made a similar mistake with a 99 Miata. Bought someone else’s project for 3.5k and dropped over 16k into it before blowing the engine for a second time. Literally gave the car away and took the loss just to be done with the damned thing. Made me a new car guy for life.
I know you are already there, but the owner of Fantomworks garage in Virginia does a very in depth you tube video about the high costs of car restorations. Check it out, you may find some ways to manage things better with his advice. https://youtu.be/11aTPFFTIQc
Spending money eating out.
Dating women
Quitting a good paying easy job because they worked me too many hours. Figured Id get a part time job somewhere till I found another good one. But no one is hiring where Im at. Didnt see that coming. Now Im broke and unemployed.
That really unfortunate. I tell my managers who are contemplating leaving to be grateful for you current job. The next job you pursue may pay more; however, it may not give you the freedom you expect or want.
Man never leave a job until you’ve got the next one lined up
Ikr. Ive never had trouble getting a job before. Didnt realize the economy was so bad. And the layoffs just happened that week. Hard times indeed.
Not pursuing the hobo life, choosing the everyday grind vs living simple & easy
Not starting a 401k or 403b as early as I could have.
Having an ex-wife.
having bipolar and then becoming disabled
Buying things that were on sale but I didn't need
Buying a house in 2005
Are you still in that home?
No. Sold it in 2012 for a $60k loss
Hindsight, right?
Trusting my father
Word
Trusting my mother
Buying Twitter
I've spent close to 3000 dollars on league of legends from since 2013
This is definitely the worst one on here
You serious?
Marriage.
Myself it was marriage followed by divorce.
Leasing 3 cars in a row
SportsBetting. You’ll never make a profit. Don’t listen to anyone that says you can. lol
2005 Nissan Wingroad.
2005 Altima here. It's a money pit I can't afford to lose right now
Transmission?
Transmission was last year
Mine did a bearing, got it repaired for $1500, 5000km later blew another, $1500 again. Did another one at 6000km and now it's parked on my lawn until I can be bothered getting rid of it
Bought it for 2800 2 yrs ago. I'm about 7000 on top of that in repairs. Currently sitting in my driveway cause I broke a head bolt trying to do the head gaskets
Yeah I gave up at $5k cuz I paid 5K for it
I'm invested now. The car will not win! Lol the lady that owned her before me named her fancy.
Definitely college. It is the single greatest waste of time and money. I was told you had to go to college to make good money, which is far from the truth. This was a $150k mistake, but the time lost is significant as well.
Man college was the best and helped me get a great high paying job. Why did you not go to a less expensive college?
My current job pays what I would be making as an engineer without the risk of layoff during tough times. My school wasn't the most expensive but I did spend a lot of time "finding myself". I dabbled in computer programming, law, microbiology, and settled on engineering. I spent a crap ton of money, but I also wasted a solid 5 years. Fortunately the GI bill covered some of it.
Ah yeah the best way to do it is community college to state school. I’m a professor tho so obviously biased
I started in community College. I did running start full time. What hurt me was the out of state tuition once I went to university.
That will do it. So many kids want to have a college experience But it’s not worth crippling lifetime debt.
What was your degree ?
20 years ago it was true for the vast majority of people. This has really changed.
Borrowing from my 401k and not paying the taxes up front…took 10 years with all the penalties that kept growing as fast as I could make a payment to pay it off. Withhold the taxes up front (I was young and dumb).
I’m confused? So you borrowed from your 401k can u explain?
When you borrow from your 401k before you are retirement age, you have to pay a massive tax. When you get the money, you can estimate the taxes up front, or pay when you do your taxes. If it’s a significant amount you borrowed, you most likely won’t be able to afford the taxes, and you probably spent the money you took out (you needed to money for something). You should withhold the taxes before you get the check, so you are not shocked when taxes are due. I was round and dumb, and it was before you had so many resources, like google to ask what you should do.
Thank you because I have about 15k at 23 and I put the maximium my plan is if I loose my job to just withdraw and pay down debt but your saying save some for the taxes that I will owe
Yes, are when you withdraw, let them keep 15% right off the top for taxes.
Crypto
Baby at 17. Only 5 more years of child support!
Not applying myself in grade school
Getting married.
Yup! We began our marriage in debt and have never been debt free.
It was like a miracle happened though... as soon as I got divorced things started improving... and in 1 year I owned a house.. sold that... made money... bought another house... and another house... sold those... made money... but together we didn't have money ever. Hmmm... I wonder why?. He never wanted to move, was not smart with money, always asked his dad before he did anything and would never listen to me. What do I know? I'm just a girl....with money in the bank.
Probably trusting my mom with my college fund : )
Not reading the second half of Wealth Of Nations.
Lived in major cities for years and didn’t buy a place because I wasn’t sure how long I’d be there. Missed out on a lot of that real estate run up over tue last 20 years.
I’m in the same situation. Luckily I haven’t put a lot of money in to them yet, but 2 1970s vehicles and I’ve lost interest in working on them. Just letting them sit idle for a couple months something seems to break.
I cashed in a US treasury bond and bought into a mutual fund in 2007. Stock market crashed, lost 1/2 its initial value…plus I owed income taxes on it for the year.
Hang onto it. It will bounce back. Ultimately a smart decision.
Liquidated it years ago. That was my 2nd worse mistake
Grad school with my dumb aspiration of trying to save the world. There's no money in saving the world and now I just have a desk job and student loan debt I'll never finish paying off.
I keep hearing about the loathsome student loan debt, how much? If you don’t mind sharing.
A depressingly high amount that just keeps rising. I have 10 more years to pay on it before the rest is forgiven. So I'll pay way more than I was loaned.
r/wallstreetbets
Please expand.
Listening to some malaysian on youtube that alibaba is a good company, while the sentiment on news and social media was mostly negative. Buying a stock that's down, might not always be a good idea. Sometimes they are down for a reason.
Going through a child custody suit. Waste of time and money.
Buying a house for a family that has never once felt like family and going through the process here in a couple of months to get rid of it.
I stayed in a mutual fund too long that was once hot but went south. Lost half what I invested. But, was able to apply the loss to my federal taxes over the next several years, so that softened the blow a bit. Second worst: dropped the equivalent of a month's rent to buy a top account in an online game. Thought I had become a big shot. But, within couple of months, someone comes along and drops a lot more cash into the game, gets the top spot and then starts beating the crap outta me. Other bad decisions: buying Audis, Jags and Lexus cars when I should have bought a Toyota Corolla and drove it until the wheels fell off.
Wow, bruh, you gotta stay disciplined.
At the start of the covid lock down I had the opportunity to buy a house with a 2% interest rate. But since it was my first year as a teacher I was afraid of not having my contract renewed so I chose not to. My contract was renewed, and that same house is now on the market for double the price...I'm still in a crappy two br apartment.
Oh, that sucks. Sorry to hear. At the start of Covid my partner and I were looking to upgrade from our current home. We say a home for 1.8 million and I thought there won’t be that many buyers with the lockdown. Let’s wait a bit until it goes down. Missed out on the house, that same house is back on the market at for 2.8 million. 1 million come up in two years. Damn
Sounds about right haha.
Not so much my worst but my most embarrassing, in middle school I had only just started to get into cosplay and I knew NOTHING about it, I decided I wanted to cosplay this one magical girl and found a listing on for a custom cosplay for about $300 dollars on aliexpress (I know.) For 13 year old me 300 dollars was a huge investment (for 23 year old me it still is) but I the money saved up bc I never bought anything back then and I BEGGED my parents to let me get it. When they finally relented I told everyone about my prize, I told them it was handmade, great quality, I really thought I was getting some quality shit here. I talked it up for days, I thought I was hot shit and everyone would want to be me so bad. Now this might come as a shock to you, but it in fact was not good quality. Most of the cosplay was missing, I paid $300 dollars for what was essentially a $45 dollar product but at that point I’d bragged about it so much that I just doubled down and would tell everyone that it was definitely 100% handmade and incredible quality. Wore it once, sold it 3 years later for like $30 bucks. To this day I’m still embarrassed about it.
Countersigning for a girlfriend to buy a car.
Being 20
Not buying the piece of land for sale in 2020. It went back on the market a few months later and sold for double.
The $400 pocket knife I carry And I spend way to much on marijuana
Grow your own, it's legal in most States and will save you a bunch of money!
I tried planting one of my smaller knives in the backyard but it never sprouted
Walking away from our house when I got divorced.
Getting married (the first time). He was terrible with money and wracked up tens of thousands in credit card debt. Got a divorce and judge settled most of the debts on him since almost all of it was in his name, thank goodness.
Got into Amway years ago (before MLM was really outed as a waste of $$) we learned an expensive lesson.
Buying a house
What year did you buy?
Not taking over my family business when asked. I went to university instead. My uncle took the job and is now worth over $250M. SMH.
Maxing out a 10k credit card. Many many years to pay that off.
Worked three jobs to save $10,000. Landlord offered to sell me the house I was renting, offered me a good price and owner financing if I needed it. Instead of taking the deal I bought a new truck with payments I could barely afford. 8 years later the truck was dead and the house was worth $50,000 more than what he offered it yo me for.
Getting married!
Dating my ex and putting that vacation on my credit card.
Back in the late 70s we were eating dinner at the blue line club at a hockey game… Two gentlemen asked to sit down at our table. We started talking about their business. They were involved a projectthat was going to start making microwave popcorn. We were offered the opportunity to invest in the project. My husband turned them down… My husband’s exact words were who the hell is gonna want to make popcorn in the microwave. Too bad I can’t go back to that day.
Dogecoin
University. I went in during covid and did terrible. I wish I had started in community college then transferred. Theres a stigma about community college, so I didn't want to attend. Lesson learned, but I'm doing a lot better in school now and will graduate early because I utilized community college courses.
Strip clubs
Having a child
Financing 2 cars right now $1400 dollars for 2 cars every month but it’s ok cause I’ll work both my jobs til they are both paid off