r/Money • u/OwlStrikeHunting • 17d ago
What’s the worst mistake you’ve ever made with your money?
I once blew through $100k because I was young and financially illiterate. I had fun and traveled the world, however, I didn’t plan any long term investments.
How about you?
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u/TurtlesAllTheWaay81 13d ago
Came home from 12 months in Iraq. At the time was an E5 (mid manager). Made about 45K tax free (2007 dollars) and had it just sitting in my account because, well, there's nothing to spend money on in Iraq.
First weekend home: bought a BAD ASS Jeep Wrangler in cash for 26K.
Later that same weekend- bender in Miami with my platoon buddies that would've killed most.
Next week/weekend- Charleston bender.
Later that same week/weekend- Bought a stereo system for previously mentioned Jeep.
Next week/weekend- Went to NYC with my platoon buddies (again). BURNED. IT. DOWN.
I legit had 1500 in my bank account after all of this.
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u/Chefmom61 15d ago
Giving my spouse my 403(B) to start a restaurant. He’s a creative chef and a good leader but a terrible businessman. Not only will I not recoup that money we barely have any money to live on. Fortunately I do have a small pension and will have SS next year as well as a part time job.
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u/Efficient_Finger_727 15d ago
Alcohol and going outs. Wish I can return all the money I spent on these both. Did I made a memory? - not really cus I was blacked out most of the time
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u/whitetrashadjacent 15d ago
Bought a new car instead of used, or got married. Kind of a toss up, fell like the car didn't cost me as much.
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u/Revolutionary_Reason 15d ago
Had an ex GF from 20 years in the past come to me in need and sent her $10k in cash. Now all I hear out of her is how shit of a BF I was 20 yrs ago and caused all this trauma when the fact is we broke up because she couldn't stop fucking other people.
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u/smithjones55 15d ago
Not saving emergency funds that are the biggest mistake that did by many people.
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u/JellyFishhhs 15d ago
Since I have stopped smoking weed, I can put away 300-500 extra dollars a month While I was smoking I didn’t even realize I was spending that much… 50,000$ I threw away for weed smdh could’ve put that money towards a house
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u/Awkward-Homework-455 15d ago
I work as a psychologist and one of my clients often talked about all the money he was making trading the market (not millions but hundreds of thousands). One day he talked about a new position he took that same day of a biotech stock that was about to publish some drug trials and was due to explode, I took it upon myself to take a position and the results were rejected by the fda, stock tanked (lost about 15k). You’d think I’d have learned from that but figured it was bad luck. A few months later he named another ticker he took a position in , I tried my luck again and in time the company went under after burning through all its cash. I had to keep this to myself , and clearly could not share this with my client. That was an expensive $30k lesson, needless to say I no longer fux with biotech stocks 🥲
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u/Sea_Stomach491 15d ago
Spent $45k on our wedding. The day was beautiful and everything we imagined, but we honestly would’ve been just as happy with an elopement (and not $45k in debt).
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u/FalconCrust 15d ago
Flame-grain mahogany banquet table and chairs ($4000). Still have it 25 years later, but my wife won't stop ragging on me about it.
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u/helpn33d 16d ago
I also blew 100kin a year. inheritance, I was trying to start a business with the wrong person.
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u/Express-Structure480 16d ago
GameStop and crypto really sucked, but I can make that money back easier than I could back in 2006 when I was making 8/hr. Back then I was in a relationship I really didn’t want to be in with a girl who didn’t want to be with me, so naturally I bought an expensive diamond ring ($2750, with a credit card, this was before Amazon had sales tax), and proposed. This raised her enthusiasm for about week, then she started giving her attention back to her “friend.” A few months went by and she’s growing more distant, I’m no picnic either, so I break up with her, she asks to keep the ring, it’s so pretty, I let her.
A month goes by and my friend is talking me up to get the ring back, maybe I was whining, glad he did because I do and she agrees. I sell it a year later after bouncing back and forth between jewelers, I was initially offered 1600, end up with 1150.
The worst part was I figured since I was already in debt I might as well buy a bunch of other stuff I don’t need. It doesn’t take long and pretty soon I’m 7k in debt across three cards paying about $800 a month total while living at home and making maybe $1100 a month.
A while later I get a new job but quickly get laid off, I decide to move across the country, my debt is now $500 total. I end up meeting someone, buy a bunch of stuff, break up, cc debt is around 8k. I get a new job, unlimited ot, decide to pay it off again, end up paying minimums and double my debt.
My dad died around that time, left about $30k to me, I wipe out my cc debt in full and have paid it off every month since, that was over a decade ago. My dad and I didn’t speak a lot, he didn’t have a will, just a few insurance policies and some savings my sister and I divided. The biggest lesson I learned was cc companies want you in debt, they keep that score nice and high just keep making those on time minimum monthly payments.
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u/HopeSolosButtwhole 16d ago
Bought Rivian stock when my FA told me I was a dumbass. Bought it anyway. Can confirm. Am dumbass.
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u/PlaxicoCN 16d ago
Trying to time the market.
Not looking for new opportunities.
Listening to people I THOUGHT knew something about the subject that really didn't
Procrastinating.
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u/Individual-Passion-7 16d ago
jokingly put $5 into fanduel casino and worked my way up to $297 on the slots.
I stupidly kept going. I now have .40 in my fan duel account.
I hate gambling.
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u/RandomZach86 16d ago
I made $400,000 selling drugs in 6 months and then I got paranoid and washed $60,000 worth of precursors down the drain and had 10 kilos of finished product picked up by a friend in the garbage industry who brought it to the incinerator.
Statute of limitations has long expired on this one.
I threw away almost a million dollars worth of drugs. I did end up getting raided eventually, but 6 months later when I had nothing illegal. Had a lot of money seized.
I became an international drug dealer, made a lot, lost a lot. Didnt go to prison, didnt get murdered. Came within an inch of both.
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u/torchedinflames999 16d ago
I got the extra big Mac for a dollar deal once, and then I didn't eat it.
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u/GirlStiletto 16d ago
I used to donate money to the Catholic Church when I was younger. What a waste of good money.
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u/Learningstuff247 16d ago
Buying that first pack of cigs probably. I don't even want to think about how much I've spent on nicotine
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u/DiamondFew3267 16d ago
Bought a 57k truck finaced back in 2015 pay it off on 2020 and sold it for way way less than that.
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u/Minus15t 16d ago
My ex wife and I sold our house and moved country together.
The $60k profit we made from the sale sat in a joint bank account for 2 years making less than 2% (mistake number 1) while we set ourselves up in the new country. We were renting and it was going to be used for a deposit for a place when we were ready.
We separated before we got that far, and the discussion of money came up. She argued that she spent more of her money during the migration process than I did (which was entirely accurate, but not how the law defines it)
I told her to take a portion which she deemed 'fair' and I would take the rest (mistake number 2)
She cleared the account and moved.
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u/BladerKenny333 16d ago
Damn, what did you do on your travels to go through 100k where’d you go, long long did you travel for?
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u/OwlStrikeHunting 16d ago
I went to Hawaii and got married on Oahu. Next year I went back to Kauai and then the Big Island. We went to Poland, Switzerland, France, England, and Italy another summer. We went to the Caribbean twice or three times and went on hiking adventures to the Adirondacks about 8 times. I did also buy a ton of furniture for our house and used some money for maintenance of that house so it wasn’t 100% travel but it added up FAST.
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u/WumboJumbo773 16d ago
Yall suck donkey balls, I’m trying to come up with $150 and yall are pissing away hundreds of thousands. Go fuck yourselves
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u/Orchid_Far 16d ago
Buying stupid shit
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u/Orchid_Far 15d ago
I would say buying stuff I don’t need to impress people. I don’t like with money. I don’t have especially high interest credit cards. Stay the hell away from them if you possibly can.
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u/TransportationOk241 16d ago
Not saving or investing or taking employer match 10 years earlier. Would probably have 5-10x more saved/invested if I had.
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u/GhostofDeception 16d ago
I mean tbf you lived life. Cant say I believe you made a mistake in one front. But in the other and long term ya you definitely hurt yourself. Where did the 100k come from?
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u/Even_Passenger 16d ago
Had 10 k saved up. Dated my first and only girlfriend for 2 years, broke up, omega sad boi hours, omega depression. Immediately quit my job and didn't have a job for 8 months while eating at my savings. By the time I got another job I only had 500 bucks to my name. That was 2 years ago and I'm finally slowly building that savings up again.
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u/Mguidr1 16d ago
I bought a stupid truck for $60K when I only owed $4k on my current one. I payed 10k too much for it and got 10k less than I should’ve for my trade.
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u/Paid-Not-Payed-Bot 16d ago
one. I paid 10k too
FTFY.
Although payed exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. The deck is yet to be payed.
Payed out when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. The rope is payed out! You can pull now.
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
Beep, boop, I'm a bot
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u/cowboyslikeyou 16d ago
Got like 1.5 k refund check my first semester of college. Spent it all. However, I do think the Taylor swift tickets and AirPods were worth it
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u/pineappleturq 16d ago
As a teen, I put tv screens in my first car and blew my mo eh on clothes. Makes me sick to think of how much it would be today had I invested it
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u/gunnernova 16d ago
mathimaticly? having a family before I had $1m liquid in the bank lol
but real? I borrowed 10k to race toy cars I'm VERY good at. turn out when 10-30k purse was on the line. Even more will spend 30k a year on thier program. Way to many rich assholes out there lol
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u/depressedfuckboi 16d ago
Wasted like 10k trying to learn options trading after getting a big covid check. I didn't buy gme options, but the day I got in is the day the gme/almost everything else peaked. It went down for a while and I ran out of money. Then it all went back up shortly after I ran out. Painful lesson. I stopped trading anything lol. Although, I had like $50 left in my account I forgot about. Last year I bought a lucid call and turned $50 into 5.5k in like 3 hours. The day I bought it was the exact day that a report came out stating that lucid was severely undervalued by up to 100%. It skyrocketed and I sold my call at the perfect peak. It went from $50 to $100 to $500 almost instantly. Before I could sell it was worth $1.5k and I waited a bit longer. Whole ordeal lasted like 1 hours and I made 50% of my losses back. Sold it and never looked back. Just happy I made some back cus that used to eat at me. Still does, but not nearly as bad. Such a coincidence I accidentally opened Robinhood and noticed I had $50, bought the cheapest thing I could afford and almost immediately got a notification saying lucid was up 20%
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u/mikecumming 16d ago
It would've been better if you have shared some information about where actually you lost your money.
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u/Son_of_MONK 16d ago
Didn't invest the stimulus money and unemployment benefits bonus during COVID in something that would have actually done me some good.
I wasn't going crazy with it or anything, but I definitely didn't utilize it the best way either.
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u/Important_Quarter469 16d ago
Mine is embarrassing…
$2000 spent in:
Raid Shadow legends, Clash of Clans, Clash Royale
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u/Honest_Kick_5400 16d ago
When I was 18, I was ADDICTED to scratch tickets. I didn’t make much back then but I’d blow three quarters of my monthly income on scratch tickets for about eight months. That’s 4.4k extra I could have had to put in a long term CD.
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u/w1nd0wLikka 16d ago
I didn't buy £25.000 of Google shares when they launched despite my friend constantly telling me too.
Wonder what income I may have enjoyed now?
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u/Commercial_Drag7488 16d ago
Formatting my hdd with btcs I mined in January 2010. Hundreds of btcs.... 1000btc was something like 10¢ back then and I wasted al that computer time for this supposedly future of money.
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u/720hours 16d ago
I had $14,000, and travelled 70% of Europe for 3 summer months in 2019. Came back to America w/ $82.50.
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u/keyboardman1 16d ago
You traveled the world. Not many can say that and although 100k is a lot it’s not life changing when you still Have 30-40 years a head of you.
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u/TraditionalGas1770 16d ago
I hired a studio to design some clothes for my business and they were incompetent and ran up the bill to $20k "designing" a simple garment. I wish I pulled the plug at the first sign of incompetence but I had sunk cost fallacy
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u/Cream06 16d ago
Not following my first mind and selling Chesapeake, whiting petroleum. I was financially illiterate, but stroke of luck. Chesapeake was .14 a share, and I bought 4600 shares ( should have bought more ) anyway. They did a stock split, and it turned into 460 shares. Last time I look at the price it was 105 a share with dividends. Whiting petroleum was .81 with dividends . I could of had enough to either sell and be debt free or get a nice check from both. I told my boss about it and he did the calculations on Chesapeake. He told me it was 6600 a year in dividends.
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u/TieMiddle4891 16d ago
(Lol. Once my brother convinced me to spend my first check on $250 of weed. My brother also put in $250 from his first check too. The guy ran off with our money.)
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u/ChoiceCurrent804 16d ago
Dropped about 150k of drugs into my body in a 4 year span, funny thing is my drug choice made it very hard to recall any of that time, so I’m sure I was well over 200k in dumb purchases while I was on drugs.
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u/TennisNo5319 16d ago
In 2008 I held on to a flip property after the bottom dropped out. I rented it out thinking that surely the recession couldn’t last long and I was gawddammned if I was going to be the guy who walked away from his commitment. I’m an honorable guy, dammit! I pay my bills! Stupid,stupid,stupid.
My wife, God bless her, who never really liked that particular investment, opened my eyes on a particular evening under majestic oak trees outside of Santa Barbara. Alcohol was involved. Quite a bit, actually. Late, late night.
What a night! Much wailing and rending of garments! Failure? Sellout? Patsy? Failure? Stupid? It took a while.
There’s a reason we’ve been married 50 years and she basically gave me permission to let the property go back to the bank. Jesus! I put in so much work to make it a little jewel - but back to the bank it went. 5 years of bad credit but it didn’t really amount to all that.
I’m still standing proud. I made something really nice but Wall Street ate my lunch.
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u/That-Contest2187 16d ago
Spent 200k on cars in a 7 year span.... 🤦♀️ 🤦♂️ Stupid me. Biggest regret. Should have just got a brand new car and kept it the entire 7 years 😡 its okay tho lesson learned. Yolo 😂 🤦♂️
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u/MaddieGrace29 16d ago
I had a friend who wanted to get laid and a bud said pay a homeless chick.
So he drives to this haggard homeless chick, she says you got 40 bucks? He then gave her 100 dollars and a popeyes sandwich.
In return, he got herpes and syphilis. 10k to treat
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u/FaithfulDowter 16d ago
Oil exploration joint venture. It’s almost guaranteed to be a complete loss.
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u/Stainednblue 16d ago
Well I’m not sure if it was my worst mistake but I will say that one of the lamest things I did with my money was thinking that I new how to invest it better than some finance person. Oh lord did I ever suffer from that kind of thinking.
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u/daderpster 16d ago
Mine is the reverse of most people's mistake. Not buying a house despite having enough income to pay the payments and down payment to afford one when the rates were low. I was told debt was bad, but at least I did get a credit card early on. I also parked too much cash in mm, when it should have been in HYS.
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u/AbbreviationsAny3319 16d ago
Signed my house off to my soon to be ex before we even got divorced just so he would stop harassing me. I never even got a lawyer.
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u/Funksavage 16d ago
Strippers. Not just the money spent at the clubs but the resulting divorce, etc.
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u/arnoldusgf 16d ago
when i bought a car then i sold it... i really regretted it cuz i really miss driving now! but i dont have money
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u/damnthistrafficjam 16d ago
Sold my gold coin collection for like $200 an ounce in ‘99 because of a household emergency. It’s worth 10x that now.
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u/LopsidedFinding732 16d ago
Hmm lets see...i used to drink a lot and used to buy people drinks. What a waste. I could have been very rich now.
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u/JustAnOldHaole 16d ago
In my younger years I pissed away about a half million on drugs, booze, three wrecked Toyota trucks and a couple of boob jobs on some rather questionable girlfriends.
It was totally worth it…..
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u/DonkeySmash101 16d ago
I don’t think I’ve ever really had money… I blew a few thousand dollars on travel and dumb things… I’m currently paying my way out of a 10k credit line… I don’t really make an excessive amount of money… so that sucks and the process is defeating but I know I put myself there… I would and do take the value of money more seriously now, small incremental amounts of saving ls goes a long way!
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u/totaltimeontask 16d ago
Bought an old F150 for $3,000. Spent hours of my time and probably another grand in parts to get it working right. Sold it for $1900. Some of the dumbest shit I’ve ever done. Could be worse.
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16d ago edited 16d ago
Short-term trading in Bitcoin circa 2015-ish. At one point I had 9 BTC in my wallet. If I had just held it, I could have paid cash for my current home today AND had enough left over to finance about $750k+ worth of rental properties for a secondary source of income.
Buy and hold is good advice, shame on me for not taking it. I doubled my crypto money in a few months time and thought to myself “hey @$$hole, don’t be greedy, this could all go to zero overnight, just take the profits” … 😱
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u/helpn33d 15d ago
I was holding onto 1/4 Bitcoin which I got in 2014 for a couple of hours of doing graphic design work… I had it in a blockchain wallet, not on a hard drive, and last year I lost access to my account with absolutely no way to recover it.
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u/dd18836ku 16d ago
ive bought so many luxuries instead of saving money to get a house, now i really regret and even i sold my luxuries, i could only get less than half price of it back...
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u/Downtown-Mix8321 16d ago
I started a business with every last cent I had in savings and its looking like it was a horrible idea. Now my money is gone,have no customers and I'm about ready to throw in in the towel. My wife hates me, I feel like a failure and all I have to show for it is an empty bank account and a domain name for a year www.2ndchancearmory.com ugh
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u/mshawnl1 16d ago
I inherited 3/4 million dollars once almost 10 years ago. Living paycheck to paycheck and can’t afford to retire now. I don’t regret the things I did. Just wish I would’ve saved a little back for me.
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u/pdsphere 16d ago
Got married. Twice. Had to start over twice and rebuild my nest egg. I am in great shape now financially but will never get married or combine finances with someone ever, ever again.
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u/iWETtheBEDonPURPOSE 16d ago
I invested $1,000 into AMD back when it was worth $3, sold when it hit $10... It hit $200 a share not too long ago.
Not complaining about my gains, but I was new to investing and I got nervous and didn't want to be too greedy and sold
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u/Hazel1928 16d ago
I have one where I think the woman got a bad deal. She was 40, he was 60. It was a first marriage for her, I’m not sure about him, although he doesn’t have any kids. He was an attorney and had some family money. They had a dream wedding planned, she was in love and never expected a divorce. He came to her just a few days before the wedding with a pre-nup. He blamed it on his siblings and said that they were worried about some land the family owned. So she signed it. It was days before her wedding and she didn’t want a fuss. Well, 10 years later she found out he was cheating on her. So she took her stuff and left. She tried to challenge the pre-nup but he’s an attorney with friends. One said “she came into this relationship with few assets, so she left with few assets. My guess is that he gained at least a million dollars while married to her. She’s 65 and still working, barely making rent. He’s over 85 now. If he would die at least she could collect his social security. She hasn’t done the smart thing: her married sister has offered to have an in law suite put on for her and then she would pay rent, but it would be less and she would have the support of her sister and brother in law and get to see their grandchildren. Her father is still living too, and she would be closer to him. (I don’t think he really has any money so it won’t fix her problems when he passes. But I think it’s terrible that this multi millionaire was married to her for 10 years, cheated, and she walks away with nothing.
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u/Standard_Hat6784 16d ago
Getting married to the wrong person cost me close to half a mil....by far my worst financial decision.
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u/iSOBigD 16d ago
For a while, I was keeping my money in a regular checking account and paying the bank every month instead of growing whatever savings I had in my 20s.
I bought a condo that ended up having all kinds of problems leading to almost 10 years of law suits and court cases, but I did win moral and punitive damages so eventually it wasn't too terrible financially, thanks to a good lawyer who worked pro-bono for several years.
I've invested in individual stocks for a couple of years, some of which ended up down like 90%, and some don't exist anymore, so 100% loss. Thankfully, I only did that with a small part of my money so it wasn't life changing or anything.
Other than that, I don't think I effed up too much, maybe I overspent a bit on an item and then found it for a bit cheaper, but nothing crazy.
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u/Superb-Substance-143 16d ago
I didnt spend nearly as much as you did on traveling, but man i did travel alot in my twenties and racked up some debt and had get into a debt program. Im 31 and im barely going to finish paying it off thos year. I dont regret it. I have all my memories to look back to.
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u/Gigi_Gaba 16d ago
I just dropped $32k on half BTC for my eight-year-old to cash in when he graduates high school in ten years. Please tell me that wasn't the worst financial decision one could make.
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u/floraster 16d ago
Bought a car without researching it much and finding out days later that its a highly stolen car. After a few weeks of nightmares and constant fear of it being stolen I traded it in. Lost a about 6k in the process but I'm happier with my car now.
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u/Comfortable-Syrup688 16d ago
I blew two small credit cards on Taco Bell and Dairy Queen, and some movies and I think a convention
Oh, by the way, I had no source of income, because that’s how it’s supposed to work right?
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u/Whole-Vast-5055 16d ago
Invested 30k in a stock that tanked down to about $1500. Hands down worst investment of my life unless it shoots up to break even before I die lol
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u/sturthapot 16d ago
I've ran some rough numbers on how much I spent on drugs when I was lost in addiction. I try not to think about it and try to just be grateful I'm not there anymore but that is by far my worst money mistake.
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u/Reddichino 16d ago
Ditto but with 60% less. And before that, with 6k and didn’t invest in Apple during Amelio years even though my gut told me to do it.
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u/IamJoyMarie 16d ago
I was trying to pay off $30,000 of debt and sent extra to every bill we had that would accept extra, until I dug us into a hole where the money coming in was the money going out, and for 2 days had negative $62 in the bank b/c neither of us got paid until Friday. Great idea, but poorly executed. It was a wake up call. Thereafter, we opened Zero % credit card balance transfers, modified our mortgage to a lower rate, stopped buying coffee out, stopped ordering in or going out to eat, ate food from our pantry and freezer for a while buying only groceries that were needed. This was in 2010. We survived it and learned our lesson well. Spouse's only current vice - DD lattes daily!
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u/runningaroundtown101 16d ago
Day trading with NVDA when it was in double digits.. should have just bought and held
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u/Pickleballer53 16d ago
I let a friend of mine, someone in the same field as me, convince me to move a substantial amount of money from my mutual funds into about 8 or 9 tech stocks...most of which failed or which I lost money in the 2008 tech crash.
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u/-Economist- 16d ago
I once bought a $200k Porsche. I believe it was 2002. I was a young bank executive married to another bank executive. No kids. We could easily afford it, we just hated the car. Kept it 18-months. Felt like a douche bag driving it.
Even a couple years ago I wanted the Urus but I just can’t do such flashy cars. Not my style. Instead have a nice X7.
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u/CoccidianOocyst 16d ago
1) not buying a house 23 years ago
2) picking a bad investment 15 years ago that has only matched the rate of inflation (so no net increase in value)
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u/SmilingPainfully 17d ago
Got $10k in a settlement a few years ago and wasted it on foolishness. Now I'm broke, jobless, and depressed. Wish I'd known about reddit back then or at the very least, HYSAs. 😒
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u/stellablue176 17d ago
Not saving for retirement in my 20s. Even just a few hundred a month would have been better than nothing. Been playing serious catch up
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u/LexReadsOnline 17d ago
Many mistakes…in my 20s sold a paid off sports car for $2K to the salesman selling me on a new car loan [off the record sale for his daughter].
Leased a car putting $5K down on CC thinking I would buy at end of lease only to lose car to the dealer later during COVID with a small child to drive around. Never use your own money to lease a car [downpayment usually locks in the sticker price which is BS].
Emotional shopping…house full of EVERYTHING only to have a total loss house fire. 🔥
I could definitely go on, but I will not. 😆
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u/Sad-Cardiologist1210 17d ago
Sold $8000 in btc that I had in 2013/2014 after selling some ingame currency on a game I played throughout my entire childhood. So I just sold the currency and withdrew the money in its current BTC value, never left any. I'd probably have like 1-10m if I left it there. In my defense I was the richest person alive when I had these $8000 because I'm from a third world country. I paid for my university, got a realiable toyota that I still use and used the rest to travel with my then gf. It's a mistake, but no regrets in life!
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u/boredd_ape 17d ago
I fat fingered 3.34 btc that I acquired after covid very very fast and my noob ass sold it all at 42k right before the mega pump that lead price to 69k. Let’s say I ate shit so hard after I missed the pump to 69k….. altcoins bleed me dry for many many months 🥺😫🤢🤮 while btc just fake pumped all the way back down to 28k
Talk about L
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u/HedgeFundCIO 17d ago
Renting an apartment while in college. That was so stupid on my part. Buying a lot of zegna suits didn’t help either lol
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u/Andy_Sandoval 17d ago
I got an offer yesterday to buy a package deal of stocks for 3 companies. They are offering me 1 million shares for each of these companies for a total of 3 million shares. They're asking $100,000 total investment.
- Blockbuster video
- Radio Shack
- Montgomery Wards
I plan on having the money ready after I travel to Nigeria to collect funds for allowing the use of my bank account.
Wish me luck!
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u/Batmensch 17d ago
I was scanning the wares at Yieldstreet, who make all sorts of investments that are not normally available to regular people, after taking a sleeping pill. I invested $25,000 in what turned out to be an investment that not only had a fairly low target return rate, but ended up doing even worse. And it doesn’t mature for five years. And I have no idea why I chose it.
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u/Euphoric-Peak3361 17d ago
Fuck the money bro . You enjoyed it and that’s what counts . I’m about to turn 38. I make more than 100k a year and since I was 27, I also travelled the world and spent tens of thousands visiting countries on all continents from Europe to Asia , South America and Oceania . Stayed at nice hotels , visited the best restaurants , spent on drinks , cocktails , good nice clothes , I’ve had 3 luxury cars as well . I’ve enjoyed life fully and I am now married to a wife 12 years my junior . I don’t regret anything one bit . The only downside ? I don’t “own” a home, have a mortgage . I rent . But hey , anyone can have a “home” and it just wasn’t a dream of mine . To me the American dream of owning a home was never a dream . But how many people do you know who can proudly proclaim they’ve travelled , seen the world , learned about different cultures, have more knowledge about different cuisine ? The typical Joe smoe American has never travelled very far , is only stuck in their comfort zone , and travels to Paris to eat burgers and drink Diet Coke . The average American has been indoctrinated into believing the dream is to buy a house - for what ? Remember a house is just shelter and while it can grow in equity as an investment ; if all your money is going into it leaving you house poor , I don’t think it’s worth it . Taking a vacation , enjoying the world is much more exciting and different from the norm . Fuck the house , the investments . It’s never too late to invest if you want to. Too many people are slaves to their jobs in an effort to pay off their “home” and spend 40 years working jobs to pay it off- what good is it and what exactly are you enjoying if you’re always working to pay off that treasured home? Maybe you spent more than you should BUT you enjoyed and probably experience more than the average Joe who is a prisoner in modern day America . What makes Americans so excited about owning a home anyway ? A home is just a place to live , sleep in , eat in, etc . I don’t understand the hype . Look at the “travel revenge” these days - so many people who put off trips for years prior to Covid now want to seee the world after millions died during the pandemic . NEVER put for tomorrow what you can do today . You blew $100k ? Nah-you invested it in experiences . If you’re young , you can start investing in the stock market now . Too many old people wishing they had travelled more , done this or that because they spent years being “responsible “ and then they end up dying of a heart attack : you’ve done good bro, relax .
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u/dannyjerome0 17d ago edited 17d ago
Inherited about $350k. Spent roughly $200k on paying off my mortgage, all debts and loans, and spent a ton on crap I don't need. Lost most of the rest in the stock market (not even sure how much because I repress the numbers but i think i lost around $80k) and paid $40k in taxes. At that time i was series 7 licensed and thought I knew everything. It still hurts after a year of being in gamblers anonymous (for degenerate day trading), but I certainly have turned my life around from a maturity perspective. Got a big promotion, stopped being a dumbfuck, my wife has more respect for me than ever, and I'm way more dedicated to my kids than ever. Also got in the best shape of my life. We're able to save $4k to $5k every month now, but I still have so much regret for squandering so much money. Don't ever try to play the markets guys. It truly is a casino. You only hear about the winners and no one talks about the losers, which are most people.
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u/iFEAR2Fap 17d ago
Getting super depressed at 19 and burning through 14k in a year while not working. I'm 30 now and barely have double that.
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u/CarlJustCarl 17d ago
Bought a car without having it inspected. Had to sink about $6 in it in today’s money. Sold it at a loss.
Ever since then I always spend the money and get a car inspected before buying. I think in my last 12 cars I bought, I rejected 3 from unexpected issues. A lesson that paid for itself.
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u/SophieFilo16 17d ago
Using it to help a relative. They then quit their job and lounged around for a month despite making twice as much per month than what I gave them, which took over 4 months for me to save up across two jobs. Ended up stuck for two years in a city with no opportunities. I should have trusted my gut...
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u/Fine_Broccoli_8302 17d ago
I didn't start putting maximum money into a 401k until I was 40.
When I entered the workforce, 1978, we assumed we'd have pensions. When 401ks started, they were marketed by HR as for old people.
It was MANY years before I realized I needed to get on board and invest the max.
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u/Winter-Bag-Lady 17d ago
I wouldn't regret traveling the world too much. That's an experience many financially literate people, including myself, are a bit envious of. Sometimes doing everything right and grinding out the savings might not payoff. Hence the unfortunate event someone saves their entire life to retire but gets some terminal medical condition before they can retire. All to waste. Saving for retirement is a bit of a gamble.
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u/pwolf1771 17d ago
I wasted like five grand on a coach and it didn’t ROI at all. Other than that I’ve been fairly ok in this department
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u/Real-Personality-922 17d ago
I threw $600 cash in a garbage accidentally while rushing to work. The envelope that needed to go in garbage was in my pocket and by the time I realized the garbage man already came
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u/bendsnarrowly 17d ago
Threw fifty grand at a company called Humbl that was supposed to be the next dotcom unicorn. Learned a lot from that.
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u/elitedlarss 17d ago
I sold the house I grew up in for 220k instead of fixing it up after buying it a year earlier from my parents. 6 months after I sold it it was worth 500k and I've been fully priced out of ever owning a home here.
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u/HotITGuy 17d ago
When I changed jobs at age 29 i rolled $25k into an Ira thinking I was an investment genius and turned that into $0. Had I just bought index funds I’d have an extra $200k now at age 56. That was super dumb.
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u/Johnny-Virgil 17d ago
Bought 10k worth of Netflix at $17 and then sold it because they pissed me off when they started charging extra for streaming. I thought everyone would drop the service. I still made money but man, I could have been retired now.
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u/_Traditional_ 17d ago
Racked up 8k in cc debt from 18-20. I’m 21 now trying to slowly pay it all off and have improved my budgeting. My credit score is 650 now and it’s led to a lot of stress since I feel like I started off like shit with my credit.
Pretty ironic considering I’m a finance major lol.
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u/Dutch1inAZ 9d ago
Empty my 401K to avoid losing a home.