I totally agree. It was a fun experience, and I’m not really beat up about it, since we will end up no worse for wear. It was not only a great education, but it satiated a desire I had for a long time, left me with no doubts about what “could have been”, and is serving as the catalyst for a move half way across the country, which I’ve also long wanted to do.
I daresay that, unless a business venture leaves one destitute, it is rarely a bad thing to try one’s hand at. Especially if you don’t end up in debt at the end of the day.
Now, my Saturn Sky, on the other hand…it still gnaws at me that I negotiated the cost by phone and was blind to the bargaining process because I figured that 0% interest meant I was making a great decision, regardless of the asking price. Since I had a comfortable monthly payment, I never considered how much I might have been overpaying. I’ve since learned a little bit more about how to haggle for a car.
Exactly. Back when I collected comics, I had the first hundred issues of Spider-Man, including number one. In the mid-90s I sold the lot for a few grand, maybe triple what I’d paid. After the Raimi movies started they really went up and my brother jokes about it to this day, but it was a good deal for the time.
I didn’t cash in my options in early 2001. Why? Tech would always go up and I’d have to pay tax on it. :smack:
I did get a basically free truck, car and cruise from cashing in some of the stock, but not as much as I could have gotten.
At least that was an opportunity cost, not a real loss.
Seriously now (even though that is the serious answer), I’ve taken the wrong job which cost me $15,000 a year due to… reasons. I can’t even give you a good reason why I turned down the better offer. I just felt like I’d like the position I took more. Oh, MOL, you silly girl.
I’ve also made the classic mistake of pouring money into a shitty car because of bizarre emotional attachments and ignoring the ridiculousness of the sunk cost fallacy.
We’ve all done stupid shit. Sometimes it costs us money. Sometimes it costs us a lot of money. Whatever.
I threw away a bunch of Mistermage’s baseball cards. The oldest son was a toddler and had spilled something sticky on them.
I think one of them was a Hank Aaron rookie card. All I recall was Mistermage was a bit mad but not angry. He figured it was his fault for leaving his box-o-stuff laying around where a toddler had access.
And, for me, having too much on a CC. I can afford my payment but I really should stop buying stuff on it and stick to cash.
I got into commodities trading. It’s a very dangerous business. You can lose more than you invest.
I practiced with fake money for about a year and was doing real well. Did real well for a few months with real money, was up 20% after only about 2 months. But sheessss was it stressful. I then got cocky, and lost about $4000. I got out before I had a stroke.
I had to replace the heat pump and air handling unit for my condo several years ago. Since then, the compressor has fried multiple times! While investigating other HVAC companies (trying to determine if the problem was with my unit or with an incompetent installation/repair), I learned that some reputable companies refuse to service my brand of heat pump because they are so prone to failure. (“Nothing runs like a. . .”)
So far the HVAC company has continued to try to grapple with the installation. I wait nervously for the genuinely cold months that tax the heat pump too see if this time the compressor will soldier on.
It was an expensive system, and worrying that I may have to replace it again, far sooner than I ought to have to, really bugs me.
I invested in Halliburton and Chevron several months ago, when it looked like they were at the bottom of a big dip. How could I know that energy stocks would continue to plunge? But I’ll still sit on them. They’re highly-rated stocks and eventually they’ll come back. Hope I don’t die of old age before that happens.
Being married to my ex. I should have bailed out of the marriage years earlier. Ended up filing bankruptcy twice, had a vehicle repoed and lost a house we bought. The big hit was when she added her daughter and son in law to our car insurance policy. The idiot SIL caused a crash that caused over $135,000 in damage, we only had $25,000 policy limit. Because of a bankruptcy a year earlier, we did not have that option. Took an early withdrawal from my 401K to pay the bill. With the tax penalties, it cost me over $150,000. The divorce happened soon after that fiasco.
Nope. I’m a professional trader, and the software I use connects directly to the exchanges. I believe on that trade I accidentally routed my order to an exchange that was quoting much higher than I realized. When I sent the order I ended up paying hundreds of dollars more per share than I anticipated.
I’m part of an investing club with a different mix of energy stocks, but the same experience. We think it’ll be a long haul, but our stocks are paying decent dividends for now and we’d rather hold and wait than sell and hope to time the upswing later.
Although, I really wouldn’t describe what happened to us as a “mistake.” It’s just a risk. As long as we understood the risk when we bought, losing money was known to be a potential outcome at the time we purchased. The same argument is true for a lot of what people are describing here in the area of stock and houses.
On being made redundant I had the option of putting a lump sum into a defined benefits (final salary) pension, the amount I needed to retrain in a new career was less than 10% of the redundancy package but I thought the money could come in handy. It didn’t, although a fair whack put into the stock market - in mid-to-late 2007 - gave me an education.
Racer72 for the “win”! It’s unusual to say “I’m sorry for your loss” when no one died (unless it was another driver or passenger – I hope not), but, well, I am sorry for your loss.
When I was 19, I “loaned” a friend rent money and was never repaid. I couldn’t make my own rent payment and ended up back with my folks for a few months (lost my deposit too). I was bewildered that my dad was actually pleased about the whole nightmare. He told me that everyone has to learn the lesson about loaning to friends, and I was fortunate it happened early on with minimal damage. Forty years later, I can accurately say I’ve never loaned even a dime to anyone (friend or otherwise). I’m sorry the lesson came late for you.
My financial mistake? A relative tried to interest me in a venture he was investing in. I told him it was the dumbest thing I’d ever heard. Did he really think people would want to rent DVDs from red vending machines in front of stores?