s/o the worst financial decision you made
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Anonymous
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That thread about the best financial decisions people have made are really making me regret my misspent youth (and go read that great old NYer essay if you haven't yet: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1999/10/18/my-misspent-youth).
I am 45 now, and these are among my financial regrets: - I didn't start saving for retirement until I was in my late 30s. That was so stupid. I wish my parents had sat me down and talked to me about how stupid this was, but I don't blame them; they aren't responsible for my poor choices. I just wanted to spend the money, and I figured somehow it'd work out. I wish I could go back and change that. I am now 45 and finally have $55k saved up - just over $10k of what I still owe in student loans for law school, a very fancy degree I borrowed a sh*t ton of money to pay for, which I have used insofar as I've had an exciting career but not a very remunerative one. (I don't really regret not having a very well paid career, though; I am honestly not cut out for that.) - I sold a tiny amount of Apple stock in like 2012 or so. It was maybe $2k worth. My husband convinced me to do it - said that someone with my minimal assets had no business owning individual stocks. He was wrong. I should have known better. Argh. Trying to get into shape at a somewhat late stage of things, but: trying! |
Anonymous
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1. Not budgeting in law school and taking on tons of debt
2. spending a good portion of the $$ I made off the sale of my condo on god knows what 3. Not buying Apple stock 4. Buying a brand new car after getting my first job (father encouraged this - lol) 5. Mimicking the budgeting habits of my lower middle class parents instead of teaching myself about financial education earlier in life. At 40, I finally feel like I get it. |
Anonymous
| Not budgeting in med school and doing whatever I wanted while living on student loans... buying a car with student loans when my other car was fine... now have $250k in loans while making $160k as an internist |
Anonymous
| Selling a house in Arlington in 1997, when we could have easily rented it. |
Anonymous
| Bought a timeshare. |
Anonymous
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Leasing a car, frittering through some sizable work bonuses, moving houses too many times and not building the equity that we should have, etc.
A big one is wasting money on private school when there are so many good public schools. I'm not judging other people who do it, but unless there is a need or you have money to burn, I didn't see a huge benefit. Hindsight is 20/20. DH and I never had enough discipline or personal finance savvy. |
Anonymous
Hey fritterers, and bad-decision makers, it's fine. We took some nice vacations, ate in good restaurants, and have generally enjoyed our life. We traveled while our son lives at home and goes with us- so fun to share the experience with him. There is time to save (and we have saved some thanks to our financial advisor) but the only spending I regret was on "non-experiences." (i.e. stuff). That is the silliness- "keeping up with the Jones's" house or a nicer car than we need. I don't regret drinking a glass of wine in Spain or watching the sunset over a beautiful lake. If you can take your kids somewhere cool or introduce them to new cuisine or fine dining (my DS appreciates good food), it's a wonderful memory. My DH had a health scare and we thought we could lose him in his forties. So he skied down a few mountains with his son and we didn't scrape every penny. |
Anonymous
| Law school-100,000$ in tuition. Ugh. |
Anonymous
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Quitting a job because my entire department was moving to a new location and I didn't want that commute.
Well, after I quit without having another job lined up I didn't have ANY commute at all and was out of work for over two years. I will never EVER quit a job without having another lined up again. |
Anonymous
| Private school bc "we could". We also could have not. |
Anonymous
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Leaving my temporarily boring job that had tons of potential for advancement for a somewhat better job with no room for advancement.
Buying the house I did. Marrying DH (he’s my fave money pit). I regret none of it but they were all terrible financial decisions. |
Anonymous
Yup- us too. |
Anonymous
| Marrying for “love”, not money. |
Anonymous
| Becoming a teacher. It's a job I really love but it isn't conducive to having kids. Ah, the irony! |
Anonymous
We are the same boat. We assumed income would rise more than it did. We still make enough where we "can" (and we don't get aid) but it takes a decent bite out of our lifestyle now and will definitely leave us more limited in retirement. We've repeatedly toyed with pulling them, but they are happy and doing well, so we just haven't been able to pull the trigger. |