s/o the worst financial decision you made

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kept my TSP investments in the G fund for the first 2.5 years of my Fed career. Whoops

Ugh, me too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They need to teach personal finance in schools. I was so ignorant for so long.

Yes. I learned from watching my parents, who make terrible financial decisions.

[Anonymous]

Not standing up to DH and his spendy ways -- he scoffs at me as a saver/planner. Early on in our marriage we barely had two nickels to rub together. But there was like $200 left below the limit on our Discover card. He wanted to buy a fish tank and said "let's just use up the available balance for this one last purchase and then we'll focus on paying everything off" and I gave in so he would stop pouting about it. So stupid.

When I met him he relied on the ATM to give him the balance in his account and that was how much he had to spend. No tracking of what checks had been sent or what bills were coming up. What a huge red flag I ignored!!

[Anonymous]

I'm surprised that several people have said that buying a condo was their worst financial decision.

I'm guessing it was not in a desirable location?

(Worried as the owner of a condo in DC.)

[Anonymous]

I recall that there was a similar threat on DCUrbanMom a year or two ago. Many people said that their worst financial decision was a big expensive wedding. (Some of those people are still happily married, but still cringe at how much the wedding cost.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I recall that there was a similar threat on DCUrbanMom a year or two ago. Many people said that their worst financial decision was a big expensive wedding. (Some of those people are still happily married, but still cringe at how much the wedding cost.)

Interesting that it hasn’t come up since you said this then. I wonder if it’s just a coincidence?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m 35 and have no retirement savings and DH controls the $$ (I am terrible with money so he took things over and then...yeah) so none going toward my 401(k) right now. We have two kids in daycare and a too-big mortgage for a too-big house.

Basically I regret everything financially.

You are one step away from your best financial move: Divorce him and cash out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Getting married. Then, doubling down on that by becoming a parent. I haven't saved a dime since and the debt just piles up.

I am in financial despair because I married young( age 23) and never had opportunity to jumpstart a career because we were constantly moving due to DH jobs. He dealt with chronic unemployment and we lived a very unstable life moving to new cities for new opportunities. During a relatively stable period, where DH was thriving at work, we had two kids. Now DH job is on the line again and we have no savings as all our savings got depleted during the periods of unemployment. So marrying him has been a serious problem for me as you can see. Now at age 35, I’m trying to figure out a way to jumpstart a career but I can’t take on school loans or anymore debt. It’s tough. It’s more than tough actually.

I’m so sorry. But your solution may be a divorce, this could be your best financial decision. At 35 you are still young and should have no trouble jumpstarting your life without a loser to drag you down.

[Anonymous]

During the dot com era I was able to invest $50,000 pre-IPO and it briefly soared to over $1,000,000 but I wasn't able to sell. When I was able to sell I held out to get long term capital gains but it kept dropping. When I finally did sell it was down to about $150,000. Yes, that was still a great return but I let tax policy drive my decision and that was dumb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not standing up to DH and his spendy ways -- he scoffs at me as a saver/planner. Early on in our marriage we barely had two nickels to rub together. But there was like $200 left below the limit on our Discover card. He wanted to buy a fish tank and said "let's just use up the available balance for this one last purchase and then we'll focus on paying everything off" and I gave in so he would stop pouting about it. So stupid.

When I met him he relied on the ATM to give him the balance in his account and that was how much he had to spend. No tracking of what checks had been sent or what bills were coming up. What a huge red flag I ignored!!

I hope you pulled the plug and got out of this marriage that was driving you to bankruptcy, and of course cashed out in the process.

[Anonymous]

Not exercising my stock options when the price was close to $100. Sold them in the low 40's just before they expired.

[Anonymous]

Loaning money to family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I recall that there was a similar threat on DCUrbanMom a year or two ago. Many people said that their worst financial decision was a big expensive wedding. (Some of those people are still happily married, but still cringe at how much the wedding cost.)

Yes!! I was young and wanted the wedding of my dreams. It was a gorgeous event at a 5 star resort. I over did it. Honestly, I really wish we had eloped.

[Anonymous]

Tuition for a private school school in Rockville. Foolish decision. Took us several years to realize we were hood winked and many more to recover.

[Anonymous]

Purchased about 7 bitcoins in 2013/2014 for around 200$ or so. Sold it around 2015 for a loss of about $500, when the price was tanking. Would have been nice to have them when BTC recently hit $20k each.