s/o the worst financial decision you made

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Graduated from a top law school but instead of going into big law took a dead-end job with a govt agency and stayed for over a decade, leaving me with no transferable skills and no exit options.

Can relate. Hugs.

[Anonymous]

-Buying an expensive house that requires both me and DH to work to float.
-Leaving a good, but very busy job for terribly slow job in a position I really wasn't excited about.
-Not maxing out my 401k and saving earlier in my career. I'm still doing o.k. but I'm at about 1/2 of what I need. Still have time to catch up, but silly mistake.
-Not buying bitcoin early.
-Not buying linkedin and netflix early. Linkedin really hurts and I learned a valuable lesson to boot. I met a community college kid who tried convince me that it would be a good performing stock in the long run. He was the head of his investment club at his school. He was also 8 months fresh out of prison. I snobbishly laughed him off as a no nothing. I don't know what happened to him, but I learned to never ever underestimate people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:-Buying an expensive house that requires both me and DH to work to float.
-Leaving a good, but very busy job for terribly slow job in a position I really wasn't excited about.
-Not maxing out my 401k and saving earlier in my career. I'm still doing o.k. but I'm at about 1/2 of what I need. Still have time to catch up, but silly mistake.
-Not buying bitcoin early.
-Not buying linkedin and netflix early. Linkedin really hurts and I learned a valuable lesson to boot. I met a community college kid who tried convince me that it would be a good performing stock in the long run. He was the head of his investment club at his school. He was also 8 months fresh out of prison. I snobbishly laughed him off as a no nothing. I don't know what happened to him, but I learned to never ever underestimate people.

Regarding your last point above. Good lesson indeed.

[Anonymous]

Buying the house we did 20 years ago. We bought in an area that became super hot, and at the lowest end of our budget at the time. If we had bought at what we were approved at, we'd have made so much more money than we did. We've still made out OK, but I get annoyed when I think of what could have been.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

Ugh, me too.

Double ugh. They should make the default a lifestyle fund based on your projected retirement date, and force people to opt into moving everything to G (or any other allocation combination) if that's what they really, really want. I think a LOT of people keep TSP in the G fund for so long because they don't know any better, and the process for changing it is not very intuitive for new employees and/or those not experienced with investing.

This is OP - and I left my retirement fund in money market stocks for six years because I didn't know any better. We just switched it out last week after I finally got my husband - who, thankfully, is not *as* dumb about money as I am - to take a look to see if it was invested properly. He was horrified to see.

Honestly, this retirement stuff is killing me. I am trying not to spiral into thinking about it too much because like it or not those 20 years for saving are just done, and there's not anything to do about it but try to do better going forward. Still - argh.

[Anonymous]

I know this is the worst - but one of the best things we ever did was invest in a financial advisor. She has made us some pretty decent money and is worth every penny. I do not know a lot about personal finance and neither does DH. It is expensive to use a financial advisor, but a good one is worth their weight in gold.

FWIW, DH and I make financial mistakes too- primarily by not watching our household budget and taking on a lot of trivial expenses that have added up to a costly amount over the years. At the very least our financial advisor has offset our frivolous ways by watching our retirement accounts, stocks, investments, etc.

Just a thought for those of you who have not invested well- it's not too late to turn things around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Marrying for “love”, not money.

same.

[Anonymous]

Not buying a townhouse I was renting in a desirable part of Capitol Hill in 2001. Although the owner was asking for more than the place sold for, its value has more than doubled since then. Friends who bought in the neighborhood at the same time have made a fortune in equity and used it to trade up multiple times.

[Anonymous]

Letting my wife be a stay at home mom.

[Anonymous]

Depends on how you look at it, but going in blindly into a co-ownership with an aunt without clearly outlining the terms for what to do with it when I got older. Did this at 22 years old, was single and very focused on career and had good credit, just out of school. Now, 15 years later, I'm married, still good career, good credit and new parent and need to make changes for living arrangements. Aunt does not want to discuss what to do with place-- I paid mortgage, fees, repairs all 15 years, she only paid the downpayment. I'd like to get some of that money out for my future and do not want to be financially tied up/on the hook. Aunt won't talk to me about this at all. Wrangling is now in my future.

It's a good financial decision if you do it with someone who is reasonable; this is a bad financial decision if you're dealing with someone who isn't.

[Anonymous]

1. My spouse spent a lot of years being financially irresponsible. Has gotten better, but the damage is still being undone. Not sure it will ever actually be overcome.

2. Buying a rowhouse that turned out to be a much bigger POA than expected from a maintenance perspective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

If it makes you feel any better, I know several people who were invested in the G fund for a lot longer than 2.5 years.

Can someone explain this to a curious non federal employee?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends on how you look at it, but going in blindly into a co-ownership with an aunt without clearly outlining the terms for what to do with it when I got older. Did this at 22 years old, was single and very focused on career and had good credit, just out of school. Now, 15 years later, I'm married, still good career, good credit and new parent and need to make changes for living arrangements. Aunt does not want to discuss what to do with place-- I paid mortgage, fees, repairs all 15 years, she only paid the downpayment. I'd like to get some of that money out for my future and do not want to be financially tied up/on the hook. Aunt won't talk to me about this at all. Wrangling is now in my future.

It's a good financial decision if you do it with someone who is reasonable; this is a bad financial decision if you're dealing with someone who isn't.

This sounds tough. Hope it works out and would be interested in an update down the road, if you're comfortable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Marrying for “love”, not money.

same.

same same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

If it makes you feel any better, I know several people who were invested in the G fund for a lot longer than 2.5 years.

Can someone explain this to a curious non federal employee?

TSP is the equivalent of a 401k for gov't employees. The default investment for TSP is the "G Fund". If you opt to put money in and make no changes to your portfolio, it goes into the G Fund. The G Fund is essentially a savings account with about .2% interest.