Selling all my bitcoin at $1k thinking I was getting away with murder……. That and torching $350k on a EV startup stock that went to zero… super fun.
What is the worst financial mistake you made?
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Last: 10 mo ago by MouthBQ98
Selling my starter home in 2010. It was in Cedar Park (Austin area), and we sold it because we were moving to FL with plans to move back 3-5 years later. We ended up coming back after two years. Didn't want to be a long distance landlord, and frankly our cash position wasn't good enough to carry the risk. I sold it for 180k. It's work around 600k now, would likely be nearly paid off and generating at least $1000 a month in positive cash flow.
I sold Boeing stock at $33 a share and mocked Amazon as overvalued something like 20 years ago.
I also once bought a used Mercedes SUV.
I also once bought a used Mercedes SUV.
I bought Boeing at $30 during that time and a colleague who followed the market like crazy laughed and laughed at me. I sold a while later at $45 and laughed at him. Guess he got the last laugh.nortex97 said:
I sold Boeing stock at $33 a share and mocked Amazon as overvalued something like 20 years ago.
I also once bought a used Mercedes SUV.
Worst stock trade was TQQQ right before Covid hit. That black swan left a mark and hurt my pride. I was trading without stops. I had time to get out but I was too stubborn. Stock trading teaches you a lot about your pain tolerance.
Invest in Real Estate as early as possible even it it is a BIG stretch.
In hindsight, I should have taken all my 401K money and put into real estate. Screw the 3% match and taxes. I would be sitting on millions of real estate and earning thousands a month on rental income by now.
For long term holds only like 20-30 years as RE market will go up and own but in places like Texas tell me how this could go wrong in next 20-30 years. Some estimates add 30MM to population in that time frame.
Buying new cars. Such a waste.
Also, spending too much time counting pennies (being so frugal I mean) rather than spending that time looking for investments and other opportunities. Means taking some risks and living a little. The old days of working hard and saving a little for retirement don't work anymore.
In hindsight, I should have taken all my 401K money and put into real estate. Screw the 3% match and taxes. I would be sitting on millions of real estate and earning thousands a month on rental income by now.
For long term holds only like 20-30 years as RE market will go up and own but in places like Texas tell me how this could go wrong in next 20-30 years. Some estimates add 30MM to population in that time frame.
Buying new cars. Such a waste.
Also, spending too much time counting pennies (being so frugal I mean) rather than spending that time looking for investments and other opportunities. Means taking some risks and living a little. The old days of working hard and saving a little for retirement don't work anymore.
Well, lets take a little look see....
Buying these stocks for my HSA:
$SPCE at $19.34 / Share = -94.68%
$TDOC at $171.15/ share = -91.90% At least it was only 4 shares.
$CHGG at $25.14/ share = -72.76%
$CLOV at $2.33/ share = -72.13%
And about a dozen more all over 50% total loss.
Should have just bought VOO and been done with it.
Buying these stocks for my HSA:
$SPCE at $19.34 / Share = -94.68%
$TDOC at $171.15/ share = -91.90% At least it was only 4 shares.
$CHGG at $25.14/ share = -72.76%
$CLOV at $2.33/ share = -72.13%
And about a dozen more all over 50% total loss.
Should have just bought VOO and been done with it.
not buying 3 more Bitcoin when it was at $17,000 two years ago.aa4136 said:
Let me learn from your mistakes so I don't repeat them...
not buying more shares of Apple/Microsoft/Amazon/Tesla instead of paying for law school.
I wish I'd started building wealth sooner instead of spending so much of my earnings on crap. If we'd only understood the money value of time.
The wife and I did the bare minimum in our 401k's for the first seven-ish years of our careers. Still managed to grow about $140k in our portfolio. We got really serious and grew that balance tenfold in the next ten years. Pains me to think what that balance might be now if we'd started out serious to begin with.
The wife and I did the bare minimum in our 401k's for the first seven-ish years of our careers. Still managed to grow about $140k in our portfolio. We got really serious and grew that balance tenfold in the next ten years. Pains me to think what that balance might be now if we'd started out serious to begin with.
My in-laws once owned multiple rental properties in Bellaire ... small, older homes that didn't generate much income at the time.
In the early '70s, they sold them to buy a new home in Alief.
Fast-forward 30 years ...
In the early '70s, they sold them to buy a new home in Alief.
Fast-forward 30 years ...
In the missed opportunities collumn, not building a massive Bitcoin mining rig when it was trading at $0.80. My office mate and I were sure we could break even once Bitcoin broke above a dollar. But I got scared off because it was going to consume $600 per month in electricity and I wasn't sure how to explain that to my wife.
On the actual losses side, I let my wife move us because she basically needed a change of scenery. She hates where we moved so we're moving out 6 months later and we'll be lucky if we only lose $70k on the transaction.
On the actual losses side, I let my wife move us because she basically needed a change of scenery. She hates where we moved so we're moving out 6 months later and we'll be lucky if we only lose $70k on the transaction.
It wasn't huge but I got burned loaning money to friends on several occasions . I'm not talking $100, more like $2k in one case and $5k in the other. Nothing in writing . I didn't even put any terms on it . Pay me back when you can. Both disappeared . Won't do that again. Over 30 yrs ago… I guess they just never could get their finances straight
The take away for me , don't assume people have the same sense of pride and ethics that you have.
The take away for me , don't assume people have the same sense of pride and ethics that you have.
Without getting into actual dollar amounts, the biggest mistake I've made on an outright lost money basis is I didn't listen to my home inspector in the name of expediency of closing and a couple hundred bucks savings to get further inspections on an item buying a house because the home owners gave me a recent invoice indicating a potential problem had been resolved. So… I guess my mistake was cutting corners to close on a house… don't do that. Be thorough in your due diligence.
(This is alot more common than people realize, but "the American Dream" is just drilled in so hard so early...its hard for people to see anything else).permabull said:
Unpopular opinion, but I would be much richer now if I had not put so much down on my first home and instead kept it in the market. Massive opportunity cost that makes me sick to think about sometimes.
For me. I lumped some a sizable amount of cash in the market in Jan. 2022 (right before it entered bear market territory). It took about 18 months to get back to even on those investments. I wont be doing that again. If I have a slug of money I need to put into the market, I'll dollar cost average into it over the course of months.
Tex117 said:
For me. I lumped some a sizable amount of cash in the market in Jan. 2022 (right before it entered bear market territory). It took about 18 months to get back to even on those investments. I wont be doing that again. If I have a slug of money I need to put into the market, I'll dollar cost average into it over the course of months.
related I happened to well-time finally transferring my ~40K HSA from Optum to Fidelity to avoid monthly maintenance fees, which Optum sold the funds Apr 8 and projected to hit Fidelity this week
logic says I should rebuy in (VOO) the full balance immediately to lock in the discount, but would be psychologically easier to do in chunks even if just over a few days, still contemplating how to handle it
After the startup I was with was acquired, the company's stock was $43/share. I still say diversify and don't put all your eggs in 1 basket, but that stock is now $278 10 years later.
I wish I had not let the fear of finances keep me from having more kids. I wouldn't have admitted it at the time, but I know better now.
Not picking a career path that had more financial upside.
My 401k from first job in my 20s is worth double what my 2nd 401k from next 10yrs is worth and I contribute a ship ton more now than then. That 20s savings can retire you early, or you could spend it on bar tabs.Todd 02 said:
I wish I'd started building wealth sooner instead of spending so much of my earnings on crap. If we'd only understood the money value of time.
The wife and I did the bare minimum in our 401k's for the first seven-ish years of our careers. Still managed to grow about $140k in our portfolio. We got really serious and grew that balance tenfold in the next ten years. Pains me to think what that balance might be now if we'd started out serious to begin with.
I started late on my 401K too so now I'm putting almost 30% of my salary into my 401K to catch up and about as much goes into a taxable account, and HSA, wife's 401K is maxed out too
We're catching up fast but sure would have been easier a long time ago, let the markets work for us
We're catching up fast but sure would have been easier a long time ago, let the markets work for us
Not shorting DJT when it was at $70 a few weeks ago. Ok, not my worst mistake, but I was set to buy 50 contracts for $30 May, but clicked out of it. Would've certainly helped with the next vehicle purchase.
Not a mistake, just some advice. We had always been self employed & fairly good savers. We had a fee only advisor (since retired) that, after reviewing our whole situation, advised us to stop with our IRA's, SEP IRA's & the market etc. and go full force into real estate.
At that point we only had a 4-plex and maybe a couple of houses that we bought in rural East TX for CHEAP back then and the returns were an easy 18-20% and up. We are now "retired" although we feel like we work harder than ever and have 15 properties that we self manage. I only wish we had bought several of the ones we passed on during the run up on property values out here.
We did keep what was already in those initial investments & the market and those funds have done well but, he was right - the real estate has been way better.
At that point we only had a 4-plex and maybe a couple of houses that we bought in rural East TX for CHEAP back then and the returns were an easy 18-20% and up. We are now "retired" although we feel like we work harder than ever and have 15 properties that we self manage. I only wish we had bought several of the ones we passed on during the run up on property values out here.
We did keep what was already in those initial investments & the market and those funds have done well but, he was right - the real estate has been way better.
Buying AMD at $2.10 and selling at $8.
Buying ASML at $25 (2007) and selling at $32.
Working at Intel for 13 years.
Buying ASML at $25 (2007) and selling at $32.
Working at Intel for 13 years.
No one major mistake, but lifestyle creep got us. My wife and I both had pretty respectable salaries for our late 20s, but we spent so much of it. Cars (almost $2400/mo payment at one point on F250 and Expedition), eating out, misc shopping. Fast forward a few years to now, we have two young kids, and my wife stopped working to stay at home.
We have cut back so much to get by on one income, but I don't feel like there's much we're missing. Adding her salary back in to the equation would feel like we won the lottery. Our plan is for her to go back to work when the kids get in school and contribute 100% of her pay to retirement/investment properties.
We have cut back so much to get by on one income, but I don't feel like there's much we're missing. Adding her salary back in to the equation would feel like we won the lottery. Our plan is for her to go back to work when the kids get in school and contribute 100% of her pay to retirement/investment properties.
Feels like a lot of these are hindsight (I should have bought this thing that ended up going up in value) rather than actual mistakes. If everyone knew the future value of many of these things, then they would not have been obtainable at that price.
Valid points. While not my case as my wife and I and the kids have lived all over the world, and traveled extensively, the one that I see as a financial mistake by many of my patients is not using available financial resources when young. They work so feverishly to make these huge amounts of money, invest, become rich and then have all these plans to then travel the world when retired and one (or both) come down with a serious medical issue (or death) that ruins all that. If you are comfortable and have some extra money, use it to enjoy life - believe me, life is short.Proposition Joe said:
Feels like a lot of these are hindsight (I should have bought this thing that ended up going up in value) rather than actual mistakes. If everyone knew the future value of many of these things, then they would not have been obtainable at that price.
Overbought on my first house trying to keep up with the Jones'.
You're young, maybe single, maybe recently married, maybe one kid....you don't need a lot of area under one roof. In the beginning, buy small/cheap, or rent to get started and phase into more space over time if you need it.
You're young, maybe single, maybe recently married, maybe one kid....you don't need a lot of area under one roof. In the beginning, buy small/cheap, or rent to get started and phase into more space over time if you need it.
That's some real wisdom speaking. Once you lose your health, you're not getting it back. Take care of yourself.
Bought a brand new truck 2 months after graduating college. I was so smart I traded in that brand new truck on another brand new truck 2 years later.
It was starting to get us, too.MyNameIsJeff said:
No one major mistake, but lifestyle creep got us. My wife and I both had pretty respectable salaries for our late 20s, but we spent so much of it. Cars (almost $2400/mo payment at one point on F250 and Expedition), eating out, misc shopping. Fast forward a few years to now, we have two young kids, and my wife stopped working to stay at home.
We have cut back so much to get by on one income, but I don't feel like there's much we're missing. Adding her salary back in to the equation would feel like we won the lottery. Our plan is for her to go back to work when the kids get in school and contribute 100% of her pay to retirement/investment properties.
We got serious about using a budgeting tool (we use copilot) and set realistic budgets for each category. Insane how much money is pissed away on "cheap" amazon purchases.
The two most common financial mistakes I see people make are buying too much house and too much car relative to their income, especially when theyre young. I know friends leasing really expensive vehicles that they have no business leasing with their salary. Same goes for buying houses. If your entire savings and net worth are tied up in your house, thats probably not a good thing.
I made the mistake of buying a $26k car when I was making $35k in my 20's lol. Thankfully, it was just a small blip in my overall financial picture. I now buy used cars for cash and drive them until the wheels fall off.
I made the mistake of buying a $26k car when I was making $35k in my 20's lol. Thankfully, it was just a small blip in my overall financial picture. I now buy used cars for cash and drive them until the wheels fall off.
Lots of things I should have done (buy bitcoin 10 years ago, buy AMZN 20 years ago, etc.), but those weren't mistakes, just missed opportunities.
Actual mistakes, in timeline order...they get bigger as I got more $$$ to my name.
1. Bought a $8k motorcycle right out of college with no job, no income. $59/mo payments for a year, no big deal, I'll be employed soon. Wrecked bike in 2 months. $3500 in damage, basically totaled. Fixed it up, sold it, guy walked on me after $500 down payment...I repo'd it in the middle of the night. Ended it up selling it for $2500. So $8500 to buy (including interest), about $1000 to fix..in it for $9500, recovered about $3k. For a 23 year old with nothing, losing around $6500 was a huge deal.
2. A few years into my first job, I started trading options. Took $10k to about $50k in less than a year. Pulled cash out to go buy a car, thought better of it because I could turn that $50k into $200k. Ended up losing every penny. Then added more and more and more. Ended up losing ALL gains and dumping an additional probably $25-30k into the toilet (it was a casino at that point). Went so far as to take cash advances on my CC to dump into my trading account. Blew up my Roth Ira at same time...probably pissed away 10-15k in that account.
3. Bought all kinds of fly by night drilling/oil companies...EXXI being one them I think...rode them to zero...
4. Panic sold 1,000 shares of XLE during covid...including dividends, probably missed out on easy $50k.
When I started working, I put $50/week into a total market fund, and put my 401k and IRA contributions into boring funds like Fidelity Magellan and Contrafund (or similar). Then I got smart and started trading options and penny stocks and other crap I had no knowledge of. I should have just kept dumping every investable dollar into 'boring' funds...I'd probably be at least 5 years closer to retiring right now.
Actual mistakes, in timeline order...they get bigger as I got more $$$ to my name.
1. Bought a $8k motorcycle right out of college with no job, no income. $59/mo payments for a year, no big deal, I'll be employed soon. Wrecked bike in 2 months. $3500 in damage, basically totaled. Fixed it up, sold it, guy walked on me after $500 down payment...I repo'd it in the middle of the night. Ended it up selling it for $2500. So $8500 to buy (including interest), about $1000 to fix..in it for $9500, recovered about $3k. For a 23 year old with nothing, losing around $6500 was a huge deal.
2. A few years into my first job, I started trading options. Took $10k to about $50k in less than a year. Pulled cash out to go buy a car, thought better of it because I could turn that $50k into $200k. Ended up losing every penny. Then added more and more and more. Ended up losing ALL gains and dumping an additional probably $25-30k into the toilet (it was a casino at that point). Went so far as to take cash advances on my CC to dump into my trading account. Blew up my Roth Ira at same time...probably pissed away 10-15k in that account.
3. Bought all kinds of fly by night drilling/oil companies...EXXI being one them I think...rode them to zero...
4. Panic sold 1,000 shares of XLE during covid...including dividends, probably missed out on easy $50k.
When I started working, I put $50/week into a total market fund, and put my 401k and IRA contributions into boring funds like Fidelity Magellan and Contrafund (or similar). Then I got smart and started trading options and penny stocks and other crap I had no knowledge of. I should have just kept dumping every investable dollar into 'boring' funds...I'd probably be at least 5 years closer to retiring right now.
Yeah man...I hear ya. Having to manage the "emotional" side of it can be difficult, but must be done.EliteZags said:Tex117 said:
For me. I lumped some a sizable amount of cash in the market in Jan. 2022 (right before it entered bear market territory). It took about 18 months to get back to even on those investments. I wont be doing that again. If I have a slug of money I need to put into the market, I'll dollar cost average into it over the course of months.
related I happened to well-time finally transferring my ~40K HSA from Optum to Fidelity to avoid monthly maintenance fees, which Optum sold the funds Apr 8 and projected to hit Fidelity this week
logic says I should rebuy in (VOO) the full balance immediately to lock in the discount, but would be psychologically easier to do in chunks even if just over a few days, still contemplating how to handle it
All must be balanced.jwoodmd said:If you are comfortable and have some extra money, use it to enjoy life - believe me, life is short.Proposition Joe said:
Feels like a lot of these are hindsight (I should have bought this thing that ended up going up in value) rather than actual mistakes. If everyone knew the future value of many of these things, then they would not have been obtainable at that price.
https://texags.com/forums/5/topics/2907467/1Hanrahan said:
Selling all my bitcoin at $1k thinking I was getting away with murder……. That and torching $350k on a EV startup stock that went to zero… super fun.
Saw this in your post history. Interesting that Staff locked that topic.
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