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11-01-2016, 06:28 AM
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#61
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Alberta/Ontario/ Arizona
Posts: 3,393
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Divorce. Yes know all about it. Quite surprising that I didn't list that as my biggest financial mistake. I guess that means I have put it behind me.
I separated at 42. She got everything except my career. She only got a portion of that. Probably cost me about $5-10million over the last 25 years. Worth it. Still paying but plan to buy her an annuity in a year or two that will finally get her off my back. Actually all in all it worked out very well. For everyone.
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11-01-2016, 06:48 AM
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#62
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: May 2014
Location: Utrecht
Posts: 2,650
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 Quote:
Originally Posted by FIREmenow
Buying employer company stock on its way down. The WHOLE way down. Month after month, saying "how much worse could it get?" and buying more. Never recovered.
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I remember a bar discussion with friends. One guy to the other guy: Fortis is down xx% now, how much lower can it get?
Turns out, all the way to zero. 2008 for you. Hindsight 20/20 ..
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11-01-2016, 07:05 AM
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#63
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Dec 2015
Posts: 2,232
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Danmar
Divorce. Yes know all about it. Quite surprising that I didn't list that as my biggest financial mistake. I guess that means I have put it behind me.
I separated at 42. She got everything except my career. She only got a portion of that. Probably cost me about $5-10million over the last 25 years. Worth it. Still paying but plan to buy her an annuity in a year or two that will finally get her off my back. Actually all in all it worked out very well. For everyone.
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Good post. Just because it was expensive, doesn't mean it was a mistake.
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11-01-2016, 07:06 AM
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#64
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Midwest
Posts: 1,796
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Quote:
Originally Posted by erkevin
Fortunately, nothing too catastrophic. Purchased a small SUV and one year later convinced myself we need newer and bigger. Added 1 year to payments and $175 to each monthly payment. About a $15k mistake.
I have punished myself by still owning it and am going to drive it until it dies.
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Great attitude...my favorite comment today!
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11-01-2016, 07:12 AM
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#65
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Midwest
Posts: 1,796
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Not keeping the first two homes we purchased when we relocated here. We broke even on one, made a little on the second. If we had rented them out, instead of selling, they would be paid off now, worth about $450k and adding about $3500 a month income.
Had not started investing in rentals at that time, and did not understand the potential.
Best move was marrying my wife. Great head for numbers, kinda frugal, and is a real budgeting wiz! (Good looking, too!)
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11-01-2016, 07:36 AM
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#66
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: .
Posts: 382
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Investing in private placements, and buying Enron at its peak. No huge losses, and they taught me valuable lessons.
I do regret not buying Google at IPO, and Facebook when it tanked shortly after IPO, but by that time I was (and am) fanatically an index investor. I wanted to avoid the risk of single stocks. Enron taught me that, and it's probably for the better in the long run; for every Google and Facebook I might have bought, there would probably be ten total dogs I'd have been tempted to buy....
__________________
“We always may be what we might have been.” -- Adelaide Anne Procter
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11-01-2016, 10:10 AM
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#67
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Pacific latitude 20/49
Posts: 7,677
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__________________
For the fun of it...Keith
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11-01-2016, 02:05 PM
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#68
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 1,069
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This is the best thread in a long while.
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11-01-2016, 06:08 PM
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#69
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Jun 2016
Posts: 889
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One was "Investing" in an oil drilling parnership in mid 2014 right before prices collapsed.
Another was buying a vacation rental property in late 2003 that did not cash flow betting on appreciation rather than the core economics of the deal.
Threads like this are great as while we learn the most from our own mistakes, sometimes seeing the mistakes of others helps us avoid the same.
My own father gave me some advice when i graduated from college many years ago: "there will always be plenty of people who want to take your money"
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11-01-2016, 06:41 PM
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#70
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Alberta/Ontario/ Arizona
Posts: 3,393
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HadEnuff
Good post. Just because it was expensive, doesn't mean it was a mistake.
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Actually the divorce was one of the best things I have done. Very difficult though. 15 years of bitter litigation. I could say the original marriage was a big mistake, but not really as I got a great daughter out of the deal.
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11-01-2016, 08:50 PM
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#71
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Twin Cities
Posts: 3,941
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Moemg
Selling at the almost bottom in 2009 . Luckily it was only $20,000.
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+1. We were 100% Total Stock Index for years but, when it tanked, I discovered the value of diversification into 80/20. I blinked.
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11-04-2016, 12:43 PM
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#72
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 1,600
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thread statistics
Number of times that various areas in which mistakes were made were mentioned, ordered from most to least:
• common stock ownership: 13
• personal real estate: 11
• personal spending: 7
• marriage: 6
• employee stock options: 5
• employee stock ownership: 4
• business interest: 3
• investment real estate: 3
• partnership interest: 2
• bond mutual fund: 2
• choice of career: 2
• professional financial adviser: 2
• children: 1
• day trading: 1
• credit card debt: 1
• gambling - casino: 1
• disinheritance: 1
• individual bonds: 1
Most of the people posting on this thread seem to have made peace with their past mistakes, which I suppose is one of the keys to happiness. 
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11-05-2016, 09:12 AM
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#73
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: May 2014
Location: Utrecht
Posts: 2,650
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There is a nice poll hidden in there. Thanks for the summary.
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11-05-2016, 12:27 PM
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#74
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: May 2016
Location: Orange County Ca
Posts: 162
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I've had a few. A couple investing is stocks in my mid 20's at the recommendation of a father-in-law. Ouch! Single largest cost me $8,500 in an early mortgage loan pre-payment penalty.
In the early 2000s I did a refi at the unreal, lowest interest ever, cannot ever go lower rate of 6%. A few years later, when interest rates dropped to where I could do a 10 year at 3.25%, I bit the bullet and paid the penalty to get out of the loan. A lesson for sure in a number of ways.
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11-05-2016, 03:13 PM
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#75
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: May 2016
Location: San Jose
Posts: 59
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Biggest financial mistake was to become emotionally invested in a start up and holding onto stock options at the urging of the crazy CEO. Lost ~ $100k early in my career when I had very little savings. Learned a valuable lesson there......
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11-05-2016, 06:15 PM
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#76
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: near Phoenix
Posts: 189
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We invested $20,000 in supposedly Met Life viaticals thru a local banker at his recommendation. Later found out the company was fraud, the state of Florida took it over, we got about a third of our investment back thru court actions. The banker took bankruptcy. We could afford the lose but still leaves a bad taste in your mouth and a feeling of being stupid. The rest we took as a write off toward capital gain when selling rental houses.
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11-05-2016, 08:56 PM
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#77
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: The Great Wide Open
Posts: 3,804
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I always throw a stinger to DW on the fact that she cost me millions, beginning on the first date.
I had asked her out several times; she seemed interested but always turned me down.
She was a neighbor, lived in the other building.
It was a Saturday, I got home about 6:00 pm, had to make dinner and I had planned on studying that evening for a professional exam early Monday morning. She met me at my car in the parking lot and told me that she declined my prior umpteen invitations and I had better not decline hers now. Never opened a book that weekend, failed the exam by 1 point. I had to wait 1 month to retest, and get the promotion and hefty raise.
The missed $900/month raise, compounded over 35 years, including 6% matching in my 401k/investment plan, and I always maxed out my contributions, I'm sure is a mighty tidy sum. Next Saturday will be our 33rd anniversary, and what a tidy sum to pay for marital bliss.......
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11-05-2016, 11:28 PM
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#78
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: London/UK (dual US/UK citizen)
Posts: 502
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Winemaker
The missed $900/month raise, compounded over 35 years, including 6% matching in my 401k/investment plan, and I always maxed out my contributions, I'm sure is a mighty tidy sum. Next Saturday will be our 33rd anniversary, and what a tidy sum to pay for marital bliss.......
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A bargain. What a great story, told well.
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11-06-2016, 06:36 AM
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#79
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Dec 2015
Posts: 2,232
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Quote:
Originally Posted by krldrummerboy
Biggest financial mistake was to become emotionally invested in a start up and holding onto stock options at the urging of the crazy CEO. Lost ~ $100k early in my career when I had very little savings. Learned a valuable lesson there......
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ouch!
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11-06-2016, 07:19 AM
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#80
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: May 2014
Location: Utrecht
Posts: 2,650
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Winemaker
I had asked her out several times; she seemed interested but always turned me down.
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Did you ever find out why she declined so many times, followed by an outburst of bravery?
Just curious.
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