Expensive or just plainly Stupid mistakes you made and wish you didn't

[unclemick]

Backwardation and contango?? - in forty years I believe I've made every investment mistake in the book before becoming a Boglehead - EXCEPT commodities futures - toward which greed was drawing me of late until I read Bernstein's On Stuff in Efficient Frontier and decided I didn't really grasp what the heck he was talking about. Sooo - I'm saving that mistake till - perhaps later. Probably could have financed a couple decades with a financial planner using my mistake $.

heh heh heh - :

 

[Tracker]

I regret..........

(1) that I started smoking at 15. I quit the death sticks (reformed smoker here, we are the worst!) years ago and live a very healthy lifestyle. I wish I could unring that bell. I sincerely regret that I smoked through most of my 20's. Sigh

(2) anybody I hurt.

(3) What someone else said further up on the thread. Playing it safe work-wise.

 

[FinanceDude]

I regret..........

(1) that I started smoking at 15. I quit the death sticks (reformed smoker here, we are the worst!) years ago and live a very healthy lifestyle. I wish I could unring that bell. I sincerely regret that I smoked through most of my 20's. Sigh

(2) anybody I hurt.

(3) What someone else said further up on the thread. Playing it safe work-wise.

Like the sig............where were you when I was single?? DW doesn't like to fish, which is hard because I grew up fishing in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, on Lake Michigan and the Mississippi RIver................

 

[SteveR]

Marrying my first wife. Terrible financial mistake. The only good to have come out of that was my two kids.

Buying stock suggested by a broker. Lost it all in a year. Never again.

Started smoking when I was 13...stopped a hundred times...finally quit a few years ago (one of the BEST things I ever did).

Bought a house in Texas in 1986. Sold it at a 25% loss two years later. Ouch! Lost all my built up equity from the previous three houses I owned before that and had to take out a loan to pay off the difference between the house value and the mortgage. Took 3 years to pay that off and save for another house downpayment.

Etc.

 

[Mwsinron]

Being ignorant of my finances way too long

 

[Zoocat]

Being stupidly trusting of my ex-husband and not developing a lucrative career. The choices I made were always based on what was best for my kids and husband. So I worked part-time and that doesn't look so hot on your resume at age 55.

My finances turned out fine in the divorce. But if some circumstances outside his control had been slightly different it all could have easily gone very bad for me and I wouldn't be posting on this board right now.

 

[MikeD]

Mistakes:
Buying a boat, not liking it very much, and selling it cheap.

Buying a lake house for aforementioned boat, not liking it, and selling it at slight loss.

Buying a VW bus to work on, getting too sick to work on it, and have been trying to sell it for over 10 years.

Best things I ever did:
Marrying my wife.
Getting a degree.

Mike D.

 

[REWahoo]

I'm not really all that clear on the details, but I know I will forever regret uttering the phrase, "Bubba, hold my beer and watch this."

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

I'm not really all that clear on the details, but I know I will forever regret uttering the phrase, "Bubba, hold my beer and watch this."

 

[HobbyDave]

Panic Mistakes:

1. Sold 15k worth of stock near its lowest point in at least 10 years. Within 1.5 years it would have been worth at least 45k.

2. Also turned off investments in that stock while it sat at a low point for a couple years. Would have gotten more stock currently worth another 50k or so during that time period.

3a. Decided to invest in individual stocks with my rolled over 401k.

3b. Decided to sell said individual stocks when they dropped heavily over the next couple weeks. They went right back up a week or so later, but I'd lost around 10% on my money. It took awhile to gain that back.

Just not thinking mistakes:

1. This is a good one. Decided to buy and put money down on a new house on a quick 1 day decision. It was "Hey nice house, quick lets put money down before it's gone" (new construction). Here's the thinking that lead to and resulted from this decision:

a. We don't want to put kids in day care, so if we're going to have kids, one of us needs to quit their job.

b. We might not want kids, so we need to decide before moving.

c. Ok, this house we're looking at seems great for kids, it's huge, has 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bath, full basement, etc. Lets buy it quick before the price goes up anymore.

d. We can't have kids because we can't afford the house on only one salary. We can't move because it's new construction and pre-owned home prices aren't going up in the area (and are selling slow). We'd kill our equity with Realtor commissions. It's just shocking looking back that we could have been so dumb

2. Invested wifes entire 401k in her company stock when her company stock fell on a spur of the moment decision. Was saved from stupid mistake by her company stock rising the next day and I was able to sell for a nice profit. Learned never to do that again while actually gaining money

That's about all I can think of right now.

 

[brewer12345]

Not something that cost me money, but:

- Never throwing caution to the wind and spending a week/month/year/decade doing interesting stuff. I've always chosen the safe, remunerative, societally-approved route. Have to say I am beginning to think I missed out for good.

 

[figner]

Not something that cost me money, but:

- Never throwing caution to the wind and spending a week/month/year/decade doing interesting stuff. I've always chosen the safe, remunerative, societally-approved route. Have to say I am beginning to think I missed out for good.

Never too late, I say - would it be difficult to get away from the responsibilities for just a week at this point?

My stupid mistakes:

Spent a summer working abroad in Europe, but wasted most of my free time holed up in my room writing moony love letters to a crush back home (which didn't work out once I returned to the US). Wish I'd checked out the town a lot more, done weekend trips, hung out with locals more...

Didn't read much about asset allocation and diversification till a year or so ago, though I've been investing for nearly a decade. So I missed much of the last several years runup in non-US investments, and now feel like a performance chaser.

 

[brewer12345]

Never too late, I say - would it be difficult to get away from the responsibilities for just a week at this point?

Haaaaaaahahahaha!

2 small kids, 2 dogs, wife, heavy duty job. I'm lucky to get an afternoon to myself every 6 months.

 

[SecondCor521]

Ignoring my intuition shortly before Christmas Day, 1990 and asking my girlfriend to marry me.

But I do have three really great kids out of the deal, and honestly the marriage itself wasn't bad except at the very end.

2Cor521

 

[Gumby]

Not something that cost me money, but:

- Never throwing caution to the wind and spending a week/month/year/decade doing interesting stuff. I've always chosen the safe, remunerative, societally-approved route. Have to say I am beginning to think I missed out for good.

Same here.

 

[SteveR]

Not something that cost me money, but:

- Never throwing caution to the wind and spending a week/month/year/decade doing interesting stuff. I've always chosen the safe, remunerative, societally-approved route. Have to say I am beginning to think I missed out for good.

Not for good unless you are no longer alive to do some of these "wild and crazy" things. Don't discount today as a chance to do what you truly want to do. It is all about choices. You control what you do or don't do.

 

[Gumby]

Every choice has consequences. The consequence of just taking off to do something interesting is a permanent delay in my retirement date. At this point, the end is in sight. I think I can gut it out for a few more years and then quit forever.

 

[Sparky]

That I didn't retire earlier...

 

[bssc]

Ignoring my intuition shortly before Christmas Day, 1990 and asking my girlfriend to marry me.

Funny, I did the same thing. However, after the divorce, a similar "opportunity" came up and I listened and avoided a second bad marriage.

 

[Tracker]

"Like the sig............where were you when I was single?? DW doesn't like to fish, which is hard because I grew up fishing in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, on Lake Michigan and the Mississippi RIver................"

Thank you for the compliment on my sig. My mom was French Canadian and my dad loved to fish. We spent all of our free time fishing, which was not something my friends in Pittsburgh could relate to. It sort of pegged me as an odd girl, and I basically tried to hide it and seldom mentioned it to my peers growing up.

Now, it is cool and chic and has the "je ne sais quoi" quality that I love to Bass fish and I am a professional woman. I guess I was ahead of my time.
<shrugging shoulders> 8)

 

[HFWR]

Bumper stickers:

I got a fishing boat for my wife. Pretty good trade, huh?

Or, how 'bout:

My wife said if I went fishing one more time, she'd leave me. I'm sure gonna miss her...

As for my fishing ability, let's just say that the fish are safe around me, unless I happen to hit one in the head with a rattle-trap...

 

[brewer12345]

Not for good unless you are no longer alive to do some of these "wild and crazy" things. Don't discount today as a chance to do what you truly want to do. It is all about choices. You control what you do or don't do.

*Sigh* That's the hope, anyway. At the moment, its all pie in the sky for a number of years.

 

[heyyou]

Bought into limited partnerships with all of my savings in the late '70s in Phoenix. Lost it all, then owed taxes on the prior tax deductions.

Passed on non-callable 13.75% zero coupon bonds, waiting for the rate to return to 14%. Was also uncomfortable with knowing i would owe taxes on $65K phantom income just from those bonds in 20 years. I was making almost $30K annually then and assumed that I always would. It didn't cross my mind that i could sell some to pay taxes on the rest.

Hired an advisor in the late '80s who charged 2% and used high expense funds, some were those that give a .25% kickback annually to the seller, not to the fund purchaser. He kept my IRA separate from the taxable account to avoid hitting a breakpoint that would benefit me. He retired at 50.

To diversify, I sold over 3000 shares of ESPP stock after the price did nothing for two years. The IPO schedule was announced shortly after I sold. Missed about $200K there since the IPO was priced at 4 multiples of the previous price. A co-worker with the same career income, bet it all on company stock for 30 years, then retired to Maui. The risk just didn't catch up to him.

 

[Dog]

DH and I bought into two Limited Partnerships, one in Apple Valley, CA and the other in Lake Tapps, WA during the early 90's. Both went belly up. We got some of our money back on the Lake Tapps. Also, bought into a Whole Life Policy that we paid into for several years. We were in our late 20's and I was doing well in sales - we thought we were being prudent investing the extra income from my commission checks rather than spending on a bigger lifestyle. I figure we lost about $25k....ouch! Lucky for us it didn't sour us on LBYM and saving.

 

[Linney]

1. Bought an oriental rug as an "investment". ha ha. Finally got rid of it gifted it as a wedding present to a friend who was a middle eastern dancer but then I had to look at my mistake every time I visited her house. Stupid twice!

2. Rented a moving truck and declined insurance coverage without verifying that our car insurance would cover it in case of accident (it didn't, and the agent was very helpful in pointing out the specific clause in the contract which exempted vehicles with more than 4 wheels). Over $10,000 out-of-pocket cost to cover the damages. Argh!


My younger colleagues flatter me -- they tell me how smart I am about so many things. What they don't realize is how I obtained that knowledge via the school of semi-hard knocks <ouch>