My mother inherited interest in a partnership from her second husband. A couple of years ago, she made a $230k mistake with respect to this partnership. She can afford it, but nevertheless feels badly about her mistake.
I've been fortunate in my own financial affairs. The two major mistakes I made with regard to finances were when I was just starting out as an investor (30 years ago), so I didn't have much to lose. Each of these mistakes cost me about 15% of my then-tiny net worth:
(1) making an investment based on a prediction of the direction of a change in interest rates; and
(2) following the advice of a Merrill Lynch broker regarding investing in a closed-end fund new stock issue. Only later did I discover the broker had a conflict of interest, being compensated by the fund for peddling its shares.
Has anyone made a financial mistake comparable to or exceeding my mother's (I hope not ... )?
I've been fortunate in my own financial affairs. The two major mistakes I made with regard to finances were when I was just starting out as an investor (30 years ago), so I didn't have much to lose. Each of these mistakes cost me about 15% of my then-tiny net worth:
(1) making an investment based on a prediction of the direction of a change in interest rates; and
(2) following the advice of a Merrill Lynch broker regarding investing in a closed-end fund new stock issue. Only later did I discover the broker had a conflict of interest, being compensated by the fund for peddling its shares.
Has anyone made a financial mistake comparable to or exceeding my mother's (I hope not ... )?