X-Post from GD: What's the worst financial decision you've made?

[BlueIris]

Come on, share your pain with me, Loungers.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

1. I bought Star Trek Nemesis on DVD

[BlueIris]

2. Hee. That almost beats my viewing of "The Village"...in the theater.

At night. Paid for with my own money.

[Crazy Dave]

24. I use "The Village" as a main example of why there's organized religions

Whenever it's brought up in a discussion or a debate.

[datasuspect]

3. i spent the whole check on booze and hookers

sorry, timmy, you can't eat this week

[Casper Alabaster]

9. booze'n'hookerz?

Hell yeah! I did that once, and the rest of the money I wasted.
I look back upon it now as an 'investment'.:smoke:

[NewJeffCT]

11. as I was going through my divorce 8-9 years back

I spent a ton of money on strippers... those lap dances add up quickly.

[Casper Alabaster]

14. Hey man, you and me both helped to educate some strippers;

the smart ones got in on the ground floor of the internet, and are now discreetly purging Google of their interracial indiscretions with midgets!:silly:

[NewJeffCT]

18. Hopefully

At least a few of them put the money to good use. I was a frequent enough customer at one club in 1999 and 2000 that one woman that I hope is now an ex-dancer recognized me a mere few weeks ago... unfortunately, I'm guessing that the money she made didn't go to good use as she was working at some makeover store in the local mall.

[Casper Alabaster]

22. There's a lot of pathos;

you never know where the paths in life will lead you, and all the people you can remember meeting.

[NewJeffCT]

23. The odd thing is...

she hardly ever danced for me while she worked there. she knew me well enough to not even bother to ask.

[Casper Alabaster]

28. I think you should sue. n/t

:spank:

[KG]

4. latest worst; falling in love with a psycho.

[Z_I_Peevey]

74. Been there, suffered that, too.

:hug:

[Droopy]

5. Buying a fixer upper house

I paid $70,000 for it. Worked on it in my spare time for 6 months. Put $17,000 into it. Sold it for a profit of about $400. It was on the market for almost a year.

[Casper Alabaster]

6. This is harsh, but real...

I actually bought Iraqi Dinars, the currency. I have the makings for a cool poster, or expensive toilet paper.
At least Saddam's portrait isn't on their money any more. That's how the World knows Iraq is free now.
I spent a few hundred dollars for hundreds of thousands in new Iraqi dinar; it's definitely stupid, but not enough to break me.
OK, that was cathartic, BlueIris.:D

[Droopy]

7. Welcome to DU, Casper

Hey, you never know. Those Dinars could be worth thousands some day. Give it a little time. By the way, my cat's name is Casper. She's a stray that we adopted around Halloween one year. She is also completely white. We thought Casper was fitting.

[Casper Alabaster]

8. Thanks for the kind welcome Droopy,

but I'm under no illusions that NID (new Iraqi dinar) is going to be the new Deutschmark of 1950.
Oh well.:dunce:

[Casper Alabaster]

17. Wow cool, I'm like your cat's internet uncle!

And I'm an alabaster n00b! I love the Lounge @ DU. It's alright, it's a stream-of-consciousness thing, but it might get toasty in GD...

[BlueIris]

54. Nah, GD's not that bad.

You should go hang out there. Nice people; fair and balanced discussion. Good times.

[NewJeffCT]

10. My first marriage

my ex-wife spent money like she was Paris Hilton - yet, I only was an accountant, and not the owner of a worldwide chain of hotels. Unfortunately, while I was good with other people's money, I was semi-blind to her spending.

[SacredCow]

32. I had a similar experience with mine....

Except my ex WAS the accountant and should have known better. In hindsight, she was waiting for me to sell a parcel of land that was my separate property so she could get her hands on it.

[NewJeffCT]

63. Luckily for me

My wife now is just the opposite of my ex - she fights for every penny. When there was a $1 ATM charge on our bank statement (for using another bank's ATM) she called up & argued with them, and finally got a positive answer on the 3rd call - yes, she kept calling them until she finally got somebody to take the charge off of our statement.

And, unlike my ex who had to have a drink or two every time we went to a restaurant, my wife & I are both happy to have water to drink if we go out to eat.

[raccoon]

65. Good for you that you got past that first unpleasant experience

(your first marriage), and realized that not ALL women were like that.

[SacredCow]

69. I guess I'm not so good then....

Of course, accepting my gay-ness kind of implies that I'll never get married again..... LOL

[NewJeffCT]

70. That thought never even crossed my mind

Unlike George Bush, I tend to blame myself for everything that goes wrong in my life... which is probably why I got my first grey hairs in high school.

So, when my ex spent money hand-over-foot, I blamed mostly myself for not being able to convince her to live within our means and that I didn't work hard enough to find a full-time job for her - since she was relocating from outside the immediate area, she had quit her job a few months before we got married, and then decided to take some time after we got marriage to adjust to the new area, new home, etc... and, when she finally decided to find a job, it was working part-time as a waitress at a local restaurant. (Amazingly, despite her being generally idle for the first few months of our marriage, I still ended up doing most of the housework. Silly me thinking it would help with her 'adjustment')

[kedrys]

12. Not filing for bankruptcy the first time the guy against whom we

won the settlement was late making a payment on the ex-house. The house was still in our names, and the whole thing pretty much destroyed our credit. Now that the bankruptcy laws have been rewritten by corporatist nazis, we're not sure what's going to happen when we file (we have very little choice at this point). :scared: :mad:

[Casper Alabaster]

15. kedrys, you're actually responding to the OP!

What you've done here is far riskier than what I've done. Whenever you need to hire a lawyer, you've made a financial move...:scared:

[kedrys]

35. That's what happens when I post before I wake up...

I'm grouchy in the morning. :P

Welcome to DU! Glad to have you with us. :hi:

[BlueIris]

53. Hi, there.

Enjoy your stay. Short though it will no doubt be.o

[Maineiac]

13. Getting married to someone who is fiscally irresponsible

No matter what our incomes were, she always found a way to outspend it. We just filed bankruptcy to be followed by a divorce. I may be old, broke, and alone, but I will owe no one. It's cash only from here on.

[NewWaveChick1981]

29. I feel your pain.

:hug: His income is sporadic because he's a freelance artist, but he ALWAYS has plans for my income. I have to put my foot down regularly, and he doesn't see why. He can outspend anyone I've ever met, and he has no concept of what the word "budget" means. :( It's a major point of contention in our marriage.

Example: Our Federal tax refund this year is about $1800. I want to put the $1800 in savings. He wants to put a privacy fence in back of our property. Now while this would be nice, it's not a necessity, and he actually didn't even ask me if I thought it was a good idea. When he told me what he was "going" to do, it caused yet another argument. :( That $1800 only resulted because of my work. I was open to the idea of joint finances when we got married, but I'd never, ever do it again with anyone. I've been burned too many times.

[Wapsie B]

33. Same here.

God how I can relate!

[Nikia]

38. Me too

This was sort of predictable when we had to take one of those premarital counseling tests that gauged our capatibility on a wide range of subjects. For most areas, we scored at 70-80%. For the area of finances, we scored 0%. Unfortunately, his financial irresponsibility has rubbed off more on me than the other way around. I mean, if he is buying things, why shouldn't I be allowed to buy things too.

[mike_c]

46. hello-- been there, got the shirt....

And the swing side actually IS a lot better.

[trof]

16. 1. Riding the dotcom death spiral down to a 40% loss in IRA.

2. Hiring a professional money manager.
And not firing him sooner.
Not until he'd lost half of what I'd given him to invest.

[crim son]

37. Was my STBEx husband your money manager?

You're lucky you retained sixty percent. I lost eighty with him telling me that I "had no nerves" and didn't understand how the market works. Now we've both figured it out but my money is gone, and he never had any. :eyes:

[trof]

41. Ha. Not unless you lived in Spanish Fort, AL.

And he seem like such a smart guy.

[Connonym]

19. how to choose?

Hiring my beau as my mortgage broker and trusting him over what it said in the fine print. Boy did I get screwed -- a 2 year ARM but with a 3 year prepayment penalty. He swore it wasn't legal in WI so it wouldn't be enforced. Yeah, mmhmm.

[Lost-in-FL]

20. Using a credit card to put a down payment on a car

I wanted it real bad and I paid a lot for that dumb decision.

[Casper Alabaster]

25. I used cash-American on the barrelhead,

not so much credit, for my ride. I have a shameful part to play in financing auto dealerships, and their sullen people from finance. Never again.

[trof]

42. I once used a credit card to BUY a car.

Paid it off at the end of the month though.

[BarenakedLady]

21. Some stocks that tanked

Getting the walkway done the same time school taxes were due.

Although, oddly these were not MY decisions exactly. Hmmmmm

[femmocrat]

26. I bought stocks that were recommended by that jerk, Cramer!

Of course, they tanked. Never, never buy stocks that are touted on TV.

[Common Sense Party]

60. Never trust a man who screams, sweats, throws chairs, and

claims to know exactly what will happen to the price of EVERY stock traded over the counter or on an exchange.

And don't trust hot stock tips, no matter WHERE they come from.

[Crazy Dave]

27. A brand new '99 Ford Ranger

To this day, even though my oldest son owns it now, I've put more money in repairs due to poor quality parts and even more sorry engineering than all the vehicles I've owned in my lifetime combined. I've had used vehicles that were almost 20 years old that were more reliable than that Ranger that I bought new.

[mike_c]

48. sitting in my driveway is the first new vehicle I've bought in ten years....

A 2007 Ford Ranger. :scared:

Just made the first payment.

[electron_blue]

30. Not doing a 'do-it-yourself' divorce when my stbx was in a generous mood.

oy vey

[Kali]

31. buying a new vehicle off the lot

drove it home and the dog that looked so cute riding on the hood of the old pick-up promptly jumped up on the new one and scratched the crap out of it. It was a good truck, and it did smell good but we paid WAY too much for it.

[Cannikin]

34. Investing all my money in CDs...

and DVDs.

[bif]

36. Selling Apple stock when it went down to around 55

I knew it was going to go back up. I had to rebuy it at 70. At least it's in the 90s now.

[Fleshdancer]

39. Purchasing the house when we were in MN

My husband and I were overly eager to buy our first home and we made just about every first time homebuyer mistake there was. If we could go back in time, we would have done our homework first and purchased something cheaper and smaller.

[slj0101]

40. Selling all my baseball cards at a community yard sale for $5.

And not just Baseball, but football cards, movie cards (like Star Wars, Rocky and Jaws), and my Kiss trading cards. Five bucks was a lot of money to a seven-year-old. :(

[Name removed]

43. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[av8rdave]

44. Marrying my first wife

Well, that and I bought Worldcom at 45. Sold it at .45. It was so easy to do the math!

[idgiehkt]

45. student loans

definitely. I wasn't responsible enough to be taking out loans at the time...never should have done it.

[mike_c]

47. student loans had the biggest IMPACT on my finances for life...

...I mean, I'll never actually be able to pay them all off during this lifetime-- I wonder how they're gonna work that out?-- but I don't really think of that as a financial mistake. It was an unfortunate financial necessity, but I love how my degrees changed my life and my profession.

[idgiehkt]

51. my story:

defaulted. filed bankruptcy just to get the collectors off my back (bad decision, definitely should have let them take me to court and garnish my wages because at the time they could only take 10%, don't know what it is now). Bankruptcy discharged in late 90's. Attorney had messed it up and forgot to caculate interest for the length of the bankrupty. 2 years after discharge I run my credit reports and their are major overdue payments, like 12 months overdue for 12 months, because the collectors came after me for the interest which I didn't even know about for a couple of years, so I had to pay that off, even though it is still on my credit as way overdue. This could possibly be on my credit until I am in my early 40's...and I left college in 1988. It is just a ridiculous thing and I so wish I'd gone to community college, gotten a trade like nursing or something, and put myself through a liberal arts degree paying as I went if that is what I so desired...but hindsight is 20/20. I still have a decent credit rating despite those student loans but I've definitely put off even thinking about buying a house until I have a better fico score because of that, probably my mid forties at the very earliest.

[jrandom421]

49. Not being able to raise $800 in the summer of '79

so that I could move to Seattle and start a job in computer hardware testing with a new company that had relocated from New Mexico. I could have been Microsoft employee #33.

[BlueIris]

55. You're the second embittered would-have-been Microsoft millionaire

to post in one of these threads.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=496004&mesg_id=496343

[Serendipitous]

50. Getting involved with a drug addict.

Twice.

You'd think I'd learn. :banghead:

[mentalsolstice]

52. Law school!

I came out with a total $40,000 debt. Never got a well paying job in the legal field. Ended up working as a webmaster, (miserable corporate job that it paid well although there were absolutely no educational requirements), for a large bank to pay the student loans off. My niece is now looking at the same law school, 20 years later...it's now about $65,000 PER YEAR! I keep telling her she needs to be very sure that's what she wants to do.

Other bad investment...several years ago we bought a pop-up camper for $5000 and a small-to-mid-size SUV to tow it. Now we can't afford the fuel for either.

[Generic Brad]

56. I used a new student loan to pay off an older student loan

I did not understand anything about deferments, forbearances, or debt consolidation.

[Digit]

57. Selling my home in N Arlington in 1997 when it was almost paid off

I got $280K and now it is worth $900K.
My timing was a tad "off".

Marrying my last husband....it cost me $25,000 to get rid of him and that was not even going through child support or custody.

Selling my home in San Diego back in 1979.

You name it, I have made a mess.

Now that I have confessed this, I am going to push it back into my distant memories that I prefer not to think about.

[trackfan]

58. Basically, all of them

with the possible exception of buying my house.

[Nicole]

59. Co-signing a loan for a family member.

I'm much wiser now but it was an expensive to learn.

[Cobalt-60]

61. I earned a degree in Aeronautical Engineering

I wouldn't trade the knowledge I gained for anything.
It never led to the career it should have. The space age was over and I didn't see it.
I should have gone into crime instead.
It appears to pay quite well.

[Deep13]

62. College and then law school...

...which have not paid for themselves.

[Jimbo S]

64. Invested in baseball cards in the early 90's.

around $1000, but I still have the cards and if I ever sell off some individual cards I would recoup some of the money. At least I'm secure in knowing people out there spent more than that.

As for personal finances, I've had good luck so far. Hopefully it can continue another 20 years. Wife and I are on the same page financially. Yet to have an arguement.

[Jimbo S]

68. Oh yeah, the $4,000 I blew getting my MCSD

right before the dot-com went bust. But the cert looks pretty hanging on the wall!

[LSK]

66. I loaned someone down on his luck $400 to fix his car

Never got the money back, and lost contact with the dude. Oh well.

[Dora]

67. Blowing off my student loans.

Mmmm, tasty debt!

[TommyO]

71. Making car and insurance payments for my ex

He owes me around $3000 that I'll never see again.

[Shell Beau]

72. Not taking enough out of each check for taxes. I am self-employed

and taxes aren't taken out for me, so I estimated about how much I think I owed!! Bad decision. Now I pay quarterly and it is sooo easy.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

73. Time Share

I actually gave it back to the company, after they hit me with yet another zillion dollars in annual maintenance fees. I tried selling it for about six months, but with the glut of new time shares on the market, I never even got an offer. So I literally gave it away.

[Z_I_Peevey]

75. I'm heartened by the lack of Beanie Baby losses in this thread.

Hey, at least we're not that pathetic.

[ForrestGump]

76. Marriage

To the person I married, anyway. She destroyed me, financially.

We both worked the first four years or so, and had decent-paying jobs, but when I went to grad school she stopped and did not work again (a few very part-time stints aside) for 12 years. You can't support two people on what a grad student makes, even a grad student who wins additional fellowship money from the Feds. My subsequent postdoc paid very well, but she blew all that, too, and put the finishing touches on the marriage during the same time. Big money I made from TV work also vanished. I lived modestly and she lived not only beyond our means but, of course, far beyond her own (almost zero) contribution. Credit card debt blew up quickly under her reign.

We get on well now, but I may always resent her so thoroughly gutting me, fiscally. I almost ended up totally destitute, a wandering penniless type. I am beginning to save some money now, thanks to raking it in lately with my current work, but I have huge student loans (none of which I would have had if I'd been solo through grad school -- I won a prestigious fellowship that gave me more money than my peers enjoyed) that are currently deferred but will still be there to pay later...they're not discharged by bankruptcy.

Yep, I still deeply resent her doing that to me. And especially so when she spent so extravagantly during (related to) her period of infidelity....in the course of my detective work I discovered that she spent a month's worth of my salary in one day, overseas (overseas at that point to me being the US) with the greasy little f*** she was messing around with.

Bitch.