What's the worst financial decision you've made?

[BlueIris]

I'm putting this in GD instead of the Lounge because of its topical connection to the mortgage crisis, perceived impact of bankruptcy bill and other economic issues on our minds right now. Mods can move if necessary.

[jilln]

1. Buying a Compaq computer

what a piece of crap.

[Quixote1818]

4. I have had nothing but good luck with my Compaq.

It was dirt cheep and it usually runs faster than my Dad's Dell.

Maybe mine was made on a Tuesday?

[jilln]

17. This was about 10 years ago...

Maybe they are better now.

You wouldn't believe the trouble I had... everything conflicting with everything, I would lose the sound or the picture or files randomly, it turned itself on and off...

I always swore when I got rid of it I'd take it to the Compaq HQ and smash it in their lobby but of course I didn't.

[progdonkey]

7. buying an Alienware laptop...

$3500 for a "game machine" that couldn't handle anything without crashing, and needed to have the graphics card replaced twice: the first graphics card made DVDs stutter during playback and had a fan that made an awful grinding noise; the second wouldn't even let the computer get past POST; and the third lasted about a month before crashing in every single game, no matter how low the tech specs.

Piece. Of. Shit.

[jilln]

16. Ouch!

[GOPNotForMe]

2. Not investing in Apple stock 3 years ago when it cost less than half its worth now!

Still regretting that!

[jgraz]

6. Hanging on to my Apple options through the crash

and then quitting before they climbed back up.

[Big Pappa]

3. Letting

companies take out my bill via direct deposit. Ouch.

[karlrschneider]

14. I pay most of my bills that way and haven't had any problems.

What happened to you? (It's chump change in any case unless some company ripped you off for a few thou...)

[MissB]

5. When I was 23, I cashed out a retirement account

instead of rolling it over. The short term gain really wasn't worth it, but hindsight is 20/20.

[Clark2008]

8. Getting a divorce from my first husband.

However, that was still the most sane decision I ever made, just the same.

[Mz Pip]

19. Marrying my first husband

By time the divorce came there wasn't much left to lose.

He was a financial clusterfuck. He just had to have the Lotus, the motorcycle, the fancy stereo. Then he just had to have his secretary. I think she ended up on the short end of that stick - paying off all those loans.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[uppityperson]

23. Marrying the ex also.

Should have just lived with him. What is mine is mine and, because it is a community property state, 1/2 of what is yours is mine also. Nothing fancy, just a greedy insecure obsessive compulsive.

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. Buying a house in a bad location

Took over a year to sell it and we profited all of $850.

[frogcycle]

10. riding a bunch of stocks all the way down in the dot-com crash

[nevergiveup]

21. Me too!

How could I have been so stupid? I will never understand.

[A Brand New World]

11. Buying our current house before our old house was sold or

at least having a contract on it. Our old house has been on the market now for 10 months with not so much as a nibble. Of course the housing market would have to crash just as we made this move.

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. Been there and done that

You have my sympathy. I know exactly what you are going through.

[jilln]

18. Is there a right way to do that?

I mean if you wait, then you have a ridiculously short time to house shop and the new one won't close before the old one, so you have nowhere to live.

And if you wait til you get a contract, the deal could always fall through anyway.

[Hav]

12. .

Clearly investing my money in stocks.
Whatever I do, keeping some too long, selling some too early, it's always the wrong decision ;).

[Raine]

15. I made a horrible investment

in 1999 that cost me $25.000. :cry:

[1620rock]

20. Buying a Ford before I was old enough to know better.

[AmandaRuth]

22. buying a house that necessitated a LONG commute

because i thought the school district would be better for my daughter.

I didn't have enough confidence in myself or her to realize that she would thrive in any environment she was in, and now I am stuck with a 3 hour commute (on good days), which basically adds another week of work to each month.

ps It is less than a bedroom community and there are no jobs paying higher than maybe $1.00 over min wage, so I commute to the big city as the wages are much better.

[Vox Acerbus]

24. I held on to about 75% of my employee stock options - in WORLDCOM

I started out at UUNET, got lots of cheap, cheap stock. Company got bought, and bought, and eventually bought by WCOM.

I didn't divest enough, fast enough. Lost well over a half million dollars, on paper.

My husband manages the finances now.

[wiggs]

38. The only individual stock I owned was Worldcom. Bought in repeatedly at the

suggestion of Smith Barney (auditors of Worldcom who also pushed investor clients to buy). It was part of my SEP-Ira pension and I lost about 10 grand. Almost everything that my Smith Barney advisor has suggested has not panned out.

[Vox Acerbus]

39. Did you hear about that lawsuit?

There was a lawsuit against SSB sometime around 2000 for just that reason. It was the branch out of Atlanta that got sued for peddling WCOM stock on the advice of Jack Grubman, illegally.

I had an SSB advisor too, and yeah, they kept giving bad advice. Fortunately, I didn't take margin loans out against my stock, as they suggested to many other people. SSB is evil.

[1monster]

25. Getting married and having a kid... Been in the red ever since. NT

[alittlelark]

26. My husband was hired at Microsoft in 1986

Straight out of Stanford w/ an MBA. He left after 4 months because he didn't think their model would work - they didn't 'produce' anything.

You DO NOT WANT TO KNOW how much the stock would have been worth if we stayed there for 2 years....

[Ghost in the Machine]

27. using my workers comp settlement to open a restaurant....

what was I thinking? Seriously... I've used everything I got in less than 6 months... now I'm waiting for the payback to come... it's starting to turn around slowly, but it just doesn't seem fast enough for me.

[valerief]

28. Not being born wealthy. nt

[tomreedtoon]

29. Being born in America.

No one will retire, no one will have any money. The financial apocalypse will hit everybody, no matter how many stupid investment schemes they try, no matter how many infomercial "no money down" schemes they try. My only satisfaction is that we're all going down to the hobo jungle together, but you won't be prepared to eat rats for survival. I will.

[Forkboy]

30. That purchase of fifty tons of aluminum.

Hell,I still got some out back...

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

33. Go To The 9/11 Forum And Name Your Price. There Are Plenty Of Folk There In Need Of More Aluminum!

:)

[Forkboy]

36. Who do you think baught the first forty tons?

:)

[LEW]

31. Buying a home that ended up being full of mold

Bought a fixer upper for a good price in a great neighborhood. We found it was completly filled with mold, lost everything we owned and alot of money.

Please be ready for the completely unexpected when buying a fixer upper, (this was our third one, and we thought we knew what we were doing) even an inspection would not have found the mold as it was completely hidden.

[AZBlue]

32. Taking out student loans

[moondust]

35. Same here. n/t

[Contrary1]

34. Buying our first home back in '75

We closed on a Wednesday, found out I was pregnant on Thursday, and that Friday my husband was told he would be laid off in a couple weeks. Didn't see those last two coming at all.

We held on as long as we could. Used a neighbor's old chest-type coke machine for a refrigerator. Some nights dinner was a canned vegetable and butter bread. On the day our first child was due, I was helping the hubby load a piano, and our other meager possessions into a moving van, and headed for our new home...a rather crappy 2 bedroom apartment. Luckily, she was late.

Pretty tough times, and it took us a while to recover, but we made it.

[fed-up]

37. cashing checks sent unsolicited from credit cards co's when I was ill-best

was selling house last Nov, surviving the real estate bubble and buying down and being debt free, actually that is second best, first best was living in a closet (literally) for two years in a studio apartment in San Francisco to save up for a down payment for my first house 20 years ago

second worst was signing the subprime refi anyway (to clear up credit card debt) even after finding out at closing (at the title company's office) that it was only fixed for two years

[Hotler]

40. Allow Morgan Stanley to manage my portfolio...eom

[gollygee]

41. Buying new vehicle instead of used, and a larger one than necessary

I'll be paying on it for a while too. And paying for more gas than I need to. :(

[Taxloss]

42. Not buying a particular apartment when I had the chance.

It was an incredible bargain. I dithered and lost the opportunity.

[mondo joe]

43. All the wasted opportunities. Like most people, I've had ample opportunity

to make modest investments but opted for short term gratification instead.

[lectrobyte]

44. Not getting started sooner on retirement planning and saving. I like to

think I live somewhat frugally, modest house, keep cars for 10 or 12 years, save money, etc., but really didn't think about retirement soon enough.

[Nay]

45. Not planning earlier for an early retirement--I'd love to never have

to darken the door of a workplace ever again. But I am stuck in employment hell until full retirement age. Luckily, I have been cheap all my life and am debt free except for a small mortgage, but I will have to work until age 66. That sucks.