stupid financial mistakes

[shaveice]

i don't know about you but i've made some stupid financial mistakes in my time... and i guess i'll be making some new ones in the future. for example, way back when, i attended some free seminar and ended up paying like 1k for a set of videotapes on how to manage your money, etc. what they were selling was perfectly legal but i should have been thrown in jail for being so stupid. that 1k would have been much better spent buying drinks for all you guys!

another example, i bought a dell computer and used it for a while and then got a custom made one. i waited so long to try to sell the dell that it was crazy. there went another 2k. sooooo stupid. i hate it when i do something like that.

anyway, i wonder if you guys can relate? hopefully, you're a lot smarter than me!

[ahola]

Re: stupid financial mistakes

Consider yourself lucky losing only a few thousand.

As a stock trader I have lost over $30,000 on Lucent and Sun Microsystems
tech stocks,$20,000 on Wheaton and Durban Deep gold stocks,and tens of thousands on other stocks.
As a forex trader I have lost $30,000 on going long the euro,lost $20,000 shorting the dollar versus the yen,lost another $20,000 buying the pound,etc.
As a real estate developer I once lost $200,000 on just one commercial real estate project.
Also lost $500 betting the Yankees would beat the Red Sox last year.

But fortunately have also won on some stock and currency trades and made a pretty penny on some properties and did win $1000 the year the Diamondbacks beat the Yankees in the Series.

As long as your wins exceed your losses you will do fine.

[Menehune Man]

Re: stupid financial mistakes

I'm one of "those" that bought a timeshare. Biggest mistake of my life. The interest on the loan made it cost waaaay more than it's worth. And the financial strain of paying it off along with the maintenance fee left no money to actually use it. What a costly lesson. It is actually for sale right now. Wanna buy it?

[adrian]

Re: stupid financial mistakes

While I was at a tech conference, my Mom's 2 year old video camera "broke" (turned out, it was only the tape that was exposed to heat, which warped in the camera). I didn't know that at the time, so when we went to the mall, I bought a Hi8 camcorder to replace my Mom's camera (I was planning to use it for the rest of the trip, while leaving the other camera in the hotel room). With Texas's taxes and everything else, the $300 camera cost $500!! And to make matters worse, I paid it in cash! (leftover fundraiser money and spending money from various relatives). I realized it was the tape that was bad a few days later, but it was a holiday, so I couldn't return the camera and we'd leave the next day.

The video camera is now sitting in its original box collecting dust. I might sell it, but who has Hi8 tapes nowadays?

[shaveice]

Re: stupid financial mistakes

thanks for sharing your stories with me. guess i'm not the only one who has slapped his forehead and gone, "oh sh#%!" what the hell was i thinking?!?!?!?"

another true confession. about a month ago, i bought these really expensive chairs; i mean, they're really good chairs but pricey. ordered em online cuz they were cheaper than buying them here. anyway, to make a long story short, i bought one size too big! i could ship em back but then i'd have to pay for shipping the big one back and then again for shipping the new size to me. that's $100 each way = $200. so i'm trying to sell em now and it'll be good for whoever buys em (sold one, one more to go) but i'm eating it. losing money because of my stupidity!

[craigwatanabe]

Re: stupid financial mistakes

I should have had my 1984 VW Scirocco repaired after it was smashed in a head on collision on Hunakai Street instead of buying a brand new 1988 VW Scirocco and assuming payments that ultimately led me to financial ruin back in the 80's. Boy was I a stupid 20-something year old. At least I got a neat picture of it with a girlfriend at Sandy Beach one early morning on a photoshoot.

[Miulang]

Re: stupid financial mistakes

I should have had my 1984 VW Scirocco repaired after it was smashed in a head on collision on Hunakai Street instead of buying a brand new 1988 VW Scirocco and assuming payments that ultimately led me to financial ruin back in the 80's. Boy was I a stupid 20-something year old. At least I got a neat picture of it with a girlfriend at Sandy Beach one early morning on a photoshoot.

That wasn't a stupid financial mistake. Think of it as "an opportunity to learn what not to do the next time you're in the same situation." "Or, you need to get your eyesight checked before making a financial decision because the hindsight is more painful and expensive than the foresight ever could be."

Miulang

[craigwatanabe]

Re: stupid financial mistakes

Well one thing about that 88 Scirocco was that I did get the girl albeit I married someone else but those leather seats did it!

[shaveice]

Re: stupid financial mistakes

ahola, man, you're in another league from me. i mean, i defintely don't have the bucks to make those kinds of choices but i'm glad you're coming out ahead which, as you noted, is what matters.

buddy2, thanks for the tip on timeshares. you know, i never considered buying into timeshares mainly cuz i didn't have the bucks and i always preferred checking out new places but your post definitely helps me to rest easy about any "missed opportunities". once when i was in greece (forgot the name of the small island), some people trying to sell timeshares got me to listen to their presentation and it was a bit tempting since greece is soooo beautiful but i'm so glad i didn't.

i'm much more pake than you guys cuz i get pissed at myself for doing small stuff like forgetting to mail in my $50 rebate for my scanner!

(one more story: in december, i bought a digital camera that is only sold in europe. the reviews were good so i bought it ($400). later, i realized that i preferred the performance of canons and so i bought a canon and can't sell the ricoh. damn. blew it again....)

[shaveice]

Re: stupid financial mistakes

craig, nice shot of the car... and the girl :-)

for whatever reason, i never was into cars (to this day) so that's probably the only reason i don't have a car story to tell. i can tell you this one though: when i lived in japan, i paid for a custom-made bike (10 speed) and.... i have yet to take it out of the box! yup, i'm stupid...

[craigwatanabe]

Re: stupid financial mistakes

I bought an HP printer a while back from Office Max and about a year later, the printer made this ZIIIIPPP SNAPPPPP CRACKKKKK sound when I turned it on. Needles to say that extended warranty came in handy and off it went to Office Max's Max Assured service center where they promptly told me the unit was toast and they would send me a gift card to Office Max for $82 (the purchase price of my HP Printer).

The next day I went back to Office Max and purchased a Brother 4-in-one color printer for $179. The cashier told me to send in this form along with the receipt and Brother will send me an Office Max gift card for $30 (like a rebate program). This printer stayed with my business that I sold so it was a write off anyway.

About 4-months later the $82 warranty gift card and the $30 rebate gift card came in and suddenly I have $112 in credit at Office Max. I ended up buying a lot of junk for my kids and my wife with the $30 gift card but I still have that $82 gift card in my wallet. I'm thinking of buying another printer (although I already have one that works very well), but I'm waiting for Office Max to put one of their DVD burners on sale so I can pick it up with this card.

So what does this have to do with stupid financial mistakes? Nothing! But if you don't want to make one, when you buy a printer, buy the extended warranty because printers break and after a year of reliable use I was able to get 100% of my money back when it failed. And Office Max paid for the shipping of the defective printer back to the service center!

[shaveice]

Re: stupid financial mistakes

hey craig, happy to hear of one of your success stories. i've heard opposing arguments regarding extended warranties and so i'm kinda undecided at the moment. for example, http://www.dpreview.com/ is an excellent site for people interested in photography and many posters who work in the retail business have said that extended warranties is generally a rip off....

[craigwatanabe]

Re: stupid financial mistakes

I buy the extended warranties religiously. If the cashier doesn't ask I inquire.

So far I've had to use them on my lawn mower and my weed whacker from Sears, the printer from Office Max, another printer (one of my kid's) from CompUSA and even on my 97 Chevy Astrovan when the central locking and the rear door latch failed, the extended warranty covered the labor and parts five years after buying the van.

I think extended warranties are great but read the fine print. I'm not one to abuse the things I buy (except for my BMW which I love to drive) so when things break it's usually within the limitations of the implied warranty.

[DaveNSoKona]

Re: stupid financial mistakes

This is really a series of mistakes:

I guess my first mistake was buying a house in California, which depended on BOTH my and my future ex-wife's income to meet the payments.

I was forced to sell the house when my ex lost her job (and wasn't really concerned about finding a new one).

Because we had made money on a previous property, I was slapped with capital gains taxes.

THEN I waited the two years to pay the taxes, thinking I could role over into a house as expensive as the one we had sold in the allotted time frame (again, my ex wasn't really concerned about finding another job).

Total taxes: $17,000 for feds and $5000 for California at a time I couldn't really afford to pay it. That was before the exemption we have now on capital gains on primary residences.

That said, I think the biggest financial mistake, if you could call it that, is getting divorced.

But s’all good now, water under the bridge.

[jdub]

Re: stupid financial mistakes

i spent nearly 10 years with a rock and roll band that earned somewhere close to $250K during our run...and i don't have a damn thing to show for it but road stories and a canon of original music for which i haven't received a cent in ascap benefits or cd sales...regrets? none...