Not getting a college degree. Keep in mind I graduated from high school in 1978 and lived in a very rural area, so not a lot of kids went on to college. I think I would be making a lot more money than I am now if I had a degree.
I have served for the last 17 years and while I have enjoyed and appreciate many of this discounts, I would like to point out that many that say "at participating locations" don't participate anywhere near a military base, where our highest concentrations are likely to live. I would encourage all of those who read this and agree with me to contact the public relations departments to point out this disparity. Corporate headquarters can make this mandatory for all locations if the want to.
The worst money mistake I've ever made was not learning to cook sooner AND by not forcing my husband to stop eating junk!!! I can't believe how economical and easy it is to cook and this could've convinced my husband to start eat right. Now, he is diabetic on insulin and had to give up his career of being a truck driver. He is now demoted to warehouse work with a huge cut in pay. He hates not having the freedom to be a driver and lost all of those over time hours being on the road. And I don't want to think about all the money we could've saved by not eating out all the time.
Oh boy, where to start? Choosing 10-year level-term life insurance instead of the 20-year level-term policy that our agent rightly recommended, and when it ran out two years ago having to frantically throw together a whole-life package since we can't qualify for preferred rates now, or level-term for that matter, at the ages of 55 and 57. We're paying three times the premium for less coverage now. Refinancing our mortgage many times, folding in credit card balances and a car loan so that the principal went up each time. Paying several hundred dollars to set up an automatically withdrawn two mortgage payments a month vs. once a month, instead of having the sense to just do it on our own. Charging absolutely everything--dinners, new computers--and always carrying a balance and maxing out the cards, so that we're now working with the collections departments and our credit rating has tanked. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
My biggest financial mistake was getting into the habit of running up my credit cards and then paying them down in big chunks, but then I no longer had the income to pay them off.
What's the worst money mistake you've ever made? What did you do to recover — or simply plow on — after the stumble? What lessons did you learn from the experience?
My husband and I purchased a timeshare back in 2007, we were both so excited at the time. Until we realized how much money it costs us to enjoy one week a year in the timeshare. Our monthly payment is 586.11 x 12 months equals $7,033.32 a year for 10 years plus $1,600 a year for maintenance fees a year, this doesn't include airfare, food, etc. the WORST money mistake we have EVER made in our 25 years of marriage. We are watching the market to see when it would be a good time to recoup our $$ and to dump this mistake. Lesson learned don't let the salesmen push you into purchasing a piece of the american dream that you can use once a year it's not worth it. Lesson learned.
my worst mistake I made was getting a credit card when I was 18, I ran it up and made the minimum payment. it ended up ruining my credit which took 7 years to get off. worst mistake ever.
My worst money mistake was NOT refinancing my house when I should have. Instead I went along with my (then) husband's plan to buy a lot to build on. Long story short, he lost his business, sold the lot, ended up with an IRS lien on our house, which I eventually had removed, but for many years I paid 11.75% interest on a house that I could not refinance. Divorced now and the house is free from the IRS & refinanced, but I wasted $1000s on that mistake.
Taking $10,000 out of my ROTH IRA principal to help pay for a down payment on a house bought with my new husband. We intended to pay the money back by increasing my monthy ROTH contributions, but two years later we still haven't started this process. We do still love the house and each other, however, so it could be a lot worse.
Forgetting to add my newborn son to the health insurance policy within the 30 day period. I had a rough delivery followed by pain meds, and completely forgot take care of the paperwork. Big fat $$$ mistake as of course he was a separate individual staying in the hospital for several days. That hurt.
Thanks for sharing a real-life example of time horizons. Ideally, we should move money away from riskier investments (stocks, mutual funds) to safer ones (bonds, cash) as college approaches but that doesn't always happen.
Loaning a sibling a fairly large sum of money for something that, in retrospect, seems pretty frivolous. I made the mistake of thinking that I wouldn't feel weird asking for that money back because it was my sibling, but I was wrong! It's uncomfortable asking anyone for your money back! I never saw my money again.........
One of the biggest mistakes I can think of is signing up for some of those department store credit cards when I was 18. Luckily I used them once and paid them right off, but they were so unnecessary and not worth the trouble for whatever percentage they might have taken of my purchase that day. What was I thinking!?
Oil changes from dealer when I bough my car (to be fair, my mom was co-signer and helped talk me into it). Twice as expensive and twice as often as I need them.
One the plus side, this did make me more distrusting of the dealer. They later wanted to charge me $130 for changing my air filter and cabin air filter- refused and found out later it would have been about $50 for parts, $80 for five minutes of labor I could have done myself. Buyer beware!
Not getting a college degree. Keep in mind I graduated from high school in 1978 and lived in a very rural area, so not a lot of kids went on to college. I think I would be making a lot more money than I am now if I had a degree.
I have served for the last 17 years and while I have enjoyed and appreciate many of this discounts, I would like to point out that many that say "at participating locations" don't participate anywhere near a military base, where our highest concentrations are likely to live. I would encourage all of those who read this and agree with me to contact the public relations departments to point out this disparity. Corporate headquarters can make this mandatory for all locations if the want to.
I got in a (small) pyramid scheme.
Buying a home that will be very difficult to resell. There was a reason this property was on the market for a whole year without a single showing.
The worst money mistake I've ever made was not learning to cook sooner AND by not forcing my husband to stop eating junk!!! I can't believe how economical and easy it is to cook and this could've convinced my husband to start eat right. Now, he is diabetic on insulin and had to give up his career of being a truck driver. He is now demoted to warehouse work with a huge cut in pay. He hates not having the freedom to be a driver and lost all of those over time hours being on the road. And I don't want to think about all the money we could've saved by not eating out all the time.
Oh boy, where to start? Choosing 10-year level-term life insurance instead of the 20-year level-term policy that our agent rightly recommended, and when it ran out two years ago having to frantically throw together a whole-life package since we can't qualify for preferred rates now, or level-term for that matter, at the ages of 55 and 57. We're paying three times the premium for less coverage now. Refinancing our mortgage many times, folding in credit card balances and a car loan so that the principal went up each time. Paying several hundred dollars to set up an automatically withdrawn two mortgage payments a month vs. once a month, instead of having the sense to just do it on our own. Charging absolutely everything--dinners, new computers--and always carrying a balance and maxing out the cards, so that we're now working with the collections departments and our credit rating has tanked. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
My biggest financial mistake was getting into the habit of running up my credit cards and then paying them down in big chunks, but then I no longer had the income to pay them off.
What's the worst money mistake you've ever made? What did you do to recover — or simply plow on — after the stumble? What lessons did you learn from the experience?
My husband and I purchased a timeshare back in 2007, we were both so excited at the time. Until we realized how much money it costs us to enjoy one week a year in the timeshare. Our monthly payment is 586.11 x 12 months equals $7,033.32 a year for 10 years plus $1,600 a year for maintenance fees a year, this doesn't include airfare, food, etc. the WORST money mistake we have EVER made in our 25 years of marriage. We are watching the market to see when it would be a good time to recoup our $$ and to dump this mistake. Lesson learned don't let the salesmen push you into purchasing a piece of the american dream that you can use once a year it's not worth it. Lesson learned.
my worst mistake I made was getting a credit card when I was 18, I ran it up and made the minimum payment. it ended up ruining my credit which took 7 years to get off. worst mistake ever.
My husband's student loan. No degree. But it did get us to where we are now. Wish the loan was paid...too many years later.
My worst money mistake was NOT refinancing my house when I should have. Instead I went along with my (then) husband's plan to buy a lot to build on. Long story short, he lost his business, sold the lot, ended up with an IRS lien on our house, which I eventually had removed, but for many years I paid 11.75% interest on a house that I could not refinance. Divorced now and the house is free from the IRS & refinanced, but I wasted $1000s on that mistake.
getting a credit card in college
#18 hits me hard. Great article, gonna go conquer the world now!
Taking $10,000 out of my ROTH IRA principal to help pay for a down payment on a house bought with my new husband. We intended to pay the money back by increasing my monthy ROTH contributions, but two years later we still haven't started this process. We do still love the house and each other, however, so it could be a lot worse.
re: getitdigital.
I don't make a habit of necro-ing threads, but I was *just* about to buy from them, and came across this whilst searching out coupon codes.
Danke.
Forgetting to add my newborn son to the health insurance policy within the 30 day period. I had a rough delivery followed by pain meds, and completely forgot take care of the paperwork. Big fat $$$ mistake as of course he was a separate individual staying in the hospital for several days. That hurt.
Using credit cards.
Thanks for sharing a real-life example of time horizons. Ideally, we should move money away from riskier investments (stocks, mutual funds) to safer ones (bonds, cash) as college approaches but that doesn't always happen.
Bath and Body Works vanilla body spray works too.
Gave credit card money even after a charge off. Dumb dumb
Loaning a sibling a fairly large sum of money for something that, in retrospect, seems pretty frivolous. I made the mistake of thinking that I wouldn't feel weird asking for that money back because it was my sibling, but I was wrong! It's uncomfortable asking anyone for your money back! I never saw my money again.........
One of the biggest mistakes I can think of is signing up for some of those department store credit cards when I was 18. Luckily I used them once and paid them right off, but they were so unnecessary and not worth the trouble for whatever percentage they might have taken of my purchase that day. What was I thinking!?
worse money mistake is not knowing how much you have in your account before making a big purchase
My worst money mistake was to use credit cards too often.
Oil changes from dealer when I bough my car (to be fair, my mom was co-signer and helped talk me into it). Twice as expensive and twice as often as I need them.
One the plus side, this did make me more distrusting of the dealer. They later wanted to charge me $130 for changing my air filter and cabin air filter- refused and found out later it would have been about $50 for parts, $80 for five minutes of labor I could have done myself. Buyer beware!