People Share Their Biggest Money Mistake Regrets
The worst financial calls you can make.
Published 11 months ago
People are always looking for ways to be better with their money. But sometimes, the best way to make money is not to lose it. Here are 28 of the biggest money mistakes people have ever made, from those willing to share on AskReddit.
1
Bought a mobile home as a starter home. No one ever explained to me as a young adult the importance of investment and future planning. Mobile homes of course do not hold nor increase in value so you never build equity. It's akin to renting except you have to cover all your own repair costs too. Terrible financial decision.
3
When I turned 21, I gained full control over my inheritance account. It was how it was written in my grandparents will. At that time, it was only worth $15k. It was the only time my financial advisor ever met with me. I said I wanted to invest all of it in AAPL. I still remember the face he made in disgust. "Why would you want to invest in Apple?" I explained that I had just done a college paper on Steve Jobs and I truly believed that now that he was back in charge of the company, he'd turn the stock around. He convinced me to stay the course and keep the same investments.
11
At the height of the pandemic, I had a pretty severe "hidden" mental breakdown due to the trauma of isolation/quarantine and general terror over the whole thing. Combined with my own long-standing battle with Bipolar Disorder, I wound up withdrawing €4,000 from my savings account and going on a massively impulsive shopping spree.
13
Going to college right out of high school. College is great if you know why you're there, but not for someone who isn't yet sure. I can't speak for everyone but when I was fixing to graduate high school back in 2000-2001, everyone thought college was the next step because literally no one ever told us anything different.
15
Nearing the end of the dotcom boom (it hadn't busted yet) I had many stock options to exercise. I was about to do it, when I heard that my Dad was entering the hospital for a cancer operation. I put the stock options exercise on hold for a week and went to be with my Dad. While my Dad was in the hospital, my company released an earnings warning and our stock price got annihilated. When I did eventually exercise my options, I was down about $1,000,000 from where I was before my Dad entered the hospital.
18
I invested $890 into a stock and it later became a little over 1.5 million dollars. I did not take the money out because I thought it would go up. I quit my job because I thought I was going to be rich. My stock crashed to worthless, I’m struggling to get by. I could’ve had a house, started a business. Now I have nothing.
25
Bought a stock way back in 2014, it jumped by like 60% in two days. I went to sell, but got a phone call and got distracted. Remembered it the next day, and it was only up 20% from when I got it. I thought to myself "lets just wait and see" hoping it would jump back up. It never did. I eventually sold it at a 60% loss a year later. Was only a 2k investment, so not a huge loss, but would have netted me a quick 1k in two days if I had just ignored my mothers phone call.
26
Took a job way up North in Canada. Quit my old job, got rid of tons of stuff, had my dad help sell my house, etc. This was in 2019/early 2020 just before COVID hit big. I ended up hating the job up North; it was terrible. Went back home, somehow managed to get my old job back, but my house is gone and I can’t afford a new one in the current market. Stupid, idiotic decision on my part.
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