Read that whole debt free thread and saw lots of anecdotes about individual financial success. My finances are finally moving in the right direction after years of dumb decisions. I’m not sure I had any single terrible decision other than taking out my first credit card at age 22 to buy a Winchester M70 Sporter in 300 RUM that I never really liked. But that set the ball rolling toward carrying around 5 digits of maxed out credit cards for nearly 15 years. I even did a personal loan to transfer that debt and then re maxed out the card so I then had nearly double the last balance to pay off. The year I got married, things had begun to to at least stabilize or so I thought, but my truck broke down towing our dumpy camper so I traded it in for a newer one worth three times the last one and financed it. Got married and overspent on honeymoon (we had money for it, we just doubled what we had available), then my wife financed a car worth 7 times her last. Later that same year she announces she’s pregnant with our first.
The pregnancy was my wake up call and from there we’ve had some good timing and made some good decisions to clear things up.
So how about you? What are some of the biggest stupid taxes you’ve paid, or biggest financial decisions you regret and would like to see others not make those same decisions. I realize this is the opposite of most of what we do where when we just toot our own horns here. But if you want to pass on wisdom from experience , it might be to air some of those regrets here.
Buying a boat, selling it and not learning my lesson so I bought another boat. The biggest mistake was letting my wife (now my EX-wife) have access to the investment account.
I've spent too much on vehicles over the years. Even when I was single I had 4 vehicles, nice truck, hunting truck, nice car, beater road trip car. I'm always getting a hard time about vehicles. I should have been putting most of that money in retirement accounts.
There were some vehicles I made money on but most were a loss. Even now I have a 19 ram crew, my old 2 door 94 hunting Yukon, a 19 Cherokee trail hawk, and a 14 sienna. If I could only keep one it would be the 94 Yukon.
My other 2 financial weaknesses are guns and gold&silver. Luckily I've made money and am still ahead on the metals hobby and the guns have probably at least held their value overall.
Thirty+ years ago not taking that starting job in a wireline truck and continuing in academia instead.
If that had been the case, would you still be able to address the questions, and correct the ignorance, on some threads that you do now? You sometimes serve an important function here, you know.
I started my current job, and within a few months, I decided I needed to finance a new pickup truck. I was paid twice a month. One check just did make the truck payment. Never again do I intend to finance a vehicle. Dave Ramsey refers to this as "stupid tax".
My first and repeated mistake was buying new vehicles on credit. My second and repeated mistake was living above my income means with credit cards. My third mistake was not paying myself first (10% off the top) that my dad always said was important. My fourth mistake cost me about $100K. Playing a single tech stock, like a lottery ticket, with options, at the advice of an internet chat acquaintance.
I think that Dave Ramsey has the blueprint for all young couples on how to build lifetime wealth, from the get go, by following the Seven Baby Steps.
Do we mention the time I took a "vacation" to head to Lake Placid in 1979? A long roundabout trip, visiting old "girlfriend" and partying a lot along the way. With intentions of getting to the Olympic Village construction, earning some money, and getting to watch the HOCKEY tournament. You know, the Miracle On Ice one? The one I missed because I was completely broke when I hit Harrisburg PA.
I did that instead of using the cash I had on hand for a down payment on the house across the street from my folks. The one that sold a year later for $19000 more than I would have paid for it. 19 Grand in 1979 wasn't a bad wage for a full years work, not to mention a tidy profit on a small house.
Of course, I could have bought cheap land in any of numerous "rural" areas in SoCal, which quickly became suburbs. Think Moreno Valley, Temecula, Ramona, Antelope Valley.
And I could have thought more highly of computers and gotten some training in using them, or even just invested in some early computer stock. But no, I had a good paying job, turned 21, chased girls, bought new cars, etc etc.
Didn't get back on track until I was in my mid 30's. Then was a starving student for 4 years, and a low pay scale employee for a few more. Eventually, I did OK, but boy would I like to do it over again sometimes.
Do we mention the time I took a "vacation" to head to Lake Placid in 1979? A long roundabout trip, visiting old "girlfriend" and partying a lot along the way. With intentions of getting to the Olympic Village construction, earning some money, and getting to watch the HOCKEY tournament. You know, the Miracle On Ice one? The one I missed because I was completely broke when I hit Harrisburg PA.
I did that instead of using the cash I had on hand for a down payment on the house across the street from my folks. The one that sold a year later for $19000 more than I would have paid for it. 19 Grand in 1979 wasn't a bad wage for a full years work, not to mention a tidy profit on a small house.
Of course, I could have bought cheap land in any of numerous "rural" areas in SoCal, which quickly became suburbs. Think Moreno Valley, Temecula, Ramona, Antelope Valley.
And I could have thought more highly of computers and gotten some training in using them, or even just invested in some early computer stock. But no, I had a good paying job, turned 21, chased girls, bought new cars, etc etc.
Didn't get back on track until I was in my mid 30's. Then was a starving student for 4 years, and a low pay scale employee for a few more. Eventually, I did OK, but boy would I like to do it over again sometimes.
Geno
It's all a part of the learning process and adventure. If we'd have done everything right, we'd have some pretty boring stories to tell.
Buying a bass boat. They're definitely money pits.
Originally Posted by hanco
Damn boat, been lots of fun, but damn sure a money pit.
Originally Posted by DubThomas
Buying a boat, selling it and not learning my lesson so I bought another boat. The biggest mistake was letting my wife (now my EX-wife) have access to the investment account.
Originally Posted by hanco
I dumb cause I still have the boat.
Tell me about the dumb ways to buy a boat and if there’s ever a smart way. We are threatening to buy one as soon as this coming spring. Our kids are still pretty little at 1 and 3 so I could definitely make an argument to put it off. But the financial part, was it financed or bought cash? Just piddling money away on constant repairs and maintenance and not factoring that into your budget? Spent too much on a toy? Don’t use it enough?
My first and repeated mistake was buying new vehicles on credit. My second and repeated mistake was living above my income means with credit cards. My third mistake was not paying myself first (10% off the top) that my dad always said was important.
I think that Dave Ramsey has the blueprint for all young couples on how to build lifetime wealth, from the get go, by following the Seven Baby Steps.
The system encourages buying unaffordable things on credit so they have to work until death.
I've spent too much on vehicles over the years. Even when I was single I had 4 vehicles, nice truck, hunting truck, nice car, beater road trip car. I'm always getting a hard time about vehicles. I should have been putting most of that money in retirement accounts.
There were some vehicles I made money on but most were a loss. Even now I have a 19 ram crew, my old 2 door 94 hunting Yukon, a 19 Cherokee trail hawk, and a 14 sienna. If I could only keep one it would be the 94 Yukon.
My other 2 financial weaknesses are guns and gold&silver. Luckily I've made money and am still ahead on the metals hobby and the guns have probably at least held their value overall.
Bb
My finances are in pretty good shape and I max out my 401k along with having a pension, but I have a weakness for vehicles as well. Typically always have three, kinda shake when I only have two and more often than not have four. Usually flip a half dozen a year after buying them with various issues, but have two kinda garage trucks at the moment that don't really get used as much as they should and the two I typically drive were project vehicles that are wroth 2-4x what I have in them.
Not selling thousands of shares of CLRN at $175, because it was closed to employee trading at the time. Not an illegal act, but one that would have had me terminated.
Dave, a fellow employee that also had some angel investor shares, said WTF and sold at least 50K shares at that point. A lot of us co-workers were shocked. "How could he do such a thing?". Now, he's my hero, and I tell his story to my kids. "Ain't no job worth $X,XXX,XXX if you're a good employee. Take the sure money and move on to the next gig"
Yep, that first marriage was 7 years of hell, emotional and financial, that took the next 20 or more to get over. Probably wouldn't have survived it without Mrs. number two! 43 years and counting this time around! Jerry
Buying a bass boat. They're definitely money pits.
Originally Posted by hanco
Damn boat, been lots of fun, but damn sure a money pit.
Originally Posted by DubThomas
Buying a boat, selling it and not learning my lesson so I bought another boat. The biggest mistake was letting my wife (now my EX-wife) have access to the investment account.
Originally Posted by hanco
I dumb cause I still have the boat.
Tell me about the dumb ways to buy a boat and if there’s ever a smart way. We are threatening to buy one as soon as this coming spring. Our kids are still pretty little at 1 and 3 so I could definitely make an argument to put it off. But the financial part, was it financed or bought cash? Just piddling money away on constant repairs and maintenance and not factoring that into your budget? Spent too much on a toy? Don’t use it enough?
I gave around 2 grand for my aluminum fishing boat about 5 years ago. I've spent a few hundred on routine maintenance, and have really enjoyed it so far. It should be worth a bit more than I paid for it. A boat doesn't have to break the bank.
As I mentioned on another thread - selling a 1966 Shelby GT 350 in 1974 for $2500. Also, turning our investments over to an investment professional at Paine Webber in 1999 who loaded us up with a bunch of tech stocks just before the tech crash. We've done much better since due to my wife took over our investments. Helps to marry an economics major.
Seems many mention boats, I'm like gregintn, buy quality aluminum boats with four stroke outboards, very little maintenance and tons of fun, with great resale.
Again bad wives, the most expensive thing a guy can do by a long shot....
When younger tried to time the stock market a few times. Never worked out right. Now just stay fully invested in good funds and let it ride.
Oh and let Edward Jones make some money off me for 3 or 4 years. Bad idea.
Start off with Vanguard or Fidelity, dollar cost average, save 20% of your income and never look back. If struggling, read and learn from Dave Ramsey books.
Getting married to my ex was my worst financial decision. She'd spend us into debt, I'd work more to try and get out of it and she'd go out and spend even more since I was making more. She had so much garbage from shopping crammed into the house that the two back bedrooms were stacked floor to ceiling, you couldn't get to the beds. Catching her cheating was the best thing that ever happened to me, that's the straw broke the camel's back for me to kick her out and divorce her.
So how about you? What are some of the biggest stupid taxes you’ve paid, or biggest financial decisions you regret and would like to see others not make those same decisions. .
Most of all, be careful who you get pregnant. Even in the best of circumstances, the financial burden is huge. My college GF and I had an "accident" .. I refuse to call my daughter a "mistake" .. as our relationship was getting rocky and seeming unfixable. We plowed forward "doing the right thing" according to our families, but it didn't work out. I can't exactly say I regret it, but $140K later, I can say life would have taken a different course if we'd gone 2-3 months more without that "oops." Reckon I'd have gone home for the summer to work, she'd have gone her way, and that would have been that. .. but I sure do love my kid. She's 33, turns 34 next week, and keeps me on my toes. Genius, full of piss and vinegar, about as warped as I am, and one of my favorite people to hang out with, even without considering that she's my kid. I won the kid lottery. Pretty much won the ex-wife lottery, too.
Actual purchases .. there have been a couple of guns I probably should not have bought or sold, and if I hadn't, it wouldn't have cascaded to other purchases and eventual sales. A few have been turning points. If I'd hung onto them a year longer, I might have gone back to them with a different perspective.
The 2 single biggest purchase mistakes were vehicles. First, I had a 3 year old Jeep Wrangler Unlimited I'd just finished building to do my weekend stuff. Kid graduated and said she would like to meet half way (Oregon to Colorado) to hike, etc on weekends. I sold the Jeep and bought a 2005 Nissan Frontier. Good trck, drove it for 8 years, but we never did make those trips, life got in the way, so I gave up the functionality of the jeep for nothing other than maybe a gamble on spending more time with my kid. Not exactly a wrong reason to make a bad choice. The worse one, though, was in 2014 when the Nissan was getting a bit ... worn. I sold it and replaced it with a brand new F250 which proved a mistake, it was too much truck for living in town in an apartment complex with limited parking. 2 months later I sold/traded it away and came out with an also new 2014 Tacoma. It did its job where I lived at the time but now I've moved and that F250 would do the jobs a whole lot better. So ... my timing sucks.
Anyway, the best advice I think I can give anyone is be careful who you stick your dick in, and if the relationship seems to be getting bumpy, if it looks on a path to failing, don't stick it in at all. Think that's true even if you're married. No matter how bad things are, if they come apart, adding a, or another, kid to the mix is not going to help.
invested $100,000 with Woodbridge Group Of Companies who, turns out, had a huge ponzi scheme going. They had over a billion dollars of investor money that is now all tied up in the courts. Hoping some day to recoup some of it, fingers crossed.
My first job out of welding school, which paid great, and I believed the company was actually putting the money into my retirement that they took out of my paycheck. We had the option of taking the full amount in pay on the check or having a portion put in a retirement account for us. Hell, you're always told saving for retirement is smart move...
Turns out, with my blessing, they took about $4500 out of my paychecks that was supposed to go into my retirement fund. This was late-1980's money so no telling what that 4K would be worth today.... About a year into working there, the company laid everybody off and shortly after filed for bankruptcy, I checked my account and $450 was actually put in my retirement.
So my worst financial decision was not checking the account.
Turns out, with my blessing, they took about $4500 out of my paychecks that was supposed to go into my retirement fund. This was late-1980's money so no telling what that 4K would be worth today.... .
Hate to hear this, I think you would have about 45K -55K in hand today except for their theft.
Owning airplanes was the worst financial decision I ever made but I would do it again. LOTS of pleasure but planes are made for people who can not get enough punishment owning a boat.
Buying a bass boat. They're definitely money pits.
Originally Posted by hanco
Damn boat, been lots of fun, but damn sure a money pit.
Originally Posted by DubThomas
Buying a boat, selling it and not learning my lesson so I bought another boat. The biggest mistake was letting my wife (now my EX-wife) have access to the investment account.
Originally Posted by hanco
I dumb cause I still have the boat.
Tell me about the dumb ways to buy a boat and if there’s ever a smart way. We are threatening to buy one as soon as this coming spring. Our kids are still pretty little at 1 and 3 so I could definitely make an argument to put it off. But the financial part, was it financed or bought cash? Just piddling money away on constant repairs and maintenance and not factoring that into your budget? Spent too much on a toy? Don’t use it enough?
I gave around 2 grand for my aluminum fishing boat about 5 years ago. I've spent a few hundred on routine maintenance, and have really enjoyed it so far. It should be worth a bit more than I paid for it. A boat doesn't have to break the bank.
What Greg said. I've had boats for close to 40 years and the cost to keep and maintain have been minimal. We bought a new no thrills pontoon back in 1988 that served my family well for 31 years. I went into the shop only once during that time and only cost me about $230.I did all the rest of the upkeep and maintenance my self. We finally traded it in on a new pontoon just because we wanted what we felt was a well deserved upgrade. Also have an 18ft run about to take the kids tubing and such. Upkeep and repairs on it have also been minimal. Of course I do all I can to take good care of the boats to keep them in good shape. I paid $5100 for the new1988 and 31 years later, received $2900 on trade in. Not too bad for that many years of enjoyment.
I bought a 2013 key west 203 dual console with a Honda 150 a couple of years ago. I've really enjoyed it and it hasn't been expensive, it does what I want and is good on fuel. I think the key is to not get too googly eyed at new boats with all the gee whiz stuff on them that costs a fortune, buy something that's basic with a reliable motor that you can maintain yourself. If you're the type that can't change the oil or impeller without taking it to the shop then it's going to cost a lot more.
We all have to meet our basic needs first but once that's met then there's nothing wrong with a little luxury as long as you can afford it. The point of life is to live some isn't it? I've got an aunt and uncle in their mid 80's now that are probably worth $10 million and they've still got the first nickel they ever earned. By talking to them you'd think they were living hand to mouth wondering where their next meal is coming from but they're sitting on a pile of money like Scrooge McDuck. What's the point of that?
We bought a pull behind camper. I didn't want it, my wife did. Fuggin money hole. We had it 2 years and was just about to cause a divorce so she wanted one she could drive. Another $65,000 down the fuggin drain. I won't drive it and I rarely stay in it. It is nicer than the pull behind but even the best of them are a total POS. We live in Iowa, it's butt a$$ed cold for 6 months of the year so it sets 6 months of the year. I should of done the divorce and saved myself a lot of money.
Seems like I don;t have a problem with making bad buys. Had a few bad sells though. The '65 Mustang loaded Pony edition that I let go for $700 when there were used Mustangs everywhere comes to mind. Then there were the stock options I sold, thinking they were close to topped out, but went on to double in value. Sold a house just before the market here took off, and it was sold again a year later for twice the price.
The biggest though, was a failure to buy. Shoulda bought land here when it was going to $600 and acre. I thinks - "that ain't ever gonna be worth having for that". (Dad didn't raise no real estate tycoons). Now, that ten acres would go for half a million.
All the bazillions of rounds of ammo I bought during the obama unpleasantness , expecting that hildabitch would get elected.
I hope this place don't catch fire.
Mike
Pardon me, but I can't feel your pain. (But I do sincerely hope your place doesn't catch fire.) However, I do admire you for being one of the few to admit it.
All the bazillions of rounds of ammo I bought during the obama unpleasantness , expecting that hildabitch would get elected.
I hope this place don't catch fire.
Mike
Pardon me, but I can't feel your pain. (But I do sincerely hope your place doesn't catch fire.) However, I do admire you for being one of the few to admit it.
It's OK , I got a nice tent to live in. It's in the woods back here behind the county landfill.
Believing I was a bona fide day trader about 20 yrs ago!
About the same time I thought I had a knack for writing naked puts....
Turns out ...I didn't...
i have made quite a bit of money selling covered calls though the years. in summer of 19 87 a fellow broker put down on about 20 oex puts. after a week or so nothing happening so he wrote a ticket to cancil the position, wrong, he doubled the position. The market fell apart. he was so busy talking to clients he didn't check his own account for a few days, couldn't figure what the half million was doing sitting there. He closed it for sure then. i know another guy that sold a bunch of nakkid calls on a stock at it's 52week high. he didn't think it could go any higher till the takeover was announced a day or two later. he had a lot of trouble rounding up the stock to deliver, about a two day 120k learning lesson.
I cant say I very made a real bad financial mistake. In 2009 I installed an EKO 25 gassification wood boiler and it cost me 9400 dollars. It took 7 yrs of cutting and stacking wood to save the $9400 dollars in heat bills though. I didn't loose anything but putting that money in a simple S&P 500 fund would have payed for my heat bills all that time and never would have had to go find wood , cut , split and stack it. I do it on my spare time but it sure was a lot of work to get my money back. The heat is far superior with the hydronic floor heat however. I have 34K in Occidnetal Petroleum stocks and am down about $ 8,000 but I believe it hit bottom now and should recover with very cheap reinvested dividends. I bought a 1975 Volksawgon Rabbit for $2,000 and it only lasted about 2 yrs at best. That was a lot of money then. As for my boat, a new Alumacraft V16 bought for cash in 1990 for $1,260 , and $800 25 hrs Merc and a $300 trailer sett me back about $2,500 dollars. Still have the boat and on my second 25 hrs Merc and think I have $ 5,000 into it including everything . Likely worth $1,500 today. I use it about 20 times a yr . I have done very good but only cause I was interested in land in the late 80's , 90's and early 2000's. I also am down several grand on my biotech investments but hey , you will never always win. As for cars, I buy used and run them to the ground.
Mine Was Asking A Real Estate Friend About Looking At And Splitting Some Property.. We Walked It. And Then Told Me It Wasn't Worth The $250,000 Asking Price... He Bought It Two Weeks Later. In One Of His LLC's And Sold It For $850.000 In Less Than Six Months.. Took Me About Year To Find Out...
I could have traded my real nice 72 corvette convertible for a 62 corvette convertible with a hard top that needed some work. I’ve kicked myself a thousand times.
I have a few, but the most financially devastating was not interviewing with Microsoft when they were hiring from our campus. 1986. Still under 1,000 employees, I think.
Cashed out retirement accounts into money market funds when O was doing his crap. I had zero confidence in what was about to happen. Left the $ there and missed this last big run.
Giving parcels of land to relatives because we were lonely living outback. Now the relatives have all become townies and either sold the properties of just ignore them. Not everybody that says they want the simple life does. Figure we lost 500 k being generous.
Having read 5 pages of this thread I realize I'm not alone. Between cars, guns and motorcycles I've wasted a lot of money, but had a lot of enjoyment and had a lot of experiences that have to be worth something more than the money in the bank. At least that's what I keep telling myself.
Any vehicle I financed. Buying a house before I was ready. Paying off Medical debt with a CC, should have just let it go to collections. Taking out a 401K loan to pay the CC with the Medical debt before the 0% interest ran out.
Dumbest thing I ever did, financially, was to build this house as a log home originally... That cost me nearly $40,000 to, ah, 'fix' only nine years later....
My first wife was the biggest mistake. It lasted 26 years. The last 10 were hell. It has been 10 years since we divorced and at almost 64 I still have to pay Spousal Maintenance as long as I work and am still paying off debt..and she got my retirement. So I will work as long as I am physically able to do so. I wish I could blame someone else... I really do
My first wife was the biggest mistake. It lasted 26 years. The last 10 were hell. It has been 10 years since we divorced and at almost 64 I still have to pay Spousal Maintenance as long as I work and am still paying off debt..and she got my retirement. So I will work as long as I am physically able to do so. I wish I could blame someone else... I really do
I have never understood this.
At some point, you think an adult would be able and should care for themselves.
Wife and I bought our "starter home" at the absolute height peak of the real estate bubble. 5 years later it wasnt worth 50% of what i paid for it because there were 20 empty houses within blocks. I sold it a few months ago at a $45,000 loss from what we paid and was thrilled to be rid of it.
My first wife was the biggest mistake. It lasted 26 years. The last 10 were hell. It has been 10 years since we divorced and at almost 64 I still have to pay Spousal Maintenance as long as I work and am still paying off debt..and she got my retirement. So I will work as long as I am physically able to do so. I wish I could blame someone else... I really do
I've watched too many Bill Kurtis shows to put myself through that.
I guess I'd say I waited too long to get into real estate. I should have bought some rental property or some farmland earlier in my life.
Me too, this last run up in realestate has been nuts. I sold everything but the house I live in, so it will probably continue to go up . My plan is to buy/build muti family if the market cools a bit.
Student loans, credit cards and new cars when we were young. By the time we were in our mid-twenties, we had almost 100k in debt all-in. I did a pre-Dave Ramsey war with our debt and sold almost every gun I owned and anything else people would buy, cut cable, didn't have cell phones and packed our lunches and didn't eat out and we were out of debt except for our house by our early 30s and haven't carried a balance on a credit card ever since.
I bought an apartment building in Seattle in 1990 and owned it for 10 years. I wound up replacing most of the bathroom floors one at a time. I crippled in new floor joists. I patched in new plywood floor. I laid new vinyl flooring. I added new baseboards. I got to deal with Seattle low life tenants. I had people call me up, cuss me out for they're being late with the rent, and then hang up. Even the good tenants seem to flood the bathroom floor. I had an attorney and the police evict some tenants for not paying rent. When they moved out, they spray painted the building with obscene graffiti naming me.
I bought an apartment building in Seattle in 1990 and owned it for 10 years. I wound up replacing most of the bathroom floors one at a time. I crippled in new floor joists. I patched in new plywood floor. I laid new vinyl flooring. I added new baseboards. I got to deal with Seattle low life tenants. I had people call me up, cuss me out for they're being late with the rent, and then hang up. Even the good tenants seem to flood the bathroom floor. I had an attorney and the police evict some tenants for not paying rent. When they moved out, they spray painted the building with obscene graffiti naming me.
I have one tenant. I can't believe people willingly choose to own rental properties. If this is the secret to riches, I'd rather be broke.
I bought an apartment building in Seattle in 1990 and owned it for 10 years. I wound up replacing most of the bathroom floors one at a time. I crippled in new floor joists. I patched in new plywood floor. I laid new vinyl flooring. I added new baseboards. I got to deal with Seattle low life tenants. I had people call me up, cuss me out for they're being late with the rent, and then hang up. Even the good tenants seem to flood the bathroom floor. I had an attorney and the police evict some tenants for not paying rent. When they moved out, they spray painted the building with obscene graffiti naming me.
I have one tenant. I can't believe people willingly choose to own rental properties. If this is the secret to riches, I'd rather be broke.
Good friend in his late 60s manages and owns about 600 properties, never had any kids, does so many evictions that the civil courts sends deputies to him for the paperwork instead of him going to them. He deals with some headaches, but is LOADED. Heck, he just took in 40 section 8 duplexes, gets 500 bucks a month per duplex straight from the govt. I think he get between 7-10% for a management fee...not to mention all his paid for stuff he owns and rents out.
Probably purchasing new vehicles, but I like knowing they are mine from the get go and well taken care of. I also pay them off and drive them til the wheels come off and we've never financed more than one vehicle at once. I probably have too many guns, but I rarely buy new and I'm in them right, easy quick cash if I ever need to sell some. You can't take anything with you, enjoy it. Today may be your last. I've got an uncle thats a scrooge, multi millionaire, retired by 50...still made my aunt hang clothes out to dry on a laundry line. He refused to buy a dryer for a few hundred bucks. That being said, he has set all of his grandchildren up for life.
My first and repeated mistake was buying new vehicles on credit. My second and repeated mistake was living above my income means with credit cards. My third mistake was not paying myself first (10% off the top) that my dad always said was important. My fourth mistake cost me about $100K. Playing a single tech stock, like a lottery ticket, with options, at the advice of an internet chat acquaintance.
I think that Dave Ramsey has the blueprint for all young couples on how to build lifetime wealth, from the get go, by following the Seven Baby Steps.
Except I didn't play the tech stock market. I had just finished my masters degree, but still didn't have enough "credentials" to make a descent living but I was tired of going to school year around to get it down, so instead of working on my education specialist degree, I took a job teaching at a small college in Texas. The pay was squat, and just having a masters in anything back then helped, but I didn't really get work in my "career field". Just a case of not really being up to speed on what things took. I could have probably made a lot more money in my life and had a pension and a better retirement. Live and learn I guess. Things came out ok. Still the old saying applies, To soon old, to late smart.
Do we mention the time I took a "vacation" to head to Lake Placid in 1979? A long roundabout trip, visiting old "girlfriend" and partying a lot along the way. With intentions of getting to the Olympic Village construction, earning some money, and getting to watch the HOCKEY tournament. You know, the Miracle On Ice one? The one I missed because I was completely broke when I hit Harrisburg PA.
I did that instead of using the cash I had on hand for a down payment on the house across the street from my folks. The one that sold a year later for $19000 more than I would have paid for it. 19 Grand in 1979 wasn't a bad wage for a full years work, not to mention a tidy profit on a small house.
Of course, I could have bought cheap land in any of numerous "rural" areas in SoCal, which quickly became suburbs. Think Moreno Valley, Temecula, Ramona, Antelope Valley.
And I could have thought more highly of computers and gotten some training in using them, or even just invested in some early computer stock. But no, I had a good paying job, turned 21, chased girls, bought new cars, etc etc.
Didn't get back on track until I was in my mid 30's. Then was a starving student for 4 years, and a low pay scale employee for a few more. Eventually, I did OK, but boy would I like to do it over again sometimes.
Geno
When I bought my first house, my agent tried to talk me into raw land in Apple Valley. I thought he was nuts. 5 years later there was a large shopping center sitting there anchored by an Albertsons grocery store. Buying a condo in Azusa, CA and renting it to my mom as a form of rent control. It was a loss every year but never appreciated. My gut was to buy a place in Mammoth Lakes as a rental and hand my mom some cash every month. The Mammoth places super appreciated and are at about 95% occupancy year round.
Buying a bass boat. They're definitely money pits.
Originally Posted by hanco
Damn boat, been lots of fun, but damn sure a money pit.
Originally Posted by DubThomas
Buying a boat, selling it and not learning my lesson so I bought another boat. The biggest mistake was letting my wife (now my EX-wife) have access to the investment account.
Originally Posted by hanco
I dumb cause I still have the boat.
Tell me about the dumb ways to buy a boat and if there’s ever a smart way. We are threatening to buy one as soon as this coming spring. Our kids are still pretty little at 1 and 3 so I could definitely make an argument to put it off. But the financial part, was it financed or bought cash? Just piddling money away on constant repairs and maintenance and not factoring that into your budget? Spent too much on a toy? Don’t use it enough?
It is pretty tough to put a dollar amount on the time and memories you will make with your kids. i would only suggest waiting until they are a little older. They will be more cognizant and you should be in a better place financially to pull it off.
. My plan is to buy/build muti family if the market cools a bit.
memtb