Comments on: Your Biggest Financial Mistake?

By: The 10 Commandments For Frugal Living | Frugal Dad

The 10 Commandments For Frugal Living | Frugal Dad — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:18:03 +0000

[...] that particular car, “car idolatry” followed me for a while until I did finally make a new car buying mistake around twenty [...]

By: Dee

Dee — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:48:03 +0000

Hmm…where shall I begin?

I’ll just give the sweet and short of it.

I was in real estate. I was flipping properties. House #1 was my private residence, which I had to sell in order to move into the house #2 (a banking thing). House #3 I gave me a much needed cash infusion to finish the work on property #2 and spruce up #1 to get it sold. House #3’s original market value started plummeting as the market grew sour. I took less on #1 than I would have if I had sold it just one year earlier (but that was never in the cards). Then in January, 2006, I had $100,000 (commissions and profits) never materialize. Banks were changing the terms of some clients’ loans, which caused a couple to cancel the deal. House #3 was not selling, and not finished. House #1 took longer to sell than hoped. House #2 needed EVERYTHING. I had three houses and three mortgages on my hands at the time, and NO money was coming in. Plus, I had to hire a lawyer to deal with a shady contractor. And I owed Uncle Sam.

My bad decisions: taking on more than one property at the time; counting my chickens before they hatched, and I knew better; and working with that shady contractor who cost me more money and lost time.

I got out, took a teaching position, which I never, ever wanted to do. So I may be about to make another financial mistake. I’m planning to quit the teaching gig, ’cause I hate it, yet I have very little savings.

It’s one thing to not know and make a mistake. It’s another to screw yourself with the lights on and your eyes wide open.

By: Jennifer Lissette

Jennifer Lissette — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:47:02 +0000

Just found this post and felt like sharing. My biggest financial mistake was agreeing to a big wedding that we couldn’t afford. My husband and I had planned and saved for a small $10,000 wedding. Then my father-in-law offered us $20,000 if we had the wedding at his favorite reception hall and invited 120 of his closest friends. The cost of the wedding skyrocketed to $70,000 total and we had to scramble to find the $40,000 difference. I was seven months pregnant with our first child by the time we finished paying it off.

By: todd

todd — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:16:00 +0000

well I’m still living my mistake.

I bought 99 trans am a few years ago for 13,000

I needed a car and the best loan i could get (due to the year of the car) was 18.5% and I agreed to it. I’ve always wanted that car, and I needed a car asap.

Well a few years later, I still owe 10,000 and the car is worth about $5,000. Ive spent thousands in repairs and it has high mileage.

I still don’t know what to do. I want to get rid of it and get something newer and more reliable.

I have done some research and concluded the best idea is probably to sell privately and then just owe $5,000. But then when I get another car, I’ll still owe that 5k..you get the idea. Not fun to be upside down in cars.

Only other option is to have it “stolen” but that comes with a whole new set of problems!

Lesson learned.

By: Car Replacement Fund Underway | Frugal Dad

Car Replacement Fund Underway | Frugal Dad — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:02:35 +0000

[...] and with only one exception, I’ve never really cared what I drove (there was that whole Isuzu Rodeo leasing saga). To me a car represents four tires and sheet metal with an engine to get you from point A to point [...]

By: Mneiae

Mneiae — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 22:51:19 +0000

Letting two people who I thought were my best friends live off of me. I would’ve saved a lot of money if I hadn’t paid for all of us every time we went out to eat or did a series of exercise classes.

By: Jordan

Jordan — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:00:00 +0000

You simply have to be able say 'no, thanks at that price' at least once to the dealer. This gives them a strong message that you are serious about your research. You should also bring a piece of paper to the dealership and make sure you do all the math of the finance calculations yourself. The point is not that they will do the math wrong. The point is you will see exactly how the deal is structured. Do not be afraid to take the time to do this or look like a fool for mapping out your car deal in the dealership. My dad swears by this process, http://tinyurl.com/knflt6

By: Frances

Frances — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 18:27:23 +0000

My biggest financial mistake was counting on $5,000 our relatives promised to give to us when we moved into our new house. I expected the check when we moved, but a few weeks went by and nothing showed up. I finally asked about it and the relative said “Oh no, you have plenty of money. We can’t give you anything right now becuase we’re buying new carpet” (for their whole house). We ended up liquidating our emergency fund to cover the $5,000 but the lesson learned was to never count on money someone says they’re giving you until the check clears!

By: Janette

Janette — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:44:14 +0000

Not listening to my inner voice with Worldcom- losing our entire investment porfolio. Instead I listened to my retiring (who helped us build that portfolio) broker’s son…Still hate the name Jerry. Fortunately, I always listen to my little voice now.
Letting my brother in law work on my car at his new shop. He ended up replacing everything at a time we had little money. The thing that really needed to be replaced- a 79 cent wire!

By: Crystal

Crystal — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 20:22:06 +0000

My biggest regret was living in denial about money. I spent more than I made which of course meant that I used credit cards to make up the difference. I wanted to have it all. It all came crashing down when my student loans came up. I had credit card bills, a car loan, and student loans. Bad idea. I learned a hard lesson.