Learning how to use and save money isn’t a natural born instinct. It’s a skill that comes with a lot of time and a lot of budgeting.
It also comes with a lot of mistakes, as the only way to make sure someone learns is to make sure they mess up all the time.
Unfortunately messing up with money can have serious long term consequences. Having something on your credit report that brings down the score will stay there for years—seven whole years in the United States.
And since we don’t learn how to budget when we are young, how are we supposed to not make crazy mistakes that follow us around our whole lives?
Redditor viKiKing0 asked:
“What was the stupidest financial decision you ever made?”
Here were some of those answers.
Milestones Don’t Matter
“My now wife and I were renting a terrace house for $50 a week. The landlord who was a very strange cat offered to sell us the house if we paid the weekly rent for 10 years.”
“Rent per year was about $2600 so for $26000 we would have owned a house. We were 20 years old and ten years was forever so we said no . That was my BIG mistake.”
“To people who have asked : The house was in Tasmania. About 40 years ago. At that stage I was earning about $250 per week.”
“It was double story ,2 bedroom terrace house. We bought a house about 6 years later for about $75000. We knew the landlord, he was divesting a lot of properties he owned.”-1999falcon
“Was a 10-99 day trader out of college. Didn’t pay taxes for a year or two. Making peanuts, IRS won’t notice, right?”
“The penalties were more than the original amount owed. Had to put $6,500 on a credit card (bad choice #2). Sent me on a 20 year whirlwind of credit card crappiness. Should have paid my taxes.”
“Should have set up a payment plan with the IRS.”-LurkersGoneLurk
“I got my B.S. in criminal justice. Applied for quite a few jobs, tested in and interviewed for several, but never got them.”
“My dream job was to be a coroner investigator, but I totally flubbed the interview.”
“I ended up going back to school for 3 semesters and got a second A.A./certificate in Paralegal Studies, got a job within a month of graduating.”
“I somewhat regret my CJ degree, but having a Bachelors really helps with other job prospects, so it all worked out in the end.”
“Find something related to the field that you might enjoy if finding work in the field doesn’t work out.”-callhersavage
When Stress Lies To You
“Last year at the start of the pandemic I got a great job as a video game developer working on one of the most successful VR titles.”
“After a few weeks the imposter syndrome was getting worse and worse and eventually I just…quit, I couldn’t take the stress it was causing me and I explained I’d need some time.”
“I never went back to it, never communicated, just returned to a state of depression.”
“Now I’m sat at work on a hot Sunday afternoon back in my call centre job, worrying about how I’ll get to the end of the month with the money left in the bank.”-MrSpindles
“Columbia warehouse records and tapes. I was 15….didn’t read the fine print stating i agreed to purchase at least one tape or record EVERY month for a year.”
“I got my 13 cassettes for a penny…and bought maybe one or two more cassettes as the year went on then forgot about it.”
“Cut to a year later i owed the difference of $86 for the cassettes i didnt buy. They hounded me for 10 yrs…one day when i came back from working offshore i had a few grand and was like ‘fuck it..u win’…i sent them a check for $86.”
“I like to think my account went through multiple hands through the years within the biz and once i eventually paid, the person got a promotion and a celebration was had for FINALLY getting this dude to pay up.”-ImInArea52
“My ex and I moved in together. Paid half each for deposits and all the bills etc. I took out a 4k loan in my name and bought furniture with it, I also bought us a 1.5k bed on finance.”
“My mistake was not getting it in writing that as I was paying the loans anything purchased with that would be mine.”
“I walked away with an £800 telly and nothing else and was still paying the loan off for 1.5 years after I moved out. In the future I will be keeping receipts and written agreements!”-spitroastyomum
Getting Screwed By An Ex, An Ex-Family Or An Ex-Hobby
“When I split with my ex husband, we came to our own agreement – I gave him the house (my share was about $100k) and he wouldn’t ask for child support (even though we had 50/50 care, I’d still have to pay him as I earned more).”
“I thought it would be less disruption for our kids if they could stay in their home half the time, and I’d be able to save for my own home deposit over the coming years.”
“We agreed the house would eventually go to the kids anyway. Despite the split, I had complete trust in him sticking to the deal.”
“4 months after the house was in his name, he moved in with his new girlfriend, sold the house and took me to court for child support saying there was no agreement.”
“The court believed him and I had to pay him another $80k over the next 5 years. It’s the worst decision I’ve ever made in my life, and I’m still suffering for it.”-idontwannabeflawless
“I wound up with a good $5k in credit card debt because “family”. Cut off most of my family 4 years ago, and it took another 3 years to pay off the debt.”
“My credit is still only decent because of how often I’d skip paying the bills because my family needed money again. I kept being told it would all get paid back, and they would pay off the credit cards.”
“Shockingly – they never did. Told me since I was cutting them off, I didn’t deserve it.”
“It’s RIDICULOUSLY hard to recover your credit once the debt is paid off because now you have nothing to pay to prove you can pay it, but no one will lend to you, because your history shows you can’t pay it. Capitalism ftw.”
“Sometimes I wonder how my family would react now if they knew how much more money I make now than I did back then, and they can’t get their grubby little hands on any of it.”-Emmyisme
“Last year around this time a buddy and inwere discussing AMC stock..it was like $1.98 or so…i told him ‘dude..im looking at the amc stock..when covid is over by next summer its going to pop..might go to $10 a share..we can make a quick buck.’”
“I was going to put $20,000 in it on margin….we discussed this for the next two months a few times a week…its gonna pop..its gonna pop….THEN the news started hitting around november of movie chains going bankrupt..out of biz for ever.”
“Streaming new movies is the new way of life…movie companies releasing movies same day as theater and in some cases ONLY on streaming…etc..etc…it was relentless news on how theaters are done for good…….so i didnt buy it.”
“Yes..im a dumb a**….but i believed streaming new movies was taking off big time and amc was on the verge of collapse based on all the news and chaos.”-ImInArea52
“I met a woman online, went to see her for a week, then decided to move across the country to be with her.”
“To afford this move, I sold all of my Magic: The Gathering cards which were older than Mercadian Masques for $3000.”
“These included a full set of dual lands (about an even split of Revised and Unlimited), some Arabian Nights stuff, and Mana Drains and about ten Force of Will.”
“She met someone else while I was figuring out to how move, and informed me when she met me at the airport.”
“About 10 months later, I used my last dime on gas as I packed my stuff into my car and drove across the country to move back in with my father at age 24.”-bp_516
Everybody makes major money mistakes. Financial independence and stability is not something anybody comes by naturally, if they’re not from a wealthy family.
Perhaps it’s time to be a little bit more forgiving of our own transgressions.
