Share you biggest financial mistake thread.
 

I will start. See if you can top this. I still get shivers.

I bought 2 stocks (MBIA and AMBAC) at around 10am one day a couple of years back (I forget the exact date). At around 2pm ON THAT SAME DAY, the stocks dropped over 80%.

I put in $10,000 in the morning. At the end of the day, it was worth $2,000.

I share this story because I have been carrying this sack of bricks for a couple of years now and hopefully I have learned my lesson.

Just thinking about now makes me want to literally vomit.

I once failed to sell a bunch of company stock from a former employers 401k rollover because it was down and I thought it would recover. The company eventually went bankrupt, I think it cost me about $30k. That's what happens when you get too greedy and are unwilling to accept a lose.

One of my biggest mistakes was first buying, then holding on to my 190-E 16 valve. I sank way too much money into that car!!

28 years ago...Selling my house in Ojai, CA at the bottom of a R.E. cycle and getting locked out of home ownership for many years as the price of homes went up, up ,up...... I Squandered the profit on cars, boats & crap. (I was 23 years old) & paid capital gains taxes.

Playing the rigged options market.

Using credit cards to 'help' bridge cash flow in a small business and then not paying the cards off right away.

And Any debt.
Maybe these are the best financial lessons that ever happened to me....I learned my lesson.

Getting married has to be right up there . . . .

I just love these feel good threads. I have commited a few really great blunders as well over the years.

Total cost? I have no desire to tally them. The only good is the upside offsets minumised them to some extent.

No sense dwelling on them in my experience. Other than perhaps instiling some caution there is nothing worthwile in doing so.

Not me but my dad worked at Enron ,nuff said.The Jeff Skiling guy should have been just alittle more remorseful of his actions .The guy is a soulless pompous ars.The movie about the whole collaps of Enron is very detailed and informative about how this company went from bad to worse."The smartest guys in the room."

I've seen it and I was very impressed. (If it doesn't make you angry, you're a jerk)

on a side note, Bethany McLean looked pretty good but she obviously highly caffeinated during the interview.

Going to college? I guess we'll see how that one pans out

Waiting several years before adding my entire IRA nest egg to Berkshire-Hathaway stock, along with the individual account shares of same I originally bought. Not really a mistake, but a miscalculation. What's a few million more anyway, I laugh to myself?

Thankfully, all other actual financial mistakes/losses are small and total under $50K that I made along the way.

OK, I'll bite. Where was it before you put it into Berk?

He had Microsoft stock...

The IRA was in a mutual fund out of Kansas City, MO. Twentieth Century. It was all in the 'Select' stock fund. I believe it (Twentieth Century) was absorbed by another company. At the time, it's value was only about $60K. I had paid for 50% down on my home with individual account money. The IRA is never to be touched, was my belief.

Timing is everything, Rod.

Not going to a four year college.