Share you biggest financial mistake thread.

[benhogan]

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.

[sfloriII]

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!!

[barry123400]

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.

[chasinthesun]

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."

[Fulcrum525]

Originally Posted by chasinthesun

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 men in the room."

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

[benhogan]

Originally Posted by Fulcrum525

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.

[strelnik]

Originally Posted by chasinthesun

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 men in the room."

Well he's in jail and his boss is pushing up daisies.

Tyco's CEO is in jail another 5 years, his trophy wife divorced him, took his cash.

He found Jesus because Jesus would give him a loan.

My biggest financial blunder was giving whunter $15,000 to start a company making a wonder elixir out of used diesel motor oil Never saw that money again

[Skid Row Joe]

Originally Posted by strelnik

My biggest financial blunder was giving whunter $15,000 to start a company making a wonder elixir out of used diesel motor oil Never saw that money again

Lesson learned?

[Mr.Kenny]

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.

[Dee8go]

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

[jplinville]

Originally Posted by Dee8go

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

I was going to make a comment along those lines...but involving my first wife.

I'd have to say the financial mistake I regret the most would have to be selling property I had in Ohio without knowing what the future for it held. I bought it for $500 per acre, and sold it at $750 per acre. 2 years later the guy who bought it sold it to a development company for an insanely high price and they built a shopping mall on it. I should have held onto it...I would have made a GREAT amount of money off of it.

[SwampYankee]

Got myself into $45K of credit card debt after college. It took over a decade to get out of that hole and, as you can imagine, set back savings/investment.

Having four kids on one income (the Mrs. is a SAHM) hasn't helped although I wouldn't change a thing. I think. (the SAHM thing, not the 4 kids thing )

[alamostation]

Getting married young.

[Palangi]

I once turned down a job working for the infamous porno king, Harry Mahoney.

I went to work for the Post Office. He made gazzillions of dollars peddling porno.












He ended up in prison.......