Post by pedanticwench on Sept 25, 2012 15:41:38 GMT -5
1). When I was 17, I "put down" $400 on a pug puppy from a pet store. I was still living with my parents who said I couldn't bring a dog into the house. It was a non-refundable deposit.
2). For the first year of marriage (2007-2008), I blew through money like crazy. I can't believe how much money I spent on stupid shit. Then, the downturn happened and I realized I couldn't keep living as if there were no tomorrow.
I have all the books I could need, and what more could I need than books? I shall only engage in commerce if books are the coin. -- Catherynne M. Valente
I think this all helped me learn that it's important to save and create a secure future, but not at the expense of passing on meaningful opportunities that will not be available to me when that future comes. I guess that is a good lesson to learn sooner rather than later.
if all else fails, I can live vicariously through my (future theoretical) children and strongly encourage them to travel abroad? lol
Post by ladybrettashley on Sept 25, 2012 15:44:34 GMT -5
Buying DH a truck that he desperately wanted but we probably couldn't afford. We still have a year left of $600 payments on that sucker and it gets terrible gas mileage.
We didn't think through our finances as much as we should have before deciding to have a child. We really should have saved up more for a down payment for a house. Now we're still renting for at least another year and I really wish DS had more space and a yard to play in.
Not saving more for a down payment. And buying when we did in 2007. We could have had a 10x nicer house if we saved for a year and waited for the market to turn to crap.
A lot of people say this, but I don't think this is true across the board. 80% of our DP money was invested, so we would have lost a LOT of it had we not purchased when we did (early 2008). I suppose we could have taken it out when things had started to go south, but it's also possible we wouldn't have in hope that it would rebound. So our purchasing power would have then been limited and we could still have been screwed.
tacom, it sounds like a girls' trip is in order -- can you round up some friends for one?
as soon as I have a break from grad school I would love to! the problem is my best friend from undergrad is in a semesters PhD program that doesn't match up with my quarters program.
we may have to wait a couple of years til we have mutual time off, but I will definitely make it happen. :drink: ;D :drink: ;D
I wish I had focused on taking the CPA exam earlier in my career. I am thinking about taking it next year and it terrifies me because I have been out of school for so long.
seriously, all my friends have albums and albums of pictures because they went to awesome places (CA, FL, NYC) for winter/spring breaks, and I'm not included in any of it. I also was one of the only ones who didn't study abroad in Rome. they share all these memories and experiences that I will never have, and that chapter of my life is over.
I plan to travel once I have a career and the means to fund it, but it's never going to be the same as actually living abroad with your best friends from college.
in the grand scheme of things, I don't value the (relatively) small amount of money I saved by opting out of these experiences as much as I believe I would have valued the experiences themselves.
This makes sense to me too. I did a similar thing trying to be "adult" and didn't fly home from collage one Thanksgiving/Christmas so I could save more. I missed irreplacable family time over that as my brother and mom both died within the year.
My new big regret is not getting on the deed of my house and pushing H on coming up with a way we could communicate about our finances. I would have made a lot of decisions differently had I known the other pieces of the financial picture earlier.
Taking out private student loans. I couldn't work during school (only summers) and I just wanted to be done, so I took out the full amount I could. I had NO financial sense when it came to stuff like that, and no one in my life told me at the time I how much I would end up paying in interest. I question the financial judgement of my parents and my aunt who co-signed who barely looked at the paperwork, although ultimately it was my decision. It sucks, and I will most likely never have a high enough salary to justify the loans.
This makes sense to me too. I did a similar thing trying to be "adult" and didn't fly home from collage one Thanksgiving/Christmas so I could save more. I missed irreplacable family time over that as my brother and mom both died within the year.
Post by jackiedec04 on Sept 25, 2012 16:31:03 GMT -5
Buying our house in 2007. We were too young and ill prepared. Everyone told us to buy as large as we qualified for. We didn't know about having emergency funds, saving, or even care that we had no down payment (or savings).
We both lost our jobs a year later when the market crashed, lost our cars, lost the house, we lost everything in bankruptcy.
In a year, that house cost us $44,000 in payments, taxes, etc. We could have spent about $12,000 on rent. Makes me sick just thinking about it.
Post by momof2boys on Sept 25, 2012 16:38:15 GMT -5
Buying two new cars in one day. We had always been really money conscious and had an epic fail in judgement that day. We will be paying for that mistake for a long time. I'm fortunate that my job is flexible in hours and were very happy to take me on full time so that we can pay for this mistake without going into debt. However, every month when I make out the checks for the cars (that in all honesty, I don't even love) I get upset and think about how nice it was when we had two paid off cars as well as what I could be doing with that money if it wasn't for the cars, or what I could be doing with that time that I now spend at work.
Post by simpsongal on Sept 25, 2012 16:50:57 GMT -5
My 6 figure SLs - e.g., Taking them out, taking out private ones not subject to federal loan forgiveness, taking out private ones w/variable rates.....
Ah, your 20s.... now that I think of it, maybe I'm not so sad about turning 30 next year.
This makes sense to me too. I did a similar thing trying to be "adult" and didn't fly home from collage one Thanksgiving/Christmas so I could save more. I missed irreplacable family time over that as my brother and mom both died within the year.
ugh, this is awful. I am sorry.
thanks, Tacom. at least we both learned the lesson sooner than later to take advantage of experiences when you can.
Post by zombiemuse on Sept 25, 2012 16:55:48 GMT -5
Taking out more in SL than was absolutely necessary. I was working FT while in school so I didn't need the extra money for living expenses. It was purely "fun money". I can't even tell you what I spent the extra bit on every semester, certainly wasn't bills.
Post by thegooser on Sept 25, 2012 16:57:05 GMT -5
My $200k in SL's. Sorta. I love my job and I had irreplaceable awesome years of growth and development living in an amazing city, but... now I have to pay it all back. Sigh.
DH's truck. It gets bad gas mileage and now he will have to commute.
Post by iheartbanjos on Sept 25, 2012 16:59:13 GMT -5
Another home purchaser in 2006. Our townhome sold for $100K less than we bought it for. We had to relocate for DH's work, his company paid $40K toward the loss and realtor fees, but we had to bring a $60K check to closing. That hurt.
Not saving more during grad school and my early career years. I discovered MM right after getting married and we established a budget but I wish I'd done it sooner.
Buying my house. its worth 80k less and I watch it go further and further into the crapper for what its worth. Depressing as hell. Mind u I can't stay here forever..If I could go back I rent a farm instead of buying one
Buying the house we live in, in 2006. Taking out too many student loans. Not pressing H to figure out a budget and payoff his debt before getting married. Buying our vehicle too soon.
- Staying with my ex for as long as I did (only 2 years but still), he blew through his money and then blew through some of mine that I worked and saved throughout high school. He still owes me like $2k.
- H buying a Jaguar (the car) when we first got together (2005). He got a great deal on it used and it turned out to be a giant paper weight. We got lucky enough that someone was willing to take it off our hands. We've had bad luck with used cars 3 times so we're never buying a used again unless we know the person and know they took care of the car properly.
Other than this, H and I are pretty conservative with our money so not really any regrets.
Add me to the buying a house in 2006 table. We moved to another state and bought without knowing much about the area. If I could do it over I would have rented for a year or two so we could have been better informed about where we wanted to settle long term. We also kept our other house as a rental property, which I guess was a bigger mistake because the last renters destroyed it. We spent three months renovating. Fortunately we sold our rental property in January of 2008 and didn't lose anything. But man, I weep for this housing market.
Post by megalicious on Sept 25, 2012 18:58:23 GMT -5
Not walking away from our house sooner. We moved for H's job and paid rent in the new state and the mortgage in the old state for over 3 years before deciding to walk away. It was pretty clear it would never sell, so we should have walked away day 1 and saved 3 years worth of mortgage payments and be 3 years closer to being able to buy something else.
Buying a starter home in 2002 and upgrading to forever home in 2007. If we'd spent the extra $50k in 2002 and just bought the forever home, it would have saved us about $150k in the end, compared to how much we had to pay in 2007.
Buying a recreation property in 2007 for $70k that is now worth $40k.