Your biggest financial blunder?

Yeah..Who knows if buy and hold was ever the right formula.  Obviously it is not today. 

The one thing that does seem to always work is saving as much as you can each year.

 Quitting my last job because I did not want to move. I'll never see that kind of pay again.

drpep


 Quitting my last job because I did not want to move. I'll never see that kind of pay again.

Life is all about choices. We make choices every day based on what we know, how we think, what's important at the time etc. I've made choices, some were great choices for me and my family and some were disasters for me and my family The important thing I've learned is to live with those decision's and move on to the next great decision or disaster. If you wallow in the bad decisions, you're dead. Don't stop making decisions based on what you think is best at that time. To second guess and linger in the past will more that likely result in a bad decision.  Be positive, forget the past and move on to the next good or bad decision!

Food - Perfectly put....

Baah Ben


Food - Perfectly put....

Thank You!
With age comes wisdom---And the ability to live with who you are. I didn't understand that 10-20 years ago.

Financially, it was not a blunder, but rather one of my best investments, when I bought some Pizza Hut stock many years ago at $16/ share.  I had never been to a Pizza Hut (at the time, there were only two in NJ where I was living at that time).  The stock doubled in about six months when I finally ate in one while vacationing in FL.

It was by far the worst pizza I'd ever eaten.  I promptly sold my holdings after which it sank back to about $16 over the next 6 months when Pepsi bought it up.  

I've only been back to a Pizza Hut twice since - both being as bad an event as the first.  Eating there more than one was one of my worst blunders.

When I first got married in the early 70's we bought a house in what is called the "Old Town District" for $10,000! It was a brick 2 bedroom with a large kitchen, dining room, LR with fireplace, finished attic (extra bedroom) and one bath with a unfinished basement. Our payments were $100 a month with a 10 year loan. Well after a few years there nothing would do that I wanted a new house. So started building a house, sold the old house for $24,000.

This area is now very expensive and the "in" place to live. If I could I would kick my self everyday for selling this house. It would have been paid off over 23 years ago. Now I have another 15 years of paying a mortgate.

Dumb, dumb, dumb me!

SassyGritsAL


When I first got married in the early 70's we bought a house in what is called the "Old Town District" for $10,000! It was a brick 2 bedroom with a large kitchen, dining room, IR with fireplace, finished attic (extra bedroom) and one bath with a unfinished basement. Our payments were $100 a month with a 10 year loan. Well after a few years there nothing would do that I wanted a new house. So started building a house, sold the old house for $24,000.

This area is now very expensive and the "in" place to live. If I could I would kick my self everyday for selling this house. It would have been paid off over 23 years ago. Now I have another 15 years of paying a mortgage.

Dumb, dumb, dumb me!

I'm going to write a book, "Stay Where You Are And Become Rich!" Most Middle Class Americans, Incomes between $30 and $90K, are always chasing that next promotion, climbing the Corporate Ladders, etc. Some make it-----most don't. I moved 17 times in 40+ years doing just that. I was successful climbing the ladder----to a point!. However, now that I reflect back on it from a financial standpoint, it was not that smart to buy and sell houses and move that often. Your post triggered me to think about it and I've not had time to crunch the numbers, but I'm certain that if I had stopped along the way and settled into a job and home, I would have been further ahead in the financial game. Granted, in today's world there are no job guarantees. But by staying stationary, the home would have been paid for, the monthly mortgage payment would have been invested in other areas and I'd be in a much better financial situation. The moral of the story is to find a comfort level in a place you like to live and settle down there and prosper, even if you need to work for a lower salary! Think about it, most of our parents didn't move all that often, they paid off their mortgages and put us thru College. Granted, a different time, but some of the basic principles still apply.

One of the most underrated jobs is that of a teacher.  In most large cities, their pay is what other parts of the country would consider terrific.  But, living in these cities quickly eats up those $60,000 plus salaries.  Many have to supplement their incomes with work during the summers, etc.

However, if you can stick with it, after twenty years or so, you get a really good pension.  If you've started teaching early enough in life, you can retire in your early 50's.  

Many a person from my generation initally looked the other way but today, those who chose teaching as a profession are retired and doing ok.  Especially in this financial climate.

 I've been buying and selling domains for a few years and certainly regret some of the ones I've bought and the prices I got for some of the ones I sold.  I'm getting better at it but I still have more to learn.

Andrea

Baah Ben


One of the most underrated jobs is that of a teacher.  In most large cities, their pay is what other parts of the country would consider terrific.  But, living in these cities quickly eats up those $60,000 plus salaries.  Many have to supplement their incomes with work during the summers, etc.

However, if you can stick with it, after twenty years or so, you get a really good pension.  If you've started teaching early enough in life, you can retire in your early 50's.  

Many a person from my generation initally looked the other way but today, those who chose teaching as a profession are retired and doing ok.  Especially in this financial climate.

I have to second this observation
 
My wife and I have completed thirty years of service to the University System of Georgia and, thus, have qualified for our Teachers' Retirement pensions.  It's one of the last of the old-time good pensions--a defined benefit plan that has cost of living adustments.
 
My wife retired a couple of years ago and is now working part-time, making more than when she worked full-time.
 
I will retire next month and hope to do the same.
 
We may not have gotten rich on teachers/librarian salaries, but we in our mid-50s have our pensions that will provide a stable standard of living. If we ever get Social Security we'll be in great shape.
 
So, it really  may not be easy--we had share of poor years early on and te job had its challemges,  but it does pay to stick it out and if you do it's a good reward.
 
 

tfrilin - Yup!  When you were young, you did have a tougher time than those who chose other vocations.  Today, you're the envy of many.  Congrats..Enjoy your senior years!

Having kids.  I could've just burned my paychecks and come out better.
 
Brad

I, too, am a retired schoolteacher. The pension is good, and I was able to retire early enough to start a second career in the financial business.
I have a year and 6 weeks until I retire again, and this time I mean it!

Teaching was for me great.. in the beginning. I would have paid them to let me do it. The last five years were a nightmare (7th grade inner city)

I am awfully glad I stuck with it.

SassyGritsAL


When I first got married in the early 70's we bought a house in what is called the "Old Town District" for $10,000! It was a brick 2 bedroom with a large kitchen, dining room, LR with fireplace, finished attic (extra bedroom) and one bath with a unfinished basement. Our payments were $100 a month with a 10 year loan. Well after a few years there nothing would do that I wanted a new house. So started building a house, sold the old house for $24,000.

This area is now very expensive and the "in" place to live. If I could I would kick my self everyday for selling this house. It would have been paid off over 23 years ago. Now I have another 15 years of paying a mortgate.

Dumb, dumb, dumb me!

I bought our first house using my GI Bill of Rights for zero down payment for a $24,000 mortgage and sold it 11 years later with 300% plus appreciation (hot 70s) and then took that profit and designed and self-built my second home starting in 1982. Our house topped $500,000 in value before the recent downturn. That was one of my stellar investments of 0 to $500,000 plus with pure leverage. Not included in that is my secret financial weapon. My property is legally subdividable with another potential $200,000 half acre lot. Only I won't do that while still living there.