'Money can't buy happiness' or 'More money, more problems?'
Regardless of your financial philosophy in life, we've all made a few disappointing errors when it comes to matters of the wallet. Banking on a slot machine, bringing a wad of cash to a karaoke bar, retail therapy, or giving your corporate company card to Anna Delvey on a vacation in Morocco--money is complicated.
So, when a Reddit user asked, 'What was the dumbest financial mistake you've ever made?' people were brave enough to share.
1.
Getting conned into a high interest credit card at 18, then completely screwing it off because I was 18 and an idiot. A $500 credit limit turned into $3000 worth of fees and interest.
That blemish just fell off of my credit report this year. It was a terrible mistake that left me years behind credit-wise. But, at 26 I am much more careful with my money. I have definitely learned a lesson. - ithinkimalergic2me
2.
Let my girlfriend borrow money from me. Didn't get it back after we broke up. As expected. - ReferencesCartoons
3.
Cosigned a loan with my nephew's live in girlfriend of 4 years for a car to take them from a 13% loan to a 4% loan.
They split up a year later and I didn't hear from her again much. A few years later the bank contacted me saying she hadn't paid for the car in over 60 days. This turned into a repeating pattern over the next 2 years until now.
I had to cover payments more than once to avoid more credit hits. I was shopping for a house at the time and she managed to drop my credit score a whole f*cking 120 points. I am no longer shopping for a house and still rebuilding.
The last payment on the loan is this october and I am going to throw a party after I completely b*tch her face out for 20 minutes over the phone about how horrible of a person she is. It's going to be glorious. Protip: don't cosign a loan for anybody ever, EVER - bwrap
4.
Marriage...both of them - continuousBaBa
5.
Taking out home equity loans when I didn't have to. I was just buying things that I didn't really need. Lost pretty much all of my profit selling my house. - [deleted]
6.
Quit my job without finding another one first. 3 years until my next job... - [deleted]
7.
Stealing a magazine at the age of 18. Between court costs, lawyer fees, and fees to expunge the judgment later, it was a $600 magazine. - pdraper0914
8.
I threw out a winning 'Lucky For Life' lottery ticket. I could have had 1000 dollars a week for 25 years, but I did not read the rules and thought I had to match my numbers to the word 'Life.'
But I didn't. I had the word life without the matching number, won, and thought I lost. Plot twist, I'm 20. And now I'm living with that the next 25 years. - [deleted]
9.
Filled out every credit card application that was handed to me when I first went to college. 'Left' college after one semester, 4 years later 20k+ deep in credit card debt.
Defaulted, moved to a State where they could not garnish wages and lived 7 years on cash only. Still pretty much live that way today. Big mistake but great lesson. - JohnnyBrillcream
10.
I've bought so much clothes online and half of them don't fit/were bad quality/didn't arrive as expected. I've probably wasted a few hundred dollars on just that. - Deer-In-A-Headlock
11.
I didn't file my taxes. I thought it was automatic. Feds are still holding like $1,000 in taxes for me. - [deleted]
12.
Someone tried to pay me 250 dollars in bitcoins when they were worthless and I laughed at him and said no thanks. - [deleted]
13.
Buying a $300 iPod in the early 2000s instead of using that money to buy Apple stock... - Anastik
14.
Buying a boat...don't buy a boat. - egotisicalpessimist
15.
Opened a credit card in college, bought...something (I don't even remember what), completely forgot about it. Never got a statement, three years later I suddenly have collections agencies calling me nonstop over a $20 debt with hundreds in 'collection fees.' Took years to get my credit back to 'not sh*t' levels. - EternalNewGuy
16.
Spending all my student loan refund checks instead of saving those f*ckers to, oh, I don't know - PAY OFF MY STUDENT LOANS. - stitchbomb
17.
Paid for half of a wedding, only being to blind to see my fiancé was cheating on me. - PLO1021
18.
Not mine, but my dad's. He bought like $500 worth of collectable Star Trek dinner plates in the 80's thinking they'd be worth a ton of money in a few years. They're not. - DrRagnarok