Nobody is born a financial wizard. You learn important lessons about spending, budgeting, saving, and investing through life experience and—hopefully—with the help of a good mentor. And any money mistakes you make, no matter how painful, are potential learning opportunities, so long as you have a growth-oriented mindset.
That’s not to say that any money-related blunders you make don’t hurt in the moment… they do. A lot! Recently, some AskReddit members opened up about the very worst financial decisions they’ve ever made. Scroll down for their stories, as well as the tough lessons they learned.
Bored Panda got in touch with personal finance expert Rick Orford, the author of 'The Financially Independent Millennial,' and he was kind enough to shed some light on getting out of debt and developing a healthier relationship with money. You'll find his thoughts below.
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#21
Got a car loan at 10% when prime was 3%, Never trust the salesman. Claimed the 10% was just a place holder until the banks opened.
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30points
#22
Move without securing a job first because I had a good amount saved up. It took me 6 months to find a job despite being in a high demand profession and with experience. The job market is tough af.
I had $22,000 saved up. Drained it all.
I had $22,000 saved up. Drained it all.
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28points
#23
I didn't file the proper form when I surrendered my house before foreclosure in 2016. One. Form. Didn't know, used an online tax service and that was that?
I was told by the collector I would never hear from them again. Oh, how wrong I was. See, the IRS thinks I owe taxes on the sale of the property, but I just handed over the property under the guise of washing my hands of the dire situation.
Last time I checked, the IRS wants over 100 grand. I got nothing for the house. Now I had to go to a CPA. My tax guy has delayed them, tried too casually to get a tax advocate to correct the problem. Almost 9 years later, they have kept every refund and I have this STILL hanging over our heads. The IRS has not waived a thing.
All because of one form.
Lost a house, lost all my money I put into the house, currently paying twice as much in rent as my previous house payments. Not a dime to spare. One. Form.
Shoulda. Coulda. Woulda.
I was told by the collector I would never hear from them again. Oh, how wrong I was. See, the IRS thinks I owe taxes on the sale of the property, but I just handed over the property under the guise of washing my hands of the dire situation.
Last time I checked, the IRS wants over 100 grand. I got nothing for the house. Now I had to go to a CPA. My tax guy has delayed them, tried too casually to get a tax advocate to correct the problem. Almost 9 years later, they have kept every refund and I have this STILL hanging over our heads. The IRS has not waived a thing.
All because of one form.
Lost a house, lost all my money I put into the house, currently paying twice as much in rent as my previous house payments. Not a dime to spare. One. Form.
Shoulda. Coulda. Woulda.
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28points
#24
Gambling. You can't outgamble your losses.
Losing is not a problem in gambling, if u lost everytime you will not gamble anymore. Winning on the other hand is the problem.
The more u win, the more u increase your stakes. You lose some, win some. No big deal, I went to a casino once with 2 euros and came out with 500, the next day went in with 150 and ended up with -300 euros.
Its a brutal cycle where the money you make will not be enough to make long term changes in your life and you ll loose them anyway on the next round of gambling.
Meanwhile your brain gets so hooked on, that you make radical, illogical financial decisions on your daily life even if its not gambling. Like buying expensive stuff for your soulmate, cause u either feel bad losing the same ammount last night or feel confident that you can make more money if u won.
Losing is not a problem in gambling, if u lost everytime you will not gamble anymore. Winning on the other hand is the problem.
The more u win, the more u increase your stakes. You lose some, win some. No big deal, I went to a casino once with 2 euros and came out with 500, the next day went in with 150 and ended up with -300 euros.
Its a brutal cycle where the money you make will not be enough to make long term changes in your life and you ll loose them anyway on the next round of gambling.
Meanwhile your brain gets so hooked on, that you make radical, illogical financial decisions on your daily life even if its not gambling. Like buying expensive stuff for your soulmate, cause u either feel bad losing the same ammount last night or feel confident that you can make more money if u won.
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28points
#25
Recently fell for a romance scam. Lost all my savings. I hate myself.
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27points
#26
I bought some fine art as an investment, but sold it a few years later for less than half what I'd paid. I should have trusted my gut, rather than some slick advisor.
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25points
#28
Racked up $20k in credit card debt in my early 20’s. My mom always warned me to be careful but since I knew better I just knew it wouldn’t happen to me. Lol. Anyways, aggressively paying for a few years + two covid stimulus checks + totaling my car helped finish it off. Haven’t carried a balance since.
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24points
#29
Legos long term strategy in the 90s was to hook kids on them and then drop their dream sets when they had the money.
I'm still learning from it.
I'm still learning from it.
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23points
#30
Lending friends or family significant amounts of money… just don’t.
Don’t mind lending you a few hundred until payday or something. But have had 2 different situations where I played myself.
Lent an uncle $5000 in like 2015. I was young and doing okay, uncle was in hard times. Asked him about it numerous times, always comes up with a new excuse as why he can’t pay me. I asked just to pay back monthly, throw me $50 a check or something to work it off. Haven’t seen a penny from him. We rarely talk anymore, and it’s definitely ruined our relationship.
Had a good buddy who I was friends with for years. Got himself in a bad situation. Begged for some help and the sucker I was, lent him $3000 to help out. It’s crazy cause the work this dude put in to sucker me; was honestly impressive. Had me totally convinced he just needed help and genuinely wanted to turn his life around.
Saw the dude few days later, gooned out of his mind. Guy promised me he was using my money to get a new apartment to get away from some people. Plot twist, he used it for d***s and alcohol.
Lesson learnt, don’t lend out money unless you expect to lose it. That extra $8,000 could’ve helped me out a boatload over the years. Or at minimum, took the wife and I on a sick vacation haha.
Don’t mind lending you a few hundred until payday or something. But have had 2 different situations where I played myself.
Lent an uncle $5000 in like 2015. I was young and doing okay, uncle was in hard times. Asked him about it numerous times, always comes up with a new excuse as why he can’t pay me. I asked just to pay back monthly, throw me $50 a check or something to work it off. Haven’t seen a penny from him. We rarely talk anymore, and it’s definitely ruined our relationship.
Had a good buddy who I was friends with for years. Got himself in a bad situation. Begged for some help and the sucker I was, lent him $3000 to help out. It’s crazy cause the work this dude put in to sucker me; was honestly impressive. Had me totally convinced he just needed help and genuinely wanted to turn his life around.
Saw the dude few days later, gooned out of his mind. Guy promised me he was using my money to get a new apartment to get away from some people. Plot twist, he used it for d***s and alcohol.
Lesson learnt, don’t lend out money unless you expect to lose it. That extra $8,000 could’ve helped me out a boatload over the years. Or at minimum, took the wife and I on a sick vacation haha.
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23points
