Doesn’t have to be thousands of dollars. Just a thing you spent money on that turned out to be a complete waste.
University
I spent 50 grand and 4 years of my life to be told by prospective employers that I either lacked real world experience, or that I was overqualified. It took me another 3 years to find a job after university - one that doesn’t require training and is barely relevant to my field.
I get to hang a pretty piece of paper up on my wall, I guess.
Overall, I guess this wins
Yeah that’s rough. I can kind of say the same. The career I chose doesn’t require the degree I have. It absolutely helps but if I could go back, I would have just gotten licensed at 18 and started working in the trade. Degree is mechanical engineering, trade is operations side of stationary engineering.
Not a big one, but surely the worst one. There was a “make your own perfume” stall in our college fest. I didn’t like the fragrance of most of what they had to offer. It took me time to pick one, but I picked one that I thought was the most unique one.
Then when I came home, I realised it smelt exactly like my dad’s car freshner.
deleted by creator
Gets the best of us
Changed over the ownership of the house I bought with my own money to my now ex because he was the one with the job. Am now house-less and renting an apartment at triple the mortgage payments.
I made a lot of mistakes divorcing my husband last year so there’s plenty of mistakes to go around. I lost my job six months before we separated and that made me feel powerless. Only now am I reclaiming my power, happiness, and inner peace. Sending good vibes your way as you grow in strength and knowledge.
fuck man, sorry to hear!
I was young and dumb and didn’t know how to say no.
Timeshare.
It’s so hard to get rid of. Fuck that thing.
I was married, in my 40’s and listened to my now ex hubby #2 because his family had several. The payment was $600 a month… a second mortgage for a one week vacation? The timeshare, nor our marriage, lasted long after that.
How is that presented as good deal up front?
Well. Since his parents have theirs paid off, it’s a mere $1,000 a year maintenance. But no. Ours was primo Washington DC/NYC (we lived in Philly at the time) and he had champagne tastes on a soda budget. I did not trust my gut as I should have.
Maybe I’m lucky, but I just stopped paying the maintenance fees. It never showed up on my credit, the phone calls stopped years ago, and all I get is the occasional scam offer in the mail to help me sell it.
Ooo thats a rough one.
An old job where transportation literally cost me half my salary.
Oh fuck that
Bought a house with my ex and we were instantly house poor. We didn’t account for buying things for the house at all. Ended up selling and moving two years later at a loss even though we sold for a bit more than we bought it for.
Listened to the internet and held onto Gamestop for longer than I should have.
I still did ok, but fuck I could have paid off my mortgage.
$400 tipping camgirls. it was the fastest lost just for a few minutes of flirting with naked women
Jeez thats a dark one
they were from a poor country so $400 has 3x the purchasing power, like $1,200. I chose a poorer country because you can spend less money for more excitement
Waiting for the bubble to burst before buying a house.
Anytime now…
It will the day I buy.
I was waiting too. Sorry buddy.
Ha, get ready for hyper inflation, your saved dollars will lose their value. All the rich finance bros will get sweetheart loan deals and buy up every scrap. Enter into fascist-feudal world. Where it gets hotter every year. Fuck you is the general plan I guess.
I don’t have dollars.
Haven’t you seen late-night infomercials? You can buy real estate with no money down!!!
I mean I don’t have dollars as currency.
I live in RestOfTheWorldStan
Underestimating the lengths that Trump admin would go to prop up equity markets during COVID
This one got me too/is still getting me.
Almost every single movie I’ve seen in theaters. At home is just better. Hell, sometimes the bike ride with my partner to and from the place is better than the movie-- could have just hung out at a park, lol.
Letting my partner quit their job so they could focus on working on a comic full-time… I completely supported them. Buying them supplies and whatever else they needed. This lasted 2 years… with absolutely nothing to show for it. NOTHING. I have no idea what the fuck they did 10 hours a day while I was at work.
you provided emotional support, I commend you for that. but they needed guidance as well, something you couldn’t possibly provide.
I have no idea what the fuck they did 10 hours a day while I was at work.
probably being depressed af 😅
I made a comic book while also working part time…not impossible.
Bruh I worked part time while working full time.
Like, not even the comic?
I used to sell plasma, and I used the funds on Robinhood to try investing without affecting my regular cash flow. Through sheer luck, in one day, my account went from around $200 to over $2500. I was overjoyed. I’d clearly made a genius-level decision that would only continue to pay out.
Anyway, I woke up the next day with less than I’d had to start. Should’ve taken the money and run. Or not tried to time the market. Either way, it felt like I’d lost $2300 instead of $50.
Need to read a random walk down wall street. Great book. The premise is no matter what news story hits the market, that information is already reflected in the stock price. Therefore, his theory is that you cannot out beat the market and it is in your best interest to dollar cost average a market tracker. That is investing. Myself I believe what you are describing is gambling.
Might want to check this out: Beat The Couch.
That’s an interesting game but it assumes the same amount either in or out all at once. Not what I’m describing where each month you invest a set amount into the market each time. This is what 401ks do. While the beat the couch is pretty cool it doesn’t take into account the dollar cost averaging aspect. It’s all in or all out. It’s not in, then buy more, then buy more, then buy more then buy more etc…you get the picture.
Having said that it is absolutely true that time in the market is better than timing the market.
I fully agree it’s not a complete stock market model, but I don’t think It claims to be.
I don’t remember it addressing what happened to dividends paid; are they just banked, reinvested, etc.
It’s certainly a cool tool
Haven’t read that book, but I’ve been very successful with the opposite approach. A favorable article about a company’s stock in popular mainstream media (not business publications) can push the stock up briefly over the next couple weeks based on false hopes of the clueless general public. Get in immediately, get out within a couple days if nothing happens, and within 2 weeks if it does. My other rule is only do this with options, not actual stocks. And yes, I too would call this gambling - but investing is never not gambling. It’s just more or less so depending on how you do it.
That is true investing is never not gambling but a lot of people use like their savings for what you would do and that’s the difference. Its like the casino, go into it with the amount of money you are willing to lose. If you can’t lose that money don’t go into the casino. Same principal with individual stock picks and options.
The premise is no matter what news story hits the market, that information is already reflected in the stock price. Therefore, his theory is that you cannot out beat the market and it is in your best interest to dollar cost average a market tracker.
I have a single digit percent allocation of single company stocks I pick myself. They are very useful as a constant reminder at how bad I am at picking single stocks to encourage me to leave the majority of my investments in boring index funds I strictly buy-and-hold.
Great idea small amounts willing to lose.
This is why I don’t invest. I tried it for a relatively short span of time. It was a large company that isn’t a scam or anything but I can’t remember the name of it. They had three sort of options for investing…1. high risk/reward, 2. Medium risk/reward, and 3. Low risk/reward.
I either picked 2 or 3 or something. Can’t remember which. All that stupid thing did was lose money due to broker fees. I watched the money slowly drop over the span of around a year from “fees” with literally never earning a dime. I thought it was ridiculous so I pulled the rest of the funds.
I instead chose to place that money in a high yield savings account. Does it earn money quickly? No. But it isn’t wildly unpredictable like investing and it will never lose money unless I take money out. Investing isn’t for me.
With all due respect, what you did was not investing; it was closer to speculating. If your time horizon is less than 5 years, what you should look at is a savings account/certificate of deposit, not the stock market.
I had a mutual fund once (the Putnam Health Sciences Trust) that went down three or four years in a row (probably about 30-35% total). The same financial advisors who recommend I buy it advised that I sell it for the last two years I owned it. I didn’t take their advice and held on to it - the next year it had about a 75% increase. I would have missed that and locked in my losses if I had listen to them.
I didn’t know 5 years was a cutoff for something be considered investing but ok.
Yes, you’re right. I could have decided to keep the account open for the next 10 years and maybe it might have eventually earned a single penny. But I chose not to because that’s just not what I’m interested in. You do you. It’s just not as easy and win-win as people make it out to be.
Absolutely, everyone should do themselves.
5 years is the minimum time frame I’ve heard for stock market investments; YMMV.
I instead chose to place that money in a high yield savings account. Does it earn money quickly? No. But it isn’t wildly unpredictable like investing and it will never lose money unless I take money out. Investing isn’t for me.
Even though I do invest in stocks, until recently I was a long time user of high yield savings accounts for years for my “safe” money. What I eventually realized was how the bank was able to pay me the comparatively higher interest rate for a savings account. Whatever money I had in the savings account they’d just buy short term US Treasuries (probably 4 week Tbills), they shave off .5%-1% interest earned for their company profit, and passed the remainder onto me. I finally sat down and learned how to cut out the middle man and buy the Tbills myself. So instead of the High Yield savings account paying me 3.01%, I’m earning 3.94% on the same money.
Also understand that Savings accounts and even Tbills usually drasically underperform compared to broad stock index funds. For example 2025 was 16.39% and 2024 was 23.21% returns for boring S&P500 funds.
My kid’s mom.
Girl is a hole in spacetime that I’ve been throwing money into for eight years now.
Brutal
