Community: Most expensive mistakes

We all make mistakes. Some are bigger than others. Some are more costly than others. Here are some of the most expensive mistakes made by complete strangers that we can all learn from:

Pushing59: Married young to someone who didn't understand money. At all.

Lazerith22: Ignoring the auto payments I couldn’t afford on a credit card. This was when I was young and stupid (er) got a credit card from Canadian Tire. Had Xbox live and a a couple other things billing to it. Lost job, finances went down hill and I couldn’t get Microsoft to stop billing the Xbox live. They couldn’t verify my identity to make the change.

So like any young person I tried to ignore the problem hoping it would go away. Threw out the card and refused to look at statements. Well they kept billing, and anytime I got close to my credit limit, Mastercard increased my limit. Flash forward a year and I’m getting calls that my $10k credit card is maxed and overdue.

Got the Xbox canceled with Mastercard's help (if you ever have a vendor that refuses to stop charging, the credit card companies will be very helpful. Lesson one for me) closed the card and transferred to a lower interest LOC which I paid off after about six years. So lesson 2, money trouble doesn’t go away when ignored. It become gigantic and comes for you.

2GoatJames3: Making $300k on weed stocks and not cashing out.

notcoveredbywarranty: Buying Bombardier just before the bribery scandal came to light. Also, Not buying a house on Vancouver Island 5 years ago when I could. Lessons: don't fuck around with individual stocks, and buy a house while you still can, dumbass

Leafman87: Car loan at 24% interest rate. Would say I learned that I knew nothing about personal finance, and now try to keep others from making the same mistake I did. Happy that it is in the past.

Corrupted_G_nome:

1. Never mix friends with money, they won't support you.

2. Never think you understand the stock market.

3. Never feel pressured to make immediate decisions. Market conditions will change over months and years.

4. You are never unable to act to change your situation. Doesn't mean anyone has infinite flexibility or a world without personal or systemic limits either. Nor are all situations equal.

5. If the deal is too good to be true, it most certainly is.

6. Nothing is ever achieved alone.

Calissetabernac: Assuming the whole point of life was owning a house. Was house rich, cash poor for a long long time. Much prefer being cash rich and liquid asset rich :)

What's the most expensive lesson you've learned over the years? Share it in the comments.