I could have been rich! Biggest financial mistakes

Emigrating to the wrong place. Taxes and bills never allowed me to create wealth. My family and friends who went to the US are so wealthy after years of working hard as me. My biggest regret and what have crippled me financially.

I had 2 bitcoin given to me when it was very very new. It was worth about 26p at the time, a little less. I found the wallet system confusing, back then it had to be installed on your PC. Decided the hassle wasn't worth it for 26p, uninstalled the wallet and didn't save the wallet ID or anything (don't remember much about it).

Years ago, I was house sharing with a bunch of random people. Cheap rent. One guy was a computer geek and we had a sort of "situationship".

He was really into Bitcoin, and during a drunken Friday night in his room, he wrote down a load of stuff on the back of a notebook and handed it to me saying "you've got 50 (maybe even 500) bitcoin now". There was definitely a number 5 in there. I thought nothing of it, we had sex, I went back to my room, and never took the notebook. He moved out a few weeks later.

Also asked a question

So how did you work out how much it cost you over the years?

I've read lots of financial books and nearly every one of them says the gift of time is the best thing money can buy.

Back in about 97/98ish .. working in IT.. start of .com and all that. Someone suggested buying into a company called Amazon … ah well - whatever happened to them anyway??

Only if you regret having children @Oabrbjr

otherwise… I feel I got incredible value for the money I’ve spent!!

over the course of that 12 years you would have made much more than £5k if you have sold in a different year.

2004 to 2016

I tell my children they’re my pension! 😆

What years did that 12 years cover??

I am a lawyer
in house
I earn very well and have a great home life balance

Not extending the lease on a flat earlier. The freeholder got about 8k from me for doing absolutely nothing. What a waste.

Buying the flat wasn't a great idea either. Went up in value by about 5k over 12 years. At least was on a low mortgage interest rate.

For anyone who cites Bitcoin, you have to imagine an alternative timeline in which you held your nerve and didn’t sell in spite of Bitcoin doing roller coaster ups and downs (when you would have appeared to be losing it all without any certainty that the value would ever climb back up).

Very few people (who weren’t already very wealthy) would have held on to Bitcoin through all those ups and downs, so I don’t think you can beat yourself up about it!

My dad is generally v financially savvy and has invested v well in the stock market etc over the years and successfully started and grew his own business for decades.

However in 1996 I asked him to act as a guarantor for me to buy a 2 bed flat in West Hampstead for 108k and he refused because he said “ there’s no reason house prices will continue to go up”.

so none of us get it right all the time.

Shouldn't have relinquished our jointly owned house to abusive ex husband. Did myself out of a good sum there.
Should have stretched our finances a bit more to buy cheap doer upper farmhouse with land. Worth millions now, done up gorgeously plus a bit was sold off for building.
Should also have bought one of the basements in Maida Vale that were going for 6K at the auction where we bought our current house, round about 1994. Can't imagine what they would be now.
Heigh ho.

Inherited £5000 in the late nineties, would have been enough for a deposit on a small flat in my hometown. Spent it on utter rubbish instead.

Got off the housing ladder in 2003, spent the money we made on a year away travelling, took me 18 years to buy again, am now in my fifties with a MASSIVE mortgage.

Have been given huge credit limits on cards for the last couple of decades and run up huge amounts of debt.

I also now have an ADHD diagnosis, which explains some of my shitty financial behaviour and I am doing my best to change.

I mean the biggest financial mistakes are having children.

Anyway, whatever has happened is in the past. Learn from it, forget it, carry on.

Oh, why has my reply been hidden?

Two chances missed to make a fortune. One was a property in London sold for around £330k in 2006. Now worth £750k (we came off the property ladder for various reasons).

Also offered Bitcoin around 2010 - thought it would never catch on and didn’t understand it so declined to get involved. I would be a millionaire now and retired. Instead still paying a mortgage on a house worth £500k. Feel quite lucky however to have been able to get back on the property ladder (via some inheritance ). I try not to think about it.

I bought £20 of Bitcoin out of curiosity in 2011 when it was a new thing. I can't remember exactly how much that was in Bitcoin but it was more than one and less than two. I spent it on a some basic ditgital services, maybe a game subscription? That would be over 200k now...

How many years ago did he suggest this?

My biggest frustration relates to a Docklands flat.

We were commuting daily to London, a gruelling 4-5 hours a day on the train. Late DH suggested we buy a flat in Docklands using our Season Ticket money (plus a bit more)

As an East End girl, who knew Docklands before they started building, I poo poo’d the whole idea. Told him they would never make money.

OMG how stupid was I? I beat myself up about that stupid decision every time I think about it 🤣😂

Properly related for me. Should have stayed in our first house that we got for £67k in a great area. Could have extended it and paid our mortgage off by now. Instead we moved a couple of times. Love our current house but we would have been mortgage free and a bit more comfortable by now. I think now DH is closer to retirement age this is more prevalent in my mind.