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Original poster

What is your worst and most expensive financial mistake?

303 replies

HorseHeist · 19/05/2023 21:37

Long time ago now, but mine was in my early twenties. Managed to buy two very unsuitable horses in succession over a short period of time Hmm They must have cost me thousands, to deal with the subsequent mess. Which was a lot of money going back almost a couple of decades.

I keep wondering if I'd put that money in a pension, what would it be worth now? I would have been off to a great start pension wise at an early age.

What stupid financial decision did you make, that sticks with you years later?

OP posts:
Paul2023 · 19/05/2023 23:04

PucketyPuckPuck · 19/05/2023 21:45

Buying a house in 2006. Getting the mortgage with Northern Rock. Getting a 100% mortgage.

Then the financial crisis, negative equity, Northern Rock went bust, mortgage prisoners for several years.

Sold in 2018 and just about broke even so we just as well have rented for those 12 years 🙄

So in summary, bought at the absolute worst time, just before a housing crash and sold just before the housing boom. Hindsight's a treat.

Surely the price of your property in 2018 was higher than it was in 2006? Even with the crash of 2008.
Renting wouldn’t have been an advantage to you either. Renting would have cost you more than your mortgage probably, and you would have been paying your landlords mortgage.
With renting, you only know what you’ll be paying in rent every time the tenancy is renewed. With a mortgage you have some control with what you’re paying.
Owning a property will always be better than renting one.

MermaidMummy06 · 19/05/2023 23:06

Beginningless · 19/05/2023 22:35

I dropped some hours at work but my (large) employer didn’t drop my pay. Initially I thought it would just be a delay but then months later I was still receiving the pay. I felt so uneasy but also afraid to raise it. Not sure why! I was young, and the longer it went on the more scared I was. I also told loads of my colleagues, I think hoping someone would tell me to confess but everyone was congratulating me and saying it was better in my pocket than employers’.

Of course in the end, it came to light, I had to lie and pretend I didn’t know and narrowly avoided a full disciplinary. It was about 2yr and I had to slowly repay the money which was about £5k by then. So stressful. Dishonesty doesn’t pay!

This happened to me. I asked why I didn't get a payrise when reaching 21 (had less pay under 21 then). Payroll went to department head to indicate mistakenly started paying full adult rate on my 20th birthday & were going to force me to pay it back. He told them no, it was their stuff up & they couldn't penalise me for it. It got quite nasty apparently. I was incredibly grateful as had I been made to pay it back I'd have struggled financially.

I only knew about it after the battle was over. I miss that boss. He was awesome.

tailinthejam · 19/05/2023 23:13

My parents' worst financial mistake was not buying their house in London in the late 1940's. It was divided into three flats and they lived in one of them.They could have got the whole house for £650, and needed a £50 deposit. They had the £50 but decided to buy a car instead. They took me to see it years later. I've just looked on Rightmove, and houses like that in Islington are going for around £2.7million.

Big mistake!

Fantina · 19/05/2023 23:13

Marrying the wrong man and our divorce and the associated court costs and making some other poor decisions as part of that process. BUT what he doesn’t know is that I’d have paid even more to be rid of him so I’m richer than ever 😃

Rosieandtwinkle · 19/05/2023 23:15

thenightsky · 19/05/2023 22:17

and mine Hmm

Show quote history

And mine! 😳

Wbeezer · 19/05/2023 23:15

Pulling out of a house purchase in East Dulwich in 1996. First time buyers, cute Victorian terrace, landlord accepted our offer of £100,000 ( seemed a lot at the time!, Goodness knows what it would be now). However there were issues with the extension being built slightly over the boundary and not having a building warrant, we didn't have spare cash for legal wrangles and stupidly were using DHs families solicitors in Scotland for the conveyancing, they weren't used to the English system. Nobody told us about indemnity insurance. We lost confidence and pulled out and moved to a new rental instead.
Rents and house prices started to go up rapidly, so we decided to move back to Scotland instead.
It's worked out OK in the end but if we'd stayed in that wee house for a few years and then sold it and moved up to Scotland we'd have had a much better choice of houses, less borrowing etc. Basically a nicer lifestyle.

Bargellobitch · 19/05/2023 23:16

Working in the cultural sector 😂😩😭

headache · 19/05/2023 23:20

Moving from England to Scotland, selling a house and buying one the two house buying systems are incompatible. Our seller in England went AWOL leaving is unable to complete on our Scottish house, we ended up staying in a tiny rented flat, couldn’t sell our English house until we really dropped the price, and couldn’t move into our Scottish house. We had a year old toddler and I was also pregnant at the time talk about stressful. Probably cost us 60K all in

ThePlatypusAlwaysTriumphs · 19/05/2023 23:36

My husband had a house and I had a house. We rented his out as he lived with me.
When we got married we sold both houses, although I did say maybe we should keep hold of his (upcoming area)
Found out his flat sold for £100K more a few years later. But that's life!

DecommissionedVag · 19/05/2023 23:37

Marriage.

autienotnaughtym · 20/05/2023 00:03

I bought a car today. Drive it home thinking there was a funny smell. Realised the car stinks of smoke. I could cry.

HangerLaneGyratorySystem · 20/05/2023 00:10

Hedjwitch · 19/05/2023 22:30

Drawing down some of my.private pension when i was 55 and getting stung for tax as it took me over the threshold for that financial year

Me too, but the worst of it was I took financial advice from two different registered IFAs before and neither of them warned me - I knew there'd possibly be some tax but I hadn't really appreciated how pointless it was going a few thousand over the limit. Used it to fund building work and the builder ripped us off to the tune of around £10k. What a year that was.

HangerLaneGyratorySystem · 20/05/2023 00:26

Bought my house for £75k 29 years ago, borrowed so much extra money on it ended up owing £140k and then stuck it all on interest only. Christ knows how much we've paid over the years, we had credit card debt too.

I've read recently that people with ADHD make terrible decisions, not sure its any excuse for stupidity though.

Whataretheodds · 20/05/2023 00:30

Not buying that flat in 2006.
Buying that other flat in 2008.
Buying this flat in 2014.

user12345678912334 · 20/05/2023 00:36

Bitcoin: Purchased by notDH.
Cost: our marriage.

I

Youdoyoubabe · 20/05/2023 00:42

Big credit card debt in 20s while living in London.... spent the money on pointless expensive cosmetics.

WarningToTheCurious · 20/05/2023 00:50

This reply has been deleted

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the request of the user.

It’s not so bad - £200 in 1948 is equivalent to around £9500 in 2023.

FangedFrisbee · 20/05/2023 01:06

A massive bipolar fuelled psychotic episode that landed me in 20k debt and barely any family. 👍

FangedFrisbee · 20/05/2023 01:12

As part of that I bought a life size r2d2 biscuit jar that moves. It arrived about 3 months later when I was in hospital as I was sectioned about 3 weeks in.

I got all the money back because my husband sent all the shit back, r2d2 couldn't be returned but the bank gave us a refund because I was extremely unwell. We still have him. I made sure the maker didn't lose any money and she said she didn't. I use him as a reminder of how fucking mental I can get if I don't take my medication.

In my defence my psychotic episode was caused by seeing the man who raped me, when I was 15, in the street whilst I was seeing family and it just sent me over the edge. I hadn't told anyone and I ended up reporting him to the police when I was better with the help of my husband and therapist and he's still in prison now. Turns out I wasn't the only one.

So shit really but all ended ok

HP79 · 20/05/2023 01:15

autienotnaughtym · 20/05/2023 00:03

I bought a car today. Drive it home thinking there was a funny smell. Realised the car stinks of smoke. I could cry.

This can be rectified. I bought a used car from a VW dealership and it absolutely STANK of fags. I can't remember the details of what they did to freshen it up during valeting but it was something like setting off an air-freshener bomb inside the car. It vastly improved the smell, though didn't eradicate it completely, but after a few months the smell did completely go. It might've helped if they'd done the air-freshener bomb twice.

blueshoes · 20/05/2023 01:17

My first investment property. Lost so much. Then did not buy that one bed conversion flat near the station in St Johns Wood for 160K 20 years ago ...

LunaTheCat · 20/05/2023 01:18

My wardrobe! I love clothes… not high priced Chanel , LV ( yuk) but just lovely Well made clothes in natural fibres.

autienotnaughtym · 20/05/2023 01:18

@HP79 thanks they said they did one. I've ordered one with great reviews so fingers crossed. If they were local I'd take car back for them to sort but it's a long drive and I don't have another car while ts sorted. Just panicking if it doesn't work.

ForTheSakeOfThePenguin · 20/05/2023 01:18

Becoming a SAHM. Never recovered from that.

blueshoes · 20/05/2023 01:20

Sunshineafter · 19/05/2023 23:01

I bought an item for a hobby, it cost 1k, it’s never had the use it should have . Resell value would be about 300 max.

If losing 700 quid is your most expensive financial mistake, I'd say you are doing alright.

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