What is your worst and most expensive financial mistake?

[HorseHeist]

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 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?

I think, honestly, ever starting to drink alcohol. I was teetotal until i was 27 as my mother has drinking issues and gets very nasty when she drinks and I never wanted to be like her. Then I got sort of peer pressured into it with trying to fit in at work etc. So so much socialising even now is around drinks and drinking. I hate to think of how much money i have literally pissed down the drain.

Taking out an endowment which cost us thousands! Interest free mortgages were encouraged 30 years ago and the idea was that an endowment would pay off the equity, with a tidy profit. It cost us £32 grand, and we had a huge repayment mortgage because, after many years, we had to shift from an interest only to repayment mortgage.

Marriage and buying a house where we did moving from our beautiful suburb a year ago as I now have to sell for next to nothing and move home. Means I'll never buy again as it's the wrong time to be selling and I'll lose big time. Should have stayed put and I wouldn't end up homeless.

Sold a guitar for £50 that was worth > £800. that was 20 years ago, so who knows what it's worth now.

Not accepting the opportunity to buy a really great sized flat on the sea front when it was offered to me for way below market value.
I dread to think how much I missed out on rental income and resale value. We would be mortgage free on our family home with a significant amount in the bank too if I hadn't been too scared to apply for a mortgage. Stupid, stupid decision! 🙄

Not paying lump sum off mortgage when endowment came up. Could be mortgage free now

In the context of this thread, not too severe, but a Rover 416i in late 1995. It had been taken over by BMW and got incredible write-ups in things like What Car, etc. The model became renowned for having a faulty head gasket something which caused the engine to overheat. In warranty it had to have a new engine; after 2.5 years the new engine blew. Fortunately we managed to get Rover to replace again with a stiff solicitor's letter. Replaced it after another couple of years and got peanuts for it but it was pretty worthless anyway by the time it was 11 months old.

Drove like a dream though. The model became renowned for it.

I switched my repayment mortgage to an endowment in the mid 80s and topped up with another one when I moved in 1987. However I went I to it with my eyes open to the risks but had kept all the paperwork from Lloyd's Bank and was reimbursed due to mis-selling. The paperwork did not state the risks and was very optimistic.

Any mistakes to do with property are always very expensive. We bought a second home in Cornwall. Beautiful house but it was in a small hamlet and the locals hated people from outside the area. It was spooky and put my teeth on edge whenever we visited. We sold it at a loss - had we held onto it to the pandemic and beyond we would have made a fortune.

Buying my house, it is old, seems to need almost constant work on it which stresses me out. The area has gone downhill so much with most of the properties now being owned by BTL landlords who do not maintain them, plus there is a huge amount of supported accommodation owned by a large local housing charity that supports people with substance issues. I have nothing against helping and supporting people with such problems but to have over 100 of the projects/flats/houses in such a small area means it is a magnet for drug dealers and there is a lot of street drinking too. I can't afford to move and I am very depressed about it all. Was crying yesterday after a trip to the shops which meant going past at least 12 drunks and seeing a couple of drug deals. When i bought my house the area was improving but it has really gone down hill and I bitterly regret doing it. Can't see any way out

Moving to a better house in a cheaper area - never able to afford to go back

I do wish we could get that out to the population, many degrees are worthless. I mentioned a few weeks ago my boss being furious because his son was applying to University for a degree in Golf Course Design. We need to encourage the development of good apprenticeship schemes or the old sandwich courses rather than 3 or 4 years accumulating debts for nothing worthwhile.

Mine would be paying off my children dad rent and bills I love him and he was out partying whilst I was pregnant so I decided I'd win him back by finding his life 😂😂😂 realise how immature it was. He's still skint and I'd never lend a penny to anyone again

Having a child 😂
Ok not a mistake love them dearly but definitely super expensive financially…..

Thinking that we would save a bit of money when buying our first flat by having a homebuyer report instead of a full structural survey, and then not being able to interpret the hints that there might be something wrong in the homebuyer report. It cost us almost £20k that we didn't have to put right and was really stressful at the time. It all came right in the end but it was a horrible few years.

Transferring £7500 to a romance fraudster. As soon as I pressed ok the madness left me and I knew it was a massive, irredeemable mistake (I’ve never told anyone, too ashamed to try to get it back). BUT I really learnt from this: that I was vulnerable, that I needed to really sort my finances out. So I got a lodger, told my XH he had to pay DD’s uni rent or they’d have to drop out, and made a budget. I made the money back pretty quickly and I’ve actually never regretted it. But stupid nonetheless!

Another one here with a bad property purchase, now husband and I bought a 2 bed flat in a tenement style building with a Northern Rock mortgage. Found out within 2 weeks of moving in that the whole place basically needed re-roofing which no one in the building could afford (split between the 6 flats it was almost £20k each) so we spent a fortune having to patch up bits here and there. The ceiling in the living room came crashing down thanks to a small crack not being fixed properly by the previous owner, also within weeks of moving in and between us moving in and paying our first mortgage payment NR went bust and within months about 50% of the value was wiped out so we were stuck there for 7 years until we could afford to move and still lost £20k in the process. The building has still not had a new roof in almost the ten years since we left.

University degree. I did it for naive reasons; then virtually failed it when I realised it wasn't going to get me anywhere I wanted to go. Then 2008 happened, my depression deepened, and I've been stuck in a minimum wage rut with my self confidence shattered ever since. I'm hoping I'll finally lift myself out of it in a couple of years when the kiddos are at school and I can retrain.

I did meet DH at Uni though, so at least something positive did come out it. I would never have met him otherwise.

Buying an expensive 4x4. Really needed it for work, because i was living very rurally (genuinely down a track!) and my beloved estate just wasn't coping.

Six months after i bought it, I had a major accident and was off work for over a year. Had to give it back in the end, and I'm still paying the finance off.

My degrees! Have a BA and MA English, both with honours but I can't do anything with them because I can't get a job using them!

Another one for horses, only had the horse 6 months

All the people saying horses- what is it about them you regret?

I lost 150k on a car that I had for just over a year. It was good fun but totally impractical and did 8mpg too😂

I'm assuming Golf Couse Design is a parody, not a real degree course!

I did a one year postgrad course in something I genuinely believed was going to be my career but in hindsight I realised I should have just saved the money and entered the profession without the postgrad qualification. I didn’t need the postgrad qualification in order to work in my field but I thought it would give me additional skills and connections to set me up better as a lot of the work is freelance. It didn’t give me either. In fact it probably butchered my confidence! It cost about £10k and I could have put that kind of money towards something way more worthwhile later down the line and I don’t even work in this sector anymore!!!

They cost a fortune regardless if they're suited for the job, injure themselves stupidly easily, and there's a lot of dishonest people about so you end up with a horse that's lame or nuts or isn't as advertised which is money down the drain.