Best & Worst Financial Decisions
Registered User
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 18,098
Likes: 1
From: Lake Stevens, WA
Best: Saving about 20% of my take home pay despite a modest income. (I'm an enlisted person in the Navy.) and choosing to finance my S2000 instead of paying cash which I could have done. Why? I put 10k down and financed the remaining 20k. That 20k I would have otherwise spent on the car I invested in various mutual funds. The finance charges on my S2000 for 60 months will total around 4k. I've already paid off my finance charges from gains in the markets in less than 2.5 years. Who's paying my finance charges? Not me. General Electric, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Glaxo Smith Kline, Vodafone, Dell and Pfizer are.
Worst: Like the others said cars. Not a great investment from a financial standpoint, but from a fun standpoint, the best.
Registered User
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 6,147
Likes: 0
From: 49th Parallel
Best: Going to University (Even though Im already like 20K in the whole and counting, and the whole "higher learning" thing hasn't kicked in yet, everything seems trivial and pointless.. similar to high school)
Worst: Let's see.. so many little things.. I've never had a large income (like <3K for the year), so this is all to scale.. I'd say All the video games and consoles I bought.. bad financial decision/could have spent the money on more important things.. I go through cycles.. Buy dreamcast, sell dreamcast, buy PS2, sell PS2, buy Gameboy Advance, lose interest after a couple months.. must have spent well over a grand on games that I don't even own now. (And the resale values suckkk)
Also.. just on whole, not deciding to invest or do something worthy with any amount of money I've had.. I'm not a planner, I don't look toward the future, and I take money for granted too much.. Spend way too loosely, maybe I should actually be more frugal (although I don't know if it's in me).. I would like to just put a little money away in the bank, do some research (stocks, plans, bonds, whatever), and let it grow..Something low-risk/moderate profit potential.
Worst: Let's see.. so many little things.. I've never had a large income (like <3K for the year), so this is all to scale.. I'd say All the video games and consoles I bought.. bad financial decision/could have spent the money on more important things.. I go through cycles.. Buy dreamcast, sell dreamcast, buy PS2, sell PS2, buy Gameboy Advance, lose interest after a couple months.. must have spent well over a grand on games that I don't even own now. (And the resale values suckkk)
Also.. just on whole, not deciding to invest or do something worthy with any amount of money I've had.. I'm not a planner, I don't look toward the future, and I take money for granted too much.. Spend way too loosely, maybe I should actually be more frugal (although I don't know if it's in me).. I would like to just put a little money away in the bank, do some research (stocks, plans, bonds, whatever), and let it grow..Something low-risk/moderate profit potential.
Registered User
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 2,256
Likes: 0
From: Miami
Originally Posted by Hunter,Oct 1 2004, 01:52 PM
Buying real estate in South Florida during the 90's and renting it out
paying TURBO1RACER $1600 for wheels only to have him stiff me and never send them! (he'll pay one way or another)
wow i havent been in touch with my sofla s2k kiddies
Registered User
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 4,543
Likes: 0
From: Vegas baby!!
personal finances:
always living below my means. always paying off my credit card on time and in full. (I have 720+ credit rating)
riding losing stocks for way too long, always assuming they *HAVE* to go back up (but they don't ) or that they *CAN'T* get any lower (oh yes they can! 
)
bad stock trades example: bought WAVX at $4.25... bought some more at around $12... did NOT sell at anytime when the stock peaked at $50-- A HUGE RETURN!!... (I told myself to sell at $100
)... still holding those shares... at somewhere around 90 cents a share.
good stock trades example: bought direct stock plan DRIPs of HD and LOW a year and a half ago. also bought YHOO in January. DRIPs are great (do a Google search if you dunno what they are. or check out Equiserve.com )
always living below my means. always paying off my credit card on time and in full. (I have 720+ credit rating) riding losing stocks for way too long, always assuming they *HAVE* to go back up (but they don't ) or that they *CAN'T* get any lower (oh yes they can! )bad stock trades example: bought WAVX at $4.25... bought some more at around $12... did NOT sell at anytime when the stock peaked at $50-- A HUGE RETURN!!... (I told myself to sell at $100
)... still holding those shares... at somewhere around 90 cents a share. good stock trades example: bought direct stock plan DRIPs of HD and LOW a year and a half ago. also bought YHOO in January. DRIPs are great (do a Google search if you dunno what they are. or check out Equiserve.com )
Registered User
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 542
Likes: 0
From: Milwaukee, USA
Best: negotiating a no-cap profit incentive plan at my job (im a prog mgr at a Fortune 5 company) I'm a quick learner so I new it would be in my favor when mgmt underestimated my capabilities.
Worst: not investing earlier...am 30 now and I wished I'd have played stocks when in early 20's instead of blowing any extra dough i had on women and cars My dad told me this everyday...and now i realize he was right.
Worst: not investing earlier...am 30 now and I wished I'd have played stocks when in early 20's instead of blowing any extra dough i had on women and cars
My dad told me this everyday...and now i realize he was right.
Registered User
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 5,094
Likes: 6
From: Vienna, VA
Best: 401(k); my company has a dollar for dollar match (up to 6%) and gives a 15% discount on stock purchases (up to 1%, and fully matched [part of the 6%]. In just over 18 months, I have $20,000. With a long term return of 6% (average is 11%) I'll be able to retire with over $1M (in CURRENT dollars) by age 50.
Worst: credit cards, $10K worth. It's not a big strain, but the money I spend on them could go to my car.
Worst: credit cards, $10K worth. It's not a big strain, but the money I spend on them could go to my car.
Registered User
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 38
Likes: 0
From: St. Petersburg
Only 20 right now, so not much life lived to complain about. Also, I'm too optimistic to consider something the worst, because of all the good from it, but I'll play along...
worst:
Dumped about $15k into a brand new escort zx2, (11K into engine/drive train alone) just to have it blow up 6 days after everything was in (guy that balanced my block made a boo boo). BUT I also made a tons of friends over the 4 years or so I had the car, AND I can strip a car to nothing, and rebuild it ground up. (not to mention, the body will be used for my tube chassis 302 (to start)/rwd swap project)
next worst:
Buying the S2000, could have moved out of home/bought a house, but no i had to have the honda.......... BUT I'm driving an S2000
Best:
Getting a job at a bank a few days after turning 18; putting money into my 401(k), & 50% matched stock plan every paycheck. Also, the company will put up to 21% of your yearly income into 3 differant retirement plans (7% in each), a money purchase, profit sharing, and 401(k). heres hoping this pays off in 30 years.
Tim
worst:
Dumped about $15k into a brand new escort zx2, (11K into engine/drive train alone) just to have it blow up 6 days after everything was in (guy that balanced my block made a boo boo). BUT I also made a tons of friends over the 4 years or so I had the car, AND I can strip a car to nothing, and rebuild it ground up. (not to mention, the body will be used for my tube chassis 302 (to start)/rwd swap project)
next worst:
Buying the S2000, could have moved out of home/bought a house, but no i had to have the honda.......... BUT I'm driving an S2000
Best:
Getting a job at a bank a few days after turning 18; putting money into my 401(k), & 50% matched stock plan every paycheck. Also, the company will put up to 21% of your yearly income into 3 differant retirement plans (7% in each), a money purchase, profit sharing, and 401(k). heres hoping this pays off in 30 years
.Tim