Could be anything from credit cards, student loans, investing, defaulting on a mortgage, whatever the situation where you lost a lot of money or destroyed your credit, etc. How did you get yourself there and how did you come back from it?
Not just financially how did you recover, but emotionally? Mentally?
Comments
Getting married.
May never fully recover, but trying.
Student loans. Just specifically the fact that I borrowed the max when I didn’t have to. I was just a dumb twenty-something. I didn’t come back from it and haven’t really learned from it either because I’m preparing to borrow more to go back to school soon. I’ll pay mostly with savings but will need a bit of private loans as well. It’s fine, I already resigned myself to the fact I’ll be dying with the debt.
having pets… it’s not just about having to pay for their kibbles or vet bills. You need certain scale of living when you have pets (e.g. larger house etc.)
A shared lease with strangers.
Does a couple decades lost in a bottle count? Like, I could’ve purchased a decent house with the money I spent t in bars.
Not getting a better job sooner. I had low self esteem and didn’t think I deserved the pay and was taught money isn’t everything (by boomer parents who could live a good life on 50k a year with 3 kids in the 90s). So not getting a better paying job that I was obviously qualified for but also not working on my money mindset. The financial mistakes are often a product of how we view money and what we were taught about success.
Bought a ton of art on a cruise and opened financing to pay for it. Took a couple of years, but I got it paid off. The bad part is that I kept less than half of what I bought.
It made me determined to not repeat that mistake. Instead, I made other, less expensive mistakes. Lol
Moved to a state I hated post divorce. In the end, I was thankfully ok, but I definitely wasted money on that place. It was a very expensive way to learn a lesson. There’s more to the story, but that’s the gist of it.
Buying a house and then relocating 18 months later.
Moving to NYC.
I will never financially recover from this but it is still the best damn decision I ever made.
Held onto my company stock too long and ended up losing 100K. Womp womp.
I came into money when I was younger. I made the mistake of telling people that I just received a windfall. Suddenly I had friends I never thought liked me, family members coming out of the woodwork, etc. I blew through a lot of money before I realized what was happening, and as soon as I stopped footing the bills and writing checks for terrible business ideas, like magic they were gone. Financially, I would be able to retire if I had taken that and invested properly, emotionally, finding out your friends are only around because you’re funding their fun is in fact, not. It’s a valuable and expensive lesson, I have siblings that I haven’t spoke to in decades and never will again. Money brings out the absolute worst in people.
I left my ex husband get me into credit card debt.
We were young, but I thought he was smarter. He was “going” to go to med school. “Going” to get his MBA. Eventually went to law school, but I left him in his second year.
His parents were cool but financial idiots. They abided by “everyone has debt” and just put things on cards. Found out when they were 60 they could never retire and they both got cancer that same year.
I was constantly stressed out and wanted to pay it off. And once it starts, it becomes SO hard. When we divorced my mom bailed me out and I’ve never been in debt again.
I worked for a company that was acquired and made several hundred thousands dollars. Instead of investing it and leaving it there, I lived off that money while I started a business, and invested a bunch into the business.
Biz is still growing and alive but damn, that was stupid! Live and learn. I will NEVER co-mingle my personal funds with my business ventures ever again…and I consider myself a risk-taker. It’s just not worth it.
Not maxing out my 401k every year in my 20s even though I could have, and keeping that money in a regular savings account instead of HYSA.
Getting a credit card the same month my bipolar first made an appearance 🙃 then getting another one, and another (x3) because I kept getting sign up letters & I kept signing up because by then I was in full-blown manic episode with a side of gambling addiction.
I ended the year with $65k in credit card debt. It took me another 10 years to dig myself out of that hole.
Selling my 99 Monte Carlo with 11,000 miles to my sister for 5k(paid 16k)