worst financial decision you ever made?

knockers84

I’ve spent a lot of money on hookers, drugs, fast cars, cigarettes and booze. Can’t believe I wasted the rest.

AlphabetCards

mistersifter wrote: »

Or maybe it was spending years doing a PhD that nobody gives a **** about. I dont even wanna think about the lost income. :mad:

Out of interest, was yours in STEM or not? I'm in the middle of one now, and things look promising (I'm doing chemistry/engineering working alongside a big academic project and a spin-out company) but I am hoping that that is not my blinkered view!

Black_Knight

First real job, was renting in Dublin around 2011 or so. Got made permanent and decided to buy myself a nice car (nothing super fancy, but it was a treat to me). Living in a 2 bed apartment, I noticed a 3 bed version of it was just sold for 212k I think (ashtown area). The money I put on the car would of covered my 10% deposit, it would of been cheaper than renting, and when I left Dublin 2-3 years later they were selling for about 350-375k.

The car did not appreciate in the same fashion.

Potential-Monke

Getting a mortgage. I think they should either be outlawed of completely revamped. I had one for 6 or so years, €162,500. I paid a total of just over €55k in those 6 years, and I needed €150k to clear the mortgage. Crazy. And I was left with negative equity, which is going to take about 5 years to clear, and then I've to wait 7 years after that before my credit history is back to normal.

My word of advice is never get a mortgage, don't tie yourself down to 1 place and 1 property for 30 years.

Bargain_Hound

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Getting a mortgage. I think they should either be outlawed of completely revamped. I had one for 6 or so years, €162,500. I paid a total of just over €55k in those 6 years, and I needed €150k to clear the mortgage. Crazy. And I was left with negative equity, which is going to take about 5 years to clear, and then I've to wait 7 years after that before my credit history is back to normal.

My word of advice is never get a mortgage, don't tie yourself down to 1 place and 1 property for 30 years.

What forced you to sell?
Was in a similar position myself but managed to clear mortgage off without much penalty and no negative equity.

Ash.J.Williams

Black_Knight wrote: »

First real job, was renting in Dublin around 2011 or so. Got made permanent and decided to buy myself a nice car (nothing super fancy, but it was a treat to me). Living in a 2 bed apartment, I noticed a 3 bed version of it was just sold for 212k I think (ashtown area). The money I put on the car would of covered my 10% deposit, it would of been cheaper than renting, and when I left Dublin 2-3 years later they were selling for about 350-375k.

The car did not appreciate in the same fashion.

I'm caught in between...I need a house and I need a decent car for huge private mileage...should have got the house first as banks happily lend for cars when they have you trapped..

partyguinness

That is a criticism of the third level sector in Ireland.

They hand out PhDs like they are going out of fashion and by an large they are of very little practical use in the workforce. More of a vanity project from what I can tell.

BrokenArrows

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Getting a mortgage. I think they should either be outlawed of completely revamped. I had one for 6 or so years, €162,500. I paid a total of just over €55k in those 6 years, and I needed €150k to clear the mortgage. Crazy. And I was left with negative equity, which is going to take about 5 years to clear, and then I've to wait 7 years after that before my credit history is back to normal.

My word of advice is never get a mortgage, don't tie yourself down to 1 place and 1 property for 30 years.

Sounds like you just made a poor financial decision regarding the mortgage.

When you took out the mortgage you should have known exactly how much you would be repaying per month and how much of the mortgage would be remaining after you paid off €55k.

You had a relatively small mortgage and decided to extend it over 30 years which means you will pay a huge amount of interest so every repayment you made, most of it was interest.

Tell me how

BrokenArrows wrote: »

Sounds like you just made a poor financial decision regarding the mortgage.

When you took out the mortgage you should have known exactly how much you would be repaying per month and how much of the mortgage would be remaining after you paid off €55k.

You had a relatively small mortgage and decided to extend it over 30 years which means you will pay a huge amount of interest so every repayment you made, most of it was interest.

I'd say that might be why they posted in a thread about the worst financial decision you ever made...........

BrokenArrows

Tell me how wrote: »

I'd say that might be why they posted in a thread about the worst financial decision you ever made...........

True, but he was complaining about mortgages in general, not just his specific mortgage.

mr_fegelien

knockers84 wrote: »

I’ve spent a lot of money on hookers, drugs, fast cars, cigarettes and booze. Can’t believe I wasted the rest.

its not a waste if you enjoyed it. As the old saying goes "we're here for a good time not a long one".

antiskeptic

A mates rather than own. Bought €3000 in Anglo Irish shares when they were a nothing bank. Watched them balloon to something like €170,000. Didn't get out (believing like so many that economical warnings were part of the natural up and down of the market). And followed them down to zero worth.

AlphabetCards

partyguinness wrote: »

That is a criticism of the third level sector in Ireland.

They hand out PhDs like they are going out of fashion and by an large they are of very little practical use in the workforce. More of a vanity project from what I can tell.

It is research on the cheap. Rather than funding Research Assistants (25,000 a year) or post docs (32-39000 a year) they pay 15000 a year to some ambitious students who will do a lot of solid work for their supervisors over 4 years.

Unless of course, its an arts PhD. Those are just money spinners for universities.

cj maxx

Opening a joint account with my "darling " other half.
I didn't realise that by logging in to the joint account on the app she also had access to my separate account with the same bank. Be warned people

Tell me how

cjmc wrote: »

Opening a joint account with my "darling " other half.
I didn't realise that by logging in to the joint account on the app she also had access to my separate account with the same bank. Be warned people

There's a definite story in there.

Anyone old enough to remember when the rest of the crew found out Gary had £40K in his savings accound in Men Behaving Badly?

jk23

Getting a car on finance until 4 years ago. Paying nearly 300 euro a month for a depreciating asset. Crazy.

Ash.J.Williams

Tell me how wrote: »

There's a definite story in there.

Anyone old enough to remember when the rest of the crew found out Gary had £40K in his savings accound in Men Behaving Badly?

i actually remember that

ashes2014

I had a gas fire put in for €650 15 years ago. Turned it on, got an awful pain in my head every single time.

That one literally hurt for a while.

CIP4

For me it's always cars. Generally good enough with money outside of them. While I could make some justification for changing most of them the last two I really can't I traded in perfectly good cars for new ones I didn't particularly need. I have convinced myself my current one will be the last unnecessary expensive car I buy. At the same time though I have never got sucked in to buying brand new on PCP. Have always kept HP to two years max and put in a decent deposit to keep interest down.

I am only 25 so to be fair if buying a few cars are the worst financial decisions I make I won't be too bad.

antimatterx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/111131606#Comment_111131606

Still have regrets?

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/111192439#Comment_111192439

He really only lost 3000. Now am earth shattering amount.

Lemsiper

Paying for 2oz of weed with 10 BTC in summer of 2011 instead of hodling.

harr

Turned down an offer of close to half a million for a bang average house during the boom .. very close to when the arse feel out of the market.. when crash did happen same houses were for sale for 120,000

Hindsight is a great thing , could have sold house rented for a year and bought back similar house for a fraction of the cost .. would have been able to pay off mortgage and have a good chunk left over ..

What a sсummy man

I subscribed to a bullet board website.

Strumms

nothing catastrophic but paid good money for a four star hotel on the Côte D’Azur…. The photos on the website showed an old world city chateau style place that had been recently renovated and modernised.

What they failed to tell was that only X % of the hotel had been finished and we ended up in one of the old un-renovated rooms. From about 7.45am every morning work was starting down the corridor so clanging, banging, drilling, a radio and lot of shouting/laughing from the workers…..

Bogey Lowenstein

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123640980#Comment_123640980

Was that in Elsbels on the Costa Bomm?

jackboy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123635840#Comment_123635840

Yes, people talking about being up or down with shares is all imaginary. That is decided after selling, paying tax and taking inflation into account.