What's your biggest financial mistake ?

[knightm]

Missing out on several properties I researched in 2003-4 in little known areas:
1 karratha
2 roebourne
3 port hedland
4 south hedland

was 23, barely had enough for a low ender out there, believed my own research but had all the naysayers loud in my ears which really scared me, tried faxing a few contract offers sight unseen with subject to inspection clauses but it was already too hot and out of reach (like I could afford 130k and they went up to 160k in a month!) ended up doing fine in kalgoorlie with the money but nothing like I would have made.

how much did it cost?
I dont want to think about it. a lot.

that will be a chapter in the book one day.

 

[Success]

Outsourcing my financial plans to a well known Financial Planner to many on this forum.

Cost me 10 years of hard savings ... approx. $700K

MASSIVE, MASSIVE lessons learnt from the process. Main one been - DO NOT TRUST ANYONE ELSE TO MANAGE YOUR FINANCES !!!!

 

[lizzie]

Outsourcing my financial plans to a well known Financial Planner to many on this forum.

Cost me 10 years of hard savings ... approx. $700K

MASSIVE, MASSIVE lessons learnt from the process. Main one been - DO NOT TRUST ANYONE ELSE TO MANAGE YOUR FINANCES !!!!

only one word - OUCH!

 

[HotRod]

Missing out on several properties I researched in 2003-4 in little known areas:
1 karratha
2 roebourne
3 port hedland
4 south hedland

was 23, barely had enough for a low ender out there, believed my own research but had all the naysayers loud in my ears which really scared me, tried faxing a few contract offers sight unseen with subject to inspection clauses but it was already too hot and out of reach (like I could afford 130k and they went up to 160k in a month!) ended up doing fine in kalgoorlie with the money but nothing like I would have made.

how much did it cost?
I dont want to think about it. a lot.

that will be a chapter in the book one day.

Let me make you feel worse.

We bought a duplex in SH (two 3x1s) for $196K in 2003. We had a cash offer of $1M ealier this year but with the next rent increases to $3500pw it could be valued at around $1.5M on a 12% yield.

Tempting, but it puts about $100K after tax into my pocket each year.

I don't want to kill the golden goose.

 

[7smurfs]

Let me make you feel worse.

We bought a duplex in SH (two 3x1s) for $196K in 2003. We had a cash offer of $1M ealier this year but with the next rent increases to $3500pw it could be valued at around $1.5M on a 12% yield.

Tempting, but it puts about $100K after tax into my pocket each year.

I don't want to kill the golden goose.

wow! that is quite the golden goose indeed.

Good work !

 

[Kenster]

Outsourcing my financial plans to a well known Financial Planner to many on this forum.

Cost me 10 years of hard savings ... approx. $700K

Is he still around?

In this forum?

 

[knightm]

Let me make you feel worse.

We bought a duplex in SH (two 3x1s) for $196K in 2003. We had a cash offer of $1M ealier this year but with the next rent increases to $3500pw it could be valued at around $1.5M on a 12% yield.

Tempting, but it puts about $100K after tax into my pocket each year.

I don't want to kill the golden goose.

im not surprised. well done for getting in and well done for not taking the profit too early.

and yes now i feel worse. next time u are on the nsw south coast you can buy me a coffee.

 

[A'PEXi]

Oh dear it looks like there are a few of us................
)

Sounds like a good plan you have there Scotty, will check out your channel.

I'm in the same boat. Pretty much spent all my cash on japanese cars when really I could have invested in more properties. Attempting to sell my current car and purchase a run around. But then you think, there needs to be a balance between investing and enjoying life right? At least you can say that you've done it....

Also made a mistake of having someone else invest for me in Forex, I'm sure it's been mentioned before but no one will look after/invest your money as carefully as you would yourself.

 

[redwing]

Outsourcing my financial plans to a well known Financial Planner to many on this forum.

Cost me 10 years of hard savings ... approx. $700K

MASSIVE, MASSIVE lessons learnt from the process. Main one been - DO NOT TRUST ANYONE ELSE TO MANAGE YOUR FINANCES !!!!

I read of someone else being wiped out on warrants also, which they had wrongly assumed were safe

For Us...Margin Loans as the market dropped also caused much pain and angst, we received a call or two over the GFC

 

[Bird Dog]

the more lack of control you have, the greater this risk of losing the lot you have

Amen to that Peter...

 

[matto_]

bought shares in ABC learning and a couple of other soon to be useless shares prior to GFC.

 

[Bird Dog]

Wow.
It seems I like to run with the crowd and can actually admit to several already mentioned here.

• Maquarie Fusion fund
• Great Southern (trees)
• And family..

The last was probably the hardest for two reasons.
Not only did I lose over $50,000 in making house repayments for my mother who then ended up losing the house anyway but seeing your family loose everything as they are about to retire is just heartbreaking.

Luckily I still have a few years to make my mark and hopefully my past mistakes will be merely blips on the radar of my investment journey.

Great thread btw...

 

[MTR]

Outsourcing my financial plans to a well known Financial Planner to many on this forum.

Cost me 10 years of hard savings ... approx. $700K

MASSIVE, MASSIVE lessons learnt from the process. Main one been - DO NOT TRUST ANYONE ELSE TO MANAGE YOUR FINANCES !!!!

I was at one of his seminars years ago and I recall the lady next to me had invested all her life savings and as she said was "living the high life" on equity generated by this fund.
I think I switched off when he mentioned the tax free strategy.

Seems like many got burnt here, as you say lesson learnt.
Watch out everyone - Steve McK fund, once again no control.

Enjoying this thread,
Biggest mistake was not flying to the Pilbara region to purchase some of those gems that Hotrod purchased, I guess I thought it was just some risky mining town that would be wiped out after a couple of years.


MTR

 

[cu@thetop]

Wow.
It seems I like to run with the crowd and can actually admit to several already mentioned here.

• Maquarie Fusion fund
• Great Southern (trees)
• And family..

The last was probably the hardest for two reasons.
Not only did I lose over $50,000 in making house repayments for my mother who then ended up losing the house anyway but seeing your family loose everything as they are about to retire is just heartbreaking.

Luckily I still have a few years to make my mark and hopefully my past mistakes will be merely blips on the radar of my investment journey.

Great thread btw...

A simple rule but I never touch anything these people deal with. As a millionaires factory always remember someone has to pay their way.

A few mistakes on the way butgiven I'm in a fairly average financial position I would say my greatest mistakes are sins of omission- procrastination and delay.

 

[Nemo30]

My biggest financial mistake was getting married! Love my husband, however I didn't realise our investing goals were so different.

I sold my house to jointly buy our PPOR when we got married. I sold with the intention of buying joint investments, however it took 6 years to talk him into the first one. If I had of known upfront I would have kept my house as an IP as I didnt need to sell.

Bought our first joint IP in 2011 - we totally missed all the capital gains of the past decade.

Because our loans are in joint names (joint and several liability) it makes investing on my own quite difficult (but not impossible).

 

[redwing]

Enjoying this thread,
Biggest mistake was not flying to the Pilbara region to purchase some of those gems that Hotrod purchased, I guess I thought it was just some risky mining town that would be wiped out after a couple of years.
MTR

Would've been nice

Regrets, I've had a few, But then again, too few to mention

 

[Mooze]

Easily getting married. Love the husband but he just doesn't know how to budget, save, or seem to have much knowledge about finance at all. (side effect of getting a very high paying job very quickly when younger and never needing to budget, and no one opening his eyes until too late). Feel like it's taken me to six years to progress to very basics despite going over everything with our purchases, business etc multiple times with him (actually I'll put it down to head in the sand attitude). Has been banned from the grocery store, and is about to be sent to Tafe to learn about small business finance and budgeting so I can hand the whole lot over to him and stop the arguments.

Frustrating to say the least.

 

[pinkboy]

Easily getting married. Love the husband but he just doesn't know how to budget, save, or seem to have much knowledge about finance at all. (side effect of getting a very high paying job very quickly when younger and never needing to budget, and no one opening his eyes until too late). Feel like it's taken me to six years to progress to very basics despite going over everything with our purchases, business etc multiple times with him (actually I'll put it down to head in the sand attitude). Has been banned from the grocery store, and is about to be sent to Tafe to learn about small business finance and budgeting so I can hand the whole lot over to him and stop the arguments.

Frustrating to say the least.

Oh I don't know Mooze.....how many multisport 'toys' do you have between yourselves?

pinkboy

 

[Mooze]

Oh I don't know Mooze.....how many multisport 'toys' do you have between yourselves?

pinkboy

If you don't count the business ones (income producing and not for personal use) - then a lot less than before I got married!

 

[geoffw]

If you don't count the business ones (income producing and not for personal use) - then a lot less than before I got married!

Like the one beginning with W and ending with RX