Worst single financial mistake you've made?

[Warlord1986]

Majoring in Communication. In my defense, I got zero help on choosing a major from my parents and I was dealing with severe depression and anxiety. But still. I could have majored in something useful and had a well-paying career.

I can't hear communications major without thinking of this Simpson's clip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4OuAAM4v_Y

....Ouch.

Majoring in Communication. In my defense, I got zero help on choosing a major from my parents and I was dealing with severe depression and anxiety. But still. I could have majored in something useful and had a well-paying career.

Enh, I chose a "useful" degree and even though I get paid pretty well it kinda sucks.  It seems like the communications/english/history/psychology degrees are ones that are easy enough to obtain, but you really have to grind or go to grad school to make something out of them.  With engineering, the suffering is built-in. 

At least you can dry your tears with money.

(Otoh, I managed to save up over $100K and no debt, so I have money too.)

[Metalcat]

Majoring in Communication. In my defense, I got zero help on choosing a major from my parents and I was dealing with severe depression and anxiety. But still. I could have majored in something useful and had a well-paying career.

Enh, I chose a "useful" degree and even though I get paid pretty well it kinda sucks.  It seems like the communications/english/history/psychology degrees are ones that are easy enough to obtain, but you really have to grind or go to grad school to make something out of them.  With engineering, the suffering is built-in.

You definitely need to know how to build a career in order to thrive with a humanities background, but unlike professional degrees, which really limit your options, humanities degrees confer skills that are much more broadly useful.

One of my dear friends has a humanities degree which was mostly focused on feminism. She now works at the executive level in communications for the oil and gas industry. She actually didn't need to grind all that hard because basically no one in the entire company knew how to write. She essentially just coasted her way to the top on humanities skills that only she had.

[Cranky]

Majoring in Communication. In my defense, I got zero help on choosing a major from my parents and I was dealing with severe depression and anxiety. But still. I could have majored in something useful and had a well-paying career.

Enh, I chose a "useful" degree and even though I get paid pretty well it kinda sucks.  It seems like the communications/english/history/psychology degrees are ones that are easy enough to obtain, but you really have to grind or go to grad school to make something out of them.  With engineering, the suffering is built-in.

You definitely need to know how to build a career in order to thrive with a humanities background, but unlike professional degrees, which really limit your options, humanities degrees confer skills that are much more broadly useful.

One of my dear friends has a humanities degree which was mostly focused on feminism. She now works at the executive level in communications for the oil and gas industry. She actually didn't need to grind all that hard because basically no one in the entire company knew how to write. She essentially just coasted her way to the top on humanities skills that only she had.

My dd has a BA in English and an MA in theology and she’s making 6 figures as a tech writer. Shockingly, writing clearly is not a common skill.

[Metalcat]

Majoring in Communication. In my defense, I got zero help on choosing a major from my parents and I was dealing with severe depression and anxiety. But still. I could have majored in something useful and had a well-paying career.

Enh, I chose a "useful" degree and even though I get paid pretty well it kinda sucks.  It seems like the communications/english/history/psychology degrees are ones that are easy enough to obtain, but you really have to grind or go to grad school to make something out of them.  With engineering, the suffering is built-in.

You definitely need to know how to build a career in order to thrive with a humanities background, but unlike professional degrees, which really limit your options, humanities degrees confer skills that are much more broadly useful.

One of my dear friends has a humanities degree which was mostly focused on feminism. She now works at the executive level in communications for the oil and gas industry. She actually didn't need to grind all that hard because basically no one in the entire company knew how to write. She essentially just coasted her way to the top on humanities skills that only she had.

My dd has a BA in English and an MA in theology and she’s making 6 figures as a tech writer. Shockingly, writing clearly is not a common skill.

It really isn't. I've been given so many opportunities because I can write and talk like a human among scientists and doctors and who can't. And that's just one humanities skill that can end up insanely lucrative.

[StarBright]

Fun idea! My worst financial mistake was getting married young to a finance bro.

I married FinanceBro in the early aughts. I got an almost full ride to grad school and he convinced me to take out max student loans because of the "low interest rates." It made a lot of sense to invest those loans and make so much money!! I was young! It was the first year we were married, he was a professional.

About 14 months into marriage I found out he was cheating on me with lots of folks, including prostitutes (no shame to sex workers, it just adds spice to the story (and was a lot for me to deal with at the time)). And it proceeded to get worse from there.

I extricated myself from the marriage after two years with about 50k worth of debt for an almost free degree. My ex has his own hedgefund now. He may have also bigamously remarried before our divorce was final - he was a peach.

[nereo]

I caved under family pressure and paid off my subsidized student loans. It felt like the wrong thing to do at the time and in retrospect it was a very bad mistake.

[ChickenStash]

My worst financial move was hanging around at a job that was underpaying me for too long. HR once forced my boss to give me a raise because I was too far under the minimum for the role. It did look good on a resume, though, and helped me get to my next job at about a 50% raise (thinking positively).

For spending, probably buying my fun car. I don't regret it and have had a blast owning it, but it was more money than I should have spent on a car. Oh well, I got it out of my system and haven't done it again. I still have it after 11 years and don't plan on getting rid of it any time soon.

[TheStrenuousLife]

Bought a franchise restaurant with a friend.  Absolute disaster that I am just beginning to extricate myself from and which probably set me back 10 years from FIRE.  The friendship survived at least, we both got screwed despite our best efforts.

However, while I bitterly regret what happened, I learnt a ton about myself through my failed business experience.  In fact, I think given my personality it was inevitable that I would have ended up in some misguided business scheme with friends /family due to my conflict avoidance in personal relationships.  I view this experience as very expensive education and it will definitely help me protect/grow my stash going forward.   

[Villanelle]

My biggest mistake was hiring a financial adviser when I was younger.  My boss at the time even advised me to educate myself and just invest in mutual funds.  I went to a "free" dinner seminar and signed up with an adviser who charged 1.5% of funds under management.  At first it did not seem so bad, this was the 1990's and market was hot and I didn't have a very large portfolio.  Later on, I finally did take my old bosses advice and started learning about personal finance. By that time I had a bigger portfolio, and the management fees were getting pretty big.  I began to notice that my funds under management weren't doing much better than index funds, certainly not 1.5% better. The final straw for me was the 2008 when my expensive manager told me nobody could have seen the financial crisis coming and that is why my portfolio took such a big hit. I eventually fired him, put all my money in index funds and have never been happier.

When I started investing, it was with a financial planning firm.  No direct commission, but worse...front-loaded funds on which they got a fat commission.  This too was likely a "mistake" since it was FAR from ideal, but OTOH, I likely wouldn't have been investing at all for those years, so it was better than nothing, which is why I don't consider it my biggest mistake.  They got me to invest, so it was a move in the right direction, even though it was far from an optimal move.  I invested with them for about 8 years, then stopped adding money (and started with index funds), and then a few years later I actually sold everything I had with them and moved it to basic index funds. 

[oneday]

Hiring financial planners instead of socking everything into index funds. Cost me a decade of better growth.

I was young and didn't know there were better options. No real regrets, because I did my best at the time. But sometimes I daydream about what my 'stash would look like if I'd just gone all in on index funds.

Live and learn.

I used to ruminate on what kind of financial position I'd be in now if I hadn't made that mistake, but have had to shut down those thoughts (if/when I can). Just too depressing.

[oneday]

I was thinking about this today.  I squandered a modest inheritance when I was in college.  To be fair, I'm was struggling immensely with anxiety and I didn't realize it at the time, so I'm not entirely sure I was capable of doing much better.  Some was also stolen by a pretty horrific Ex. But still, it was money I wasted.  IIRC, it was about $50k in today's dollars.  Not earth shattering, but if I'd invested most of that a few decades ago, it would be a lot of money. 

Married a spendthrift. The relationship lasted for 20 years; no real way to quantify how much I could have retained either living on my own or with a spouse who was on the same financial page. Probably in the 6 figures, I bet.

I combined these two. Married a spendthrift that spent a bunch of my inheritance. The worst part is that a bunch of the money we spent on her was for her BS that she never finished, but not for lack of total credits. She has way more credits than I do. She just never took the right classes in the right order. Also, I bought a house in March of 2007 that I lost to foreclosure when I had to divorce the spendthrift. Oh well, I'm still going to retire sometime before 62 and live indoors and eat food and stuff.

Double ouch. Sorry man.

Living indoors and eating food is a win, though.

[getsorted]

Majoring in Communication. In my defense, I got zero help on choosing a major from my parents and I was dealing with severe depression and anxiety. But still. I could have majored in something useful and had a well-paying career.

Same. Except it was English instead of Communications, so slightly worse.

I don't know where people are making six figures tech writing but I need to figure it out.

[PDXTabs]

Double ouch. Sorry man.

Thanks, but it's not a big deal. I have a better life than most people on this planet.

Living indoors and eating food is a win, though.

Right?! Actually, come to think of it I have enough money to eat for the rest of my life. Which is an improvement from my childhood.

[oneday]

Living indoors and eating food is a win, though.

Right?! Actually, come to think of it I have enough money to eat for the rest of my life. Which is an improvement from my childhood.

That's gotta feel pretty damn good.

You made me calculate, and I also have enough for lifetime food. I wonder what else I could fund for life...

[poetdereves]

I'd have to say that my first Bachelor's Degree is probably my biggest financial mistake. BA in Biblical Studies. It was paid mostly through grants and scholarships, but I have never needed it and ended up going back for a BS in Nursing a few years later. Not only did I lose the money that it cost, but I lost time in the market and barely worked at all during classes. I would have been better to just keep my job at McDonald's for those four years and save it.

My biggest regret (not mistake necessarily, since hindsight is 20/20) is that I sold my first house instead of renting it out like I had thought about. I bought a house for $149k in 2013 in Colorado Springs. They were offering a grant at the time for young professionals to become homeowners and they paid your down payment for you. 8% with no strings attached. The way the lender did the financing meant I actually got almost $1,000 back at closing. Literally got a house and money back. $0 out of pocket and a 3% interest rate. I sold it a few years later and made a decent profit, but that house recently sold for $450k with no updates since I had lived in it. If only I would have rented it out! The bummer is that I was pretty financially illiterate at the time and I ended up selling it and spending almost the entire profit of $75k. I put about $40k into the downpayment of my next house (dumb idea), and I spent the other $35k on moving expenses, furniture, and who knows what else. Gone into thin air... Man, I have learned a lot since then.

[Missy B]

Biggest: Not buying a primary residence early in my working life because I thought the real estate market was in a bubble and stupidly overpriced. (In the 25 years since then prices increased 10x.)
Prices doubled within the first 3 years after that and kept going.
I had no way of knowing I would be priced out of the market so rapidly.

Second biggest: buying beaten-down value stocks at a great price during the dot-com boom in early 2000 and selling them for a 3-5x increase (I think 2-3 years later) instead of holding them.
It seemed like my best trade at the time, and only later did I realize it was my worst.

I bought Telus at $6, 7% dividend. 3 splits later each share is trading at $28, and the average dividend growth yearly is over 5%.

Third was not pulling my money from mutual funds and putting in a self-directed ETF as soon as online trading and ETFs were available. It makes me angry looking at the old docs and the lame growth, and the misuse of my patience.

I managed not to marry any assholes though. I knew to look out for that one :)

[SuperNintendo Chalmers]

Is something a mistake if you wouldn't change it if given the chance?  If not, then while I've made a number of decisions that were terrible from a financial perspective, they had positives in other ways such that I don't consider them mistakes, even though I probably would have made a different decision if I had known about FIRE at the time.  Sometimes ignorance is bliss I guess.

But one mistake I did clearly make was not realizing for years that you can invest your HSA balance!  It was just sitting in there in a bank account during about half of the recent bull market before I realized you could invest it.  That one's all on me. 

[nereo]

Is something a mistake if you wouldn't change it if given the chance? 

I have a related question (and touches on a number of responses from in this thread):  If you made a smart decision based on the information available at the time and it wound up costing you money, is that really a "mistake"?

[DrinkCoffeeStackMoney]

Worst financial mistake: I started working right out of high school in 1992. Between 1992-1995 I saved almost $25k in a 401k that I ended up cashing out and blowing. Down payment on a car, booze, travel, parties, games, etc.. I was young and not financially responsible at all. I just lived for a good time.

Second worst financial mistake was that I didn't start contributing to another 401k until late 2000.

[Villanelle]

Is something a mistake if you wouldn't change it if given the chance? 

I have a related question (and touches on a number of responses from in this thread):  If you made a smart decision based on the information available at the time and it wound up costing you money, is that really a "mistake"?

I'd say probably, for me, yes.  A typo is a mistake, even though you make it while generally trying to press the right keys.  Calling someone by the wrong name is a mistake, even though you intended well and truly though their name was Bob when it is in fact Bill.

~~~

What really motivated the pondering that lead me to ask the question here is that early this year, we decided to sell our rental.  We had to (well, choose to, as we could have tried to sell if with a tenant and lease in place) wait for the tenant to move out.  During that time, the local market really stalled, in the 3-4 weeks before we were able to get it listed.  It's now been on the market just over a month.  One super lowball offer, and that's it.  We plan to wait a few more weeks, but most likely we will end up rerenting it.  In the process, we will have lost out on about $9k in rent. 

I am not enamored with continuing to be a long-distance landlord, and this would be the last time (as far as lease cycles) we could sell without paying cap gains, so it seems like time, even though the property does make money.  (Nowhere near 1% rule.) That's what motivated the sale.

Now, it also rid us of a mediocre-at-best PM, and if the new PMs I'm talking with are anywhere close on new rent, we will make up much of that lost money with higher rent.  (I always checked comps, but for reasons not relevant to the thread, it is a tough property to comp so I relied heavily on my PM, and I think she underpriced it to make her life easy.) 

About $10k is a lot of money, and yet I don't really feel anything at all about it.  It was a "mistake" from the standpoint of "it turned out not to be the optimal decision.  But it just feels like "we tried a thing, it didn't work out, and so we move on."  I'm surprised that I don't really feel regret or frustration, even though had we just continued along as we were, we'd have more money in our pockets. 

[Hall11235]

I have two.

The first is the classic college scenario. Double majored in History and Education. Basically lit 200k on fire.

The other, and far worse, in my opinion is that I put around 14k worth of Magic: the Gathering cards on my credit cards in the span of about 5 months in 2019. To compound this, I knew the spending was out of control, so I hid it from my spouse. I was ashamed and embarrassed. It is crazy how strongly the lizard brain can convince you that you NEED something.

Obviously, DW found out, and, through the power of strong boundaries and excellent communication, we were able to resell most of those cards to recoup about 6k, and then I went on a strict financial diet to pay off the rest asap.

Now, luxury hobbies with high recurring costs and high buy ins are off limits. I don't have the willpower for long term control in scenarios with unlimited spending potential.

[spartanswami]

Getting a MBA. It has had zero impact on my earnings. I regularly tell people that I’ve learned more from YouTube and from Internet forums than I have from the curriculum of college or grad school.

Same. Went to a top notch school for Finance, paid approx $100K, slogged and got good grades. Hated wall street work environment. For personal finance, have learned more from MMM and Bogleheads than anything at b-school. Current role doesn't require MBA.

[Dicey]

I'll play. I've mentioned this before, and it hasn't changed...

I borrowed against my 401k. I used it to act as a bridge loan between properties, when money wasn't as easy to get. It was only $6k and I repaid it in 9 months, but I hated every minute of having it. My money was out of the market and I felt like an indentured servant every single moment that I owed my soul to the company store. In retrospect, I should have just borrowed money from my parents, but I was (and still am) fiercely proud to say I never borrowed money from them. Hmmm, maybe it's time to give myself a little grace and stop beating myself up over that stupid loan. Not sure, though, I really, really hated it.

OTOH, the property I bought doubled in value in less than four years. Still hated the loan.

[TheAnonOne]

I left half a million dollars on the table in crypto, more than once.

[iris lily]

I have written about this elsewhere, but I left $10,000 on the table in a retirement account when I didn’t simply claim it. Yes it was that simple all I had to do was claim an income stream and it started up. There’s no way I could go back and retrieve the stream later.

Also, It is entirely possible that our late approach to investing cost a whole lot more than a measley  $10,000 but I’ll never know. We were always fiends at saving but not especially good at investing. But we’re doing OK now so no real regrets.

[nereo]

Is something a mistake if you wouldn't change it if given the chance? 

I have a related question (and touches on a number of responses from in this thread):  If you made a smart decision based on the information available at the time and it wound up costing you money, is that really a "mistake"?

I'd say probably, for me, yes.  A typo is a mistake, even though you make it while generally trying to press the right keys.  Calling someone by the wrong name is a mistake, even though you intended well and truly though their name was Bob when it is in fact Bill.

~~~

That wasn’t quite what I meant about decisions made which turned out not-so-great.  Perhaps an example would help: Imagine you’ve got an uncle who just got out of jail for corporate fraud, and he tells you about a great ‘business opportunity’ investing in some company. You do your due diligence and learn the CEO was your uncles cell-mate (embezzlement), they’ve a long way from profitable and their business plan is unclear.  You say: Hard pass.
Against all odds and after some very bumpy years the business succeeds, and early investors earn back 20:1

Now - was that a financial mistake to not invest?  Some look at the outcome and say “yes!” - others (and I find myself in this camp) look back and say “no - even though the outcome wasn’t what we expected doesn’t mean it was a mistake”.

[SinnahSaint]

Fell in love with a financial leech.... and then believed it was my job to get him "back on his feet".

He stole 4 years, uncounted money, and at the end of it all I had to call his mom to say I was done with him and to move him out of my place because we were getting evicted... again.


[edit:typo]

[PDXTabs]

That wasn’t quite what I meant about decisions made which turned out not-so-great.  Perhaps an example would help: Imagine you’ve got an uncle who just got out of jail for corporate fraud, and he tells you about a great ‘business opportunity’ investing in some company. You do your due diligence and learn the CEO was your uncles cell-mate (embezzlement), they’ve a long way from profitable and their business plan is unclear.  You say: Hard pass.
Against all odds and after some very bumpy years the business succeeds, and early investors earn back 20:1

Now - was that a financial mistake to not invest?  Some look at the outcome and say “yes!” - others (and I find myself in this camp) look back and say “no - even though the outcome wasn’t what we expected doesn’t mean it was a mistake”.

Yea, I used to play poker. Sometimes I would fold hands because they were bad cards. But every once and a while those cards would have won. I still thought that folding was the right call and I never regretted it.

[Midwest_Handlebar]

Lost $60K+ in options trading when I was 24. It hurt like hell, but got me on the path of index funds. Haven't bought a single stock since(outside of an ESPP, and then sold ASAP). I think it was a blessing in disguise, but would have loved to still have the money compounding now.

The best "investment" by far has been my wife.

[middo]

Investing directly in shares as a young 16 year old.  I thought I knew everything and lost a whole $800.

However, the real tragedy is that it made me distrustful of shares until I was in my late 40's.  So I invested in property instead.  It would have been much better to have invested in an ETF or even directly in a broader range of shares rather just focus on property.

[RWD]

I missed out on a full ride scholarship. I'm not entirely sure why, but I either didn't apply properly or I re-took my SATs too late. Even with other scholarships I still graduated $50k in debt.

Bought a house I couldn't really afford with an ARM in early 2008. Had to stop all my voluntary retirement contributions to make the house payments and pay bills.

We also bought a house in 2008. Put 3% down and took out a loan at 6.5%. We refinanced 2 years later to 5% but that kept us from being able to get rid of PMI because it reset the clock or something... Ended up selling the house in 2015 for about $40k less than we paid. Meanwhile I was contributing only the bare minimum to get the match into my 401k.

I caved under family pressure and paid off my subsidized student loans. It felt like the wrong thing to do at the time and in retrospect it was a very bad mistake.

I also paid off my low-interest student loans. Better than spending the money, but oh man... Though part of the reason was because the majority of the loans were "Parent Plus" taken out in my dad's name and I felt very uncomfortable leaving that debt under his name any longer than necessary.

[Money Badger]

Oh man, the mistake thread...   This is going to be painfully cathartic...

Early 90s, didn't invest in 401K that had a good match for almost 4 years...  Stupid kid.
Late 90s, wasted an opportunity when I received stock options in my company that IPO'd, but let them go underwater in the 2001 market meltdown.
Early 2000s, work stress and a car habit were a bad pair...  Bought several cars and trucks and traded for the thrill of the deals.   Learned my grandfather had done the same thing due to stress in his early career...  Learned a lot from this one.
Late 2000s, let a financial advisor have control with a portfolio of individual stocks.   Anyone remember the "Great Recession"?

What saved me from all the above stupidity?   Always kept standard of living lower than our family income.   Did well on house sales.   Learned to invest and avoid parasites in the financial brokerages and managed market risks to dig out of the hole and then some.   Then some small family inheritance came along... Compounding and knowing thyself at last did the rest...

[AccidentialMustache]

Too many CDs when I was early career, no index funds. The only plus side is I was underpaid for my field due to being in the public sector that I didn't have a ton to invest, so it isn't like I lost out in a huge way.

I think most other "mistakes" are 20/20 hindsight which wouldn't have been cured by filling simple knowledge gaps. I mean, I have a paypal Sistine chapel palm pilot t-shirt from a recruiting event at school. I also saw old boys network postings for early hires at youtube. Either of those could have resulted in a retired-before-30 scenario easily.

Then again, plenty more startups went bust and were never heard from again. I see no simple knowledge gaps that would have let you pick the winners at the time.

[rothwem]

Majoring in Communication. In my defense, I got zero help on choosing a major from my parents and I was dealing with severe depression and anxiety. But still. I could have majored in something useful and had a well-paying career.

Enh, I chose a "useful" degree and even though I get paid pretty well it kinda sucks.  It seems like the communications/english/history/psychology degrees are ones that are easy enough to obtain, but you really have to grind or go to grad school to make something out of them.  With engineering, the suffering is built-in.

You definitely need to know how to build a career in order to thrive with a humanities background, but unlike professional degrees, which really limit your options, humanities degrees confer skills that are much more broadly useful.

One of my dear friends has a humanities degree which was mostly focused on feminism. She now works at the executive level in communications for the oil and gas industry. She actually didn't need to grind all that hard because basically no one in the entire company knew how to write. She essentially just coasted her way to the top on humanities skills that only she had.

Oh, I definitely agree.  I'm not putting down humanities degrees.  I just think that a lot of people get them and don't know how to use them.  Its NOT like engineering, where you get your degree, apply to job that says, "must have XX-engineering degree" and then get hired.  Even though the degree itself is fairly easy, you still have to work hard, I doubt the process for your friend getting her bigwig job was easy. 

Getting a MBA. It has had zero impact on my earnings. I regularly tell people that I’ve learned more from YouTube and from Internet forums than I have from the curriculum of college or grad school.

Same. Went to a top notch school for Finance, paid approx $100K, slogged and got good grades. Hated wall street work environment. For personal finance, have learned more from MMM and Bogleheads than anything at b-school. Current role doesn't require MBA.

Same thing applies here.  Have you considered that you're using your degree wrong?  Its like buying a dump truck to drive to the office everyday.  The dump truck is a very capable tool, if you're going to use it to move dirt and rocks and stuff.  If you're not going to do that, why would you buy a dump truck?  And the flip side applies, If you have a dump truck that you can't get rid of, why not use it to make money?

[Villanelle]

Is something a mistake if you wouldn't change it if given the chance? 

I have a related question (and touches on a number of responses from in this thread):  If you made a smart decision based on the information available at the time and it wound up costing you money, is that really a "mistake"?

I'd say probably, for me, yes.  A typo is a mistake, even though you make it while generally trying to press the right keys.  Calling someone by the wrong name is a mistake, even though you intended well and truly though their name was Bob when it is in fact Bill.

~~~

That wasn’t quite what I meant about decisions made which turned out not-so-great.  Perhaps an example would help: Imagine you’ve got an uncle who just got out of jail for corporate fraud, and he tells you about a great ‘business opportunity’ investing in some company. You do your due diligence and learn the CEO was your uncles cell-mate (embezzlement), they’ve a long way from profitable and their business plan is unclear.  You say: Hard pass.
Against all odds and after some very bumpy years the business succeeds, and early investors earn back 20:1

Now - was that a financial mistake to not invest?  Some look at the outcome and say “yes!” - others (and I find myself in this camp) look back and say “no - even though the outcome wasn’t what we expected doesn’t mean it was a mistake”.

To me, there is a difference between an outcome mistake and a decision mistake.  I generally ignore the outcome mistakes, fairly easily.  I know I made a decision in line with the odds (or with the information I had at the time).  The uncle's business opportunity wouldn't haunt me at all, for example, because it would be clear to me that the decision was correct, even if the outcome might not be. 

It's the decision mistakes, or the ones where it isn't clear to me whether it was a decision mistake, that stick with me. If it's purely just a less ideal outcome, I don't generally consider it a mistake. If I'm trapped in my car by my seatbelt and drown, wearing the seatbelt wasn't a mistake.

[Warlord1986]

Majoring in Communication. In my defense, I got zero help on choosing a major from my parents and I was dealing with severe depression and anxiety. But still. I could have majored in something useful and had a well-paying career.

Same. Except it was English instead of Communications, so slightly worse.

I don't know where people are making six figures tech writing but I need to figure it out.

Lol, right? I started learning DITA and grant writing as a side hustle, and I'm hoping that I can make a career switch in a few years to tech writing.

[MoneyTree]

Majoring in Communication. In my defense, I got zero help on choosing a major from my parents and I was dealing with severe depression and anxiety. But still. I could have majored in something useful and had a well-paying career.

Enh, I chose a "useful" degree and even though I get paid pretty well it kinda sucks.  It seems like the communications/english/history/psychology degrees are ones that are easy enough to obtain, but you really have to grind or go to grad school to make something out of them.  With engineering, the suffering is built-in.

You definitely need to know how to build a career in order to thrive with a humanities background, but unlike professional degrees, which really limit your options, humanities degrees confer skills that are much more broadly useful.

One of my dear friends has a humanities degree which was mostly focused on feminism. She now works at the executive level in communications for the oil and gas industry. She actually didn't need to grind all that hard because basically no one in the entire company knew how to write. She essentially just coasted her way to the top on humanities skills that only she had.

Oh, I definitely agree.  I'm not putting down humanities degrees.  I just think that a lot of people get them and don't know how to use them.  Its NOT like engineering, where you get your degree, apply to job that says, "must have XX-engineering degree" and then get hired.  Even though the degree itself is fairly easy, you still have to work hard, I doubt the process for your friend getting her bigwig job was easy. 

Getting a MBA. It has had zero impact on my earnings. I regularly tell people that I’ve learned more from YouTube and from Internet forums than I have from the curriculum of college or grad school.

Same. Went to a top notch school for Finance, paid approx $100K, slogged and got good grades. Hated wall street work environment. For personal finance, have learned more from MMM and Bogleheads than anything at b-school. Current role doesn't require MBA.

Same thing applies here.  Have you considered that you're using your degree wrong?  Its like buying a dump truck to drive to the office everyday.  The dump truck is a very capable tool, if you're going to use it to move dirt and rocks and stuff.  If you're not going to do that, why would you buy a dump truck?  And the flip side applies, If you have a dump truck that you can't get rid of, why not use it to make money?

Yes, this is why it was it was a mistake, which is what this whole thread is about. I bought a dump truck and i don't want to move rocks and dirts. I am not using the degree correctly, and I don't want to use it correctly because those jobs are not what I want. and I can't go to the university and get a refund.

[Metalcat]

Majoring in Communication. In my defense, I got zero help on choosing a major from my parents and I was dealing with severe depression and anxiety. But still. I could have majored in something useful and had a well-paying career.

Enh, I chose a "useful" degree and even though I get paid pretty well it kinda sucks.  It seems like the communications/english/history/psychology degrees are ones that are easy enough to obtain, but you really have to grind or go to grad school to make something out of them.  With engineering, the suffering is built-in.

You definitely need to know how to build a career in order to thrive with a humanities background, but unlike professional degrees, which really limit your options, humanities degrees confer skills that are much more broadly useful.

One of my dear friends has a humanities degree which was mostly focused on feminism. She now works at the executive level in communications for the oil and gas industry. She actually didn't need to grind all that hard because basically no one in the entire company knew how to write. She essentially just coasted her way to the top on humanities skills that only she had.

Oh, I definitely agree.  I'm not putting down humanities degrees.  I just think that a lot of people get them and don't know how to use them.  Its NOT like engineering, where you get your degree, apply to job that says, "must have XX-engineering degree" and then get hired.  Even though the degree itself is fairly easy, you still have to work hard, I doubt the process for your friend getting her bigwig job was easy. 

Getting a MBA. It has had zero impact on my earnings. I regularly tell people that I’ve learned more from YouTube and from Internet forums than I have from the curriculum of college or grad school.

Same. Went to a top notch school for Finance, paid approx $100K, slogged and got good grades. Hated wall street work environment. For personal finance, have learned more from MMM and Bogleheads than anything at b-school. Current role doesn't require MBA.

Same thing applies here.  Have you considered that you're using your degree wrong?  Its like buying a dump truck to drive to the office everyday.  The dump truck is a very capable tool, if you're going to use it to move dirt and rocks and stuff.  If you're not going to do that, why would you buy a dump truck?  And the flip side applies, If you have a dump truck that you can't get rid of, why not use it to make money?

True, very few parents give their kids decent advice when it comes to choosing a profession because most parents are fucking clueless about this stuff.

Endless parents have brought their kids to me in hopes that I'll convince them to follow my career path: get top grades in highschool, get into a good school with a full scholarship, get top grades in undergrad majoring in something that sounds impressive, get into a top professional school, become an enormously successful professional, MAKE TONS OF MONEY!!!

The parents are usually pretty horrified when I break down for them that if I had put in the equal amount of effort that I had put into school, I would be much, much, MUCH richer had I done almost anything else.

Most high end professionals are actually horribly underpaid relative to their level of expertise and effort. I pursued my career out of love. I knew full well that I was actually throttling my income potential by doing it.

Why? Because I had parents who actually understood this shit.

No degree confers a career on someone. That's what people think, but it's not how it works.

Successful careers require really hard work, and the right skills to become successful. For some careers, some of that work will have to be put towards a professional degree, which can give them some of the necessary skills. But there are other skills still needed and other work still to do.

For some people, a professional designation is a good use of their time, energy, and money. For others, not so much, and other skills should be cultivated.

The skills that made me enormously successful in my profession weren't learned in my professional degree, and they're highly generalizable.

[Michael in ABQ]

I tried my hand at trading Forex (foreign exchange) twice in college. The first time blew through about $200-$300 and didn't think much of it. The next time I put $1,500 in my account and within 6 months it was basically all gone.

I did learn a valuable lesson that I basically did not know what I was doing, and even if I did, I still could have been wiped out easily due to the leverage. One surprise rate hike or geopolitical event and all of the sudden you've lost your whole position.

Between that and my "success" in picking individual financial stocks in the mid 2000s (most of which subsequently lost 75%+ of their value and never recovered) I learned that index funds are the way to go. I'm never going to get that thrill of guessing right the TSLA or some other individual stock will go up 400% over a few years, but I'm also not going to lose 80, 90, 100% of my investment. I may still pick some individual stocks with a tiny portion of my portfolio, but with the full knowledge now that I'm basically gambling - not investing.

[getsorted]

Majoring in Communication. In my defense, I got zero help on choosing a major from my parents and I was dealing with severe depression and anxiety. But still. I could have majored in something useful and had a well-paying career.

Same. Except it was English instead of Communications, so slightly worse.

I don't know where people are making six figures tech writing but I need to figure it out.

Lol, right? I started learning DITA and grant writing as a side hustle, and I'm hoping that I can make a career switch in a few years to tech writing.

The last grant writing position I applied for was paying $45,000 a year.

[Warlord1986]

Majoring in Communication. In my defense, I got zero help on choosing a major from my parents and I was dealing with severe depression and anxiety. But still. I could have majored in something useful and had a well-paying career.

Same. Except it was English instead of Communications, so slightly worse.

I don't know where people are making six figures tech writing but I need to figure it out.

Lol, right? I started learning DITA and grant writing as a side hustle, and I'm hoping that I can make a career switch in a few years to tech writing.

The last grant writing position I applied for was paying $45,000 a year.

I had a grant writing position that paid that much. I've posted about it before, but long story short, it was horribly toxic. Like, my supervisor burst into the office screaming about God damned straight men and their God damned straight white penises, the Executive Director insulted my religious denomination, etc. I used my FU money to leave without another full time job lined up. $45K isn't enough for me to put up with that.

I get $35 an hour as a contract grant writer. If I want to pursue a full time grant writing job, that contract work will help. I think I'd rather make the switch to tech writing though. I'm so over government and non-profits that it's not even funny.

[Villanelle]

Majoring in Communication. In my defense, I got zero help on choosing a major from my parents and I was dealing with severe depression and anxiety. But still. I could have majored in something useful and had a well-paying career.

Same. Except it was English instead of Communications, so slightly worse.

I don't know where people are making six figures tech writing but I need to figure it out.

Lol, right? I started learning DITA and grant writing as a side hustle, and I'm hoping that I can make a career switch in a few years to tech writing.

The last grant writing position I applied for was paying $45,000 a year.

Grant writing is one of those things that seems exceptionally hard to break into.  I'm an English major, have taken a grant writing course, and worked many years in non-profits, including as a grant administer where I oversaw awarded grants and thus was around successful proposals (and working with major funding agencies) every day. So it seems like I'm about as qualified as one can be, without having actually been a grant writer.   But I've never found** a grant writing job that didn't require a history of successful grant proposals. 

Even with mediocre pay I'd strongly look at some contract work as a grant writer, since everything is side hustle/barista fire money for me at this point. 

**To be fair, I have only looked sporadically.

[parkerk]

Majoring in Communication. In my defense, I got zero help on choosing a major from my parents and I was dealing with severe depression and anxiety. But still. I could have majored in something useful and had a well-paying career.

Same. Except it was English instead of Communications, so slightly worse.

I don't know where people are making six figures tech writing but I need to figure it out.

I'm an English major making six figures in tech project management.  No actual project management degree, just some time spent in more junior "coordinator" roles where I learned the industry and worked my way into this position.

Was the degree directly related to me getting this job?  Not really.  Does anybody give a shit that I have a degree at all these days?  Also no.  But as stated above it gave me a great basis in how to communicate and think critically and also a not-insignificant insight into human nature in general that's helped me in the "how to work with other people" department that a LOT of people in my industry are sorely lacking. 

[parkerk]

Anyways, back on topic my single worst financial decision was buying a $5k mattress.  5 grand!  For a mattress!  It didn't even end up being good for us but by the time we figured that out we were long past the return window.  This was in my pre-mustachian days and I totally got sucked into the marketing BS around the product thinking we were spending the extra money to get a really good quality product.  I still feel extremely stupid and borderline ragey every time I think about that damn mattress. 

[nereo]

I didn't even know one could buy a $5k mattress (without it being some special-order boutique thing...)  I felt bad over-paying for a mail-order foam mattress at $999 or so thereabouts a few years ago.  $5k... yikes!

[hudsoncat]

Ignorance on paying for college.  Parents aren't financially savvy, just always assumed it was normal to borrow the full cost of a 4 year university education starting at age 18 and that we'd/I'd "figure out a way to repay later".  This meant that I was not financially savvy at the time either.  My only money sense was that I knew it was bad to hold a balance on credit cards (like my parents did every month) and I wanted to avoid doing that.  It was all send to college even without much of a plan. 

Hey that bolded part was totally me too! My family was just dirt poor and thought, "Well if you go to school, you'll make money! So the loans don't matter now. By the way, can you take out a little extra for..." I was not financial savvy enough (or strong mentally enough) to say no...

So basically I had way too much student loan debt for my degree, no plan on what I was going to do with it and no natural inclination to save. But at least I somehow knew not to get credit cards. I then took too long to start saving, but taking out all those extra loans, that was a real kick in the pants when I started to get my financial house in order.

I don't regret the other choices I made about college though. While I do not use my degree in the specific sense, it certainly put me ont he path to where I am today. I just wish I'd not taken out so much debt!

Anyways, back on topic my single worst financial decision was buying a $5k mattress.  5 grand!  For a mattress!  It didn't even end up being good for us but by the time we figured that out we were long past the return window.  This was in my pre-mustachian days and I totally got sucked into the marketing BS around the product thinking we were spending the extra money to get a really good quality product.  I still feel extremely stupid and borderline ragey every time I think about that damn mattress. 

It was a Sleep Number wasn't it? I have so many friends who tell basically this same story... ha!

[parkerk]

Anyways, back on topic my single worst financial decision was buying a $5k mattress.  5 grand!  For a mattress!  It didn't even end up being good for us but by the time we figured that out we were long past the return window.  This was in my pre-mustachian days and I totally got sucked into the marketing BS around the product thinking we were spending the extra money to get a really good quality product.  I still feel extremely stupid and borderline ragey every time I think about that damn mattress. 

It was a Sleep Number wasn't it? I have so many friends who tell basically this same story... ha!

Different product, but similar era - Tempur-pedic. And now everyone has a memory foam mattress available for super cheap which just adds even more insult to injury.

[RWD]

Anyways, back on topic my single worst financial decision was buying a $5k mattress.  5 grand!  For a mattress!

If only wasting $5k was your worst ever financial mistake you must be doing great!

[Cranky]

I am interested in the idea that a humanities degree is easier than a more practical degree. I took a wide variety of classes in college and I did not think that calculus and chemistry were *more difficult* than history, English, or Latin - just not terribly interesting to me. (Physics was the worst.) I later got an accounting degree and that was shockingly easy.

I’m feeling pretty good here, because I’ve made none of these mistakes. LOL Yeah, we could have made a lot more money, I’m sure, if that was our goal but it wasn’t.

[parkerk]

Anyways, back on topic my single worst financial decision was buying a $5k mattress.  5 grand!  For a mattress!

If only wasting $5k was your worst ever financial mistake you must be doing great!

Thank you!  It's true, I've been a little smart and a lot lucky.