When you were a kid, did you ever play the game of “If I had a million dollars, here’s how I would spend it”? Casual conversations would ensue with your friends about mansion with spiral staircases, gorgeous homes on the beach in Hawaii, private jets that would fly in and out of your backyard and the ranches you planned to own and fill with exotic animals. Little did we know at the time that it takes a lot more than a million dollars to own those things, and that it’s much harder to accumulate funds than to lose them.

In the spirit of having a realistic view of Money, Reddit users have recently been confessing the worst Financial mistakes they’ve ever made, and we thought it might be useful to pass along their knowledge, if it'll help any of you pandas avoid making the same mistakes. From plunging themselves into debt with student loans to trusting that their spouses would be wise with money, we’ve gathered some of the most painful mistakes down below. Keep reading to also find interviews with Reddit user The_guy321, who sparked this conversation in the first place, and financial advisor Michael Kitces to hear his thoughts on the topic.

Be sure to upvote any responses that hit home or that you’ll keep in mind for the future, and then feel free to share any financial faux pas that you’re guilty of in the comments below. Then, if you’re interested in checking out a Bored Panda article featuring tips that can help you save a little extra money, look no further than right here!

#1

43 years of buying and smoking cigarettes

Image credits: GrandpaKel

To hear what sparked this conversation in the first place, we reached out to Reddit user The_guy321. He told Bored Panda, "I recently have been focusing more on my financial health. I am nearly 38, and the weight of long term financial planning is setting in."

"I asked the question for two reasons. First, so I could learn from the collective mind that is Reddit on what to avoid. Second, entertainment value. Some of the answers had me laughing pretty good (hopefully with the commenter)." He added that, thankfully, he's never made any significant financial mistakes himself, but he does wish he had invested more earlier on.

#2

Becoming a doctor. At the end of the day, it’s just a job. It wasn’t worth flushing my 20’s down the drain and accumulating a mountain of debt for this. I’m (finally) in a good spot in life now, but I don’t think the sacrifices I made to get here were worth it. Even from a less self-centered point of view, I don’t really do that much good for others with this job. Modern medicine is so much better at dragging out death than it is at improving life, and I’m tired of being a part of it.

Image credits: LtDrowsy7788

We were also curious if The_guy321 learned anything from the responses to his post. "According to the comments, don't get married!" he shared. "I am too late to avoid that, but I have no complaints in making that decision."

He also shared a few tips for anyone who's recently made a financial faux pas or doesn't have the best track record managing their money. "Check out r/personalfinance on Reddit. Tons of great information and helpful people." Some of his top tips were, "Live within your means, avoid credit card debt, build up a 3-6 month emergency fund, then invest in index funds as early and as much as you can until you are nearing retirement age."

And if you make a mistake, don't beat yourself up about it. "Mistakes happen," The_guy321 told Bored Panda. "Learn from them, and move on. Dwelling on the negativity does no good."

#3

Didn't contribute to my 401k for like 15 years. what a doof.

CheesyComestibles added:

I just this year started a retirement account. Nobody taught me about this s**t. I'm 12 years into working. I could have had 12 years of gains, but instead got like 10 bucks interest in my savings account.

Why is money management not mandatory for high school graduation? I was taught nothing. I still know very little and trying to teach myself is like pulling teeth.

Image credits: orange_cuse

#4

Agreed to take over my ex gfs bills so that she could pay off her debts. 5 years and over $100,000 of my money later she was in more debt than when we started and cheating on me. Don't ever do this, just make her be an adult or dump her a*s. It's never worth it

Image credits: Stoneluthiery

We also reached out to financial advisor Michael Kitces to gain more insight on this topic from an expert. Michael was kind enough to open up about some of the financial mistakes he made in the past that he's not particularly proud of. "I think the highlight is probably in my college years, back in the 1990s," he told Bored Panda. "I had been an avid player of Magic: The Gathering (in its early days!), and had a lot of the really rare unique cards from the early years."

"In 1999, I sold my Magic collection for $2,000 (back then, that was a lot of money!), so that I could put it into an online brokerage account to become a day-trader (the tech stock boom of the 1990s had a day-trading phenomenon similar to the Robinhood era of today!). Within 12 months, I had lost all $2,000," Michael confessed. "Nearly 25 years later, Magic The Gathering remains incredibly popular, and I was able to recently estimate that the cards would be worth well over $50,000 if I had just kept them instead of trying to day-trade stocks."

#5

Getting married to the wrong partner.
People like to think about marriage as an emotional and physical commitment and tend to forget that it's a financial commitment as well.
If you get entangled with someone who has no clue how financial management works, you're in for a rollercoaster ride straight to hell.

#6

Bought a mobile home as a starter home. No one ever explained to me as a young adult the importance of investment and future planning. Mobile homes of course do not hold nor increase in value so you never build equity. It's akin to renting except you have to cover all your own repair costs too.
Terrible financial decision. Don't buy mobile homes kids. Just don't do it

Image credits: eatafetus632

If you've made some mistakes with your money, don't be too hard on yourself. Michael believes that this is an experience we all go through; sometimes, we just need to learn lessons the hard way. "This money stuff isn’t easy, it isn’t logical for a lot of us, and it has a lot of emotional ties," he told Bored Panda. "I don’t know how anyone will be able to fully learn how to overcome their impulses without some pain and hard lessons along the way."

"The faster/earlier we learn these lessons (the hard way), the more time we have to live a life with those lessons going forward! But the idea of 'you can have more wealth if only you didn’t make all those mistakes' may be literally true, but in practice, is an unrealistic idealistic dream. You can’t learn to build wealth without the learning that comes from mistakes along the way!"

#7

Timeshare. I went to the seminar for a three nights stay at a beach resort. They got me. Phenomenal salesman, but they lie out of their asses. Spent thousands over a few years, only used the timeshare once, paid a lawyer to get us out of the contract (basically a mortgage). Now we’re free!

Image credits: anon

#8

I co-signed a loan for my girlfriend at the time. I was 20 and in love. She bought the car, then put it in her mothers name, filled for bankruptcy, and went to live with the guy she was cheating on me with.

F**k you Christine. Thank you for teaching me at such a young age how s****y people actually are.

Michael also told Bored Panda that the two biggest mistakes he sees most often are, "Those who spend too much time worrying about what they’re spending without focusing enough on what they’re earning (it’s a lot easier to build wealth by learning to get a raise than trying to cut your expenses to the bone!), and making spending decisions based on the perceptions of others (the most self-destructive spending decisions I see are those who try to buy what other people buy [even if they can’t afford it themselves], or buying what you believe will make you look good in front of others [the 'keeping up with the Joneses' phenomenon]) instead of just trying to spend money on the things that bring you enjoyment. Marie-Kondo your spending!"

#9

Kept my money in a bank ($ 150,000) because they were offering high interest rates in a country with questionable economic condition where i lived at the time. The entire system crashed and i can't access my money since 2019 while the bank keeps charging me monthly fees, slowly draining my savings. Welcome to Lebanon.

Image credits: elieayoub

#10

Credit card debt. Finally paid everything off when we sold/bought our next house and made the promise to never carry any credit card debt. And we haven't.

Image credits: daphodil3000

And even after making some financial faux pas, Michael is confident that there's always time to bounce back. "Perhaps the greatest example to me is Warren Buffett," he told Bored Panda. "Warren’s net worth today is over $100 billion, making him one of the richest people in the world. But he was 60 years old before he ever became a billionaire in the first place; which means it took him 60 years to get the first $1B, and the past 30 years to get the other $99 billion."

"When you recognize that even one of the richest people in the world started his first business delivering newspapers at age 14, but accumulated 99% of his wealth only after he turned 60, it gives an appreciation of just how long it takes to build wealth (and how much we can make up for in the later years)!"

If you'd like to gain more financial wisdom from Michael, be sure to check out his website right here!

#11

Spending money on in-app purchases for mobile games. Bonuses, upgrades, special features…all so I can loose interest in the game a year later. It’s flushing money down the toilet.

#12

Took a job way up North in Canada. Quit my old job, got rid of tons of stuff, had my dad help sell my house, etc. This was in 2019/early 2020 just before COVID hit big. I ended up hating the job up North; it was terrible. Went back home, somehow managed to get my old job back, but my house is gone and I can’t afford a new one in the current market. Stupid, idiotic decision on my part, and it keeps me up at night. I hate where I am in life right now. Stupid big expensive mistake that I’ll regret for the rest of my life.

Image credits: SaulWellandGood

I sincerely hope all of you pandas are in a secure place financially, but if you're looking to save a little bit more or start spending more wisely in this new year, I'm sure you can gain some knowledge from the responses on this list. Keep upvoting the answers that might spare you or someone else from making the same mistakes, and let us know in the comments any other financial lessons you've had to learn the hard way. Then, if you're interested in checking out another Bored Panda article that might help you save some extra cash, you can find that right here!

#13

Big fat Indian wedding feeding nearly a 1000 judgmental semi-strangers I'll never hear from again!

#14

Going to college right out of high school. College is great if you know why you're there, but not for someone who isn't yet sure.

I can't speak for everyone but when I was fixing to graduate high school back in 2000-2001, everyone thought college was the next step because literally no one ever told us anything different. Parents, teachers, school guidance counselors, and the culture. EVERYTHING was about pushing kids into the college pipeline."

Wolfbeckett added:

I literally thought everyone working trades were living in poverty until I was in like my mid-twenties because no one ever brought it up unless it was to disparage the whole idea of working for a living.

Image credits: Common-Actuary-2982

#15

At the height of the pandemic, I had a pretty severe "hidden" mental breakdown due to the trauma of isolation/quarentine and general terror over the whole thing. Combined with my own long-standing battle with Bipolar Disorder, I wound up withdrawing €4,000 from my savings account and going on a massively impulsive shopping spree.

Initially I told myself that the money was for a PC/laptop upgrade but as my mental health tanked the further the quarentine went on, I just kept spending in a desperate bid to feel something other than the crushing terror and uncertainty, chasing the fleeting dopamine hits that come from impulse purchases.

That was nearly 3 years ago and I'm still trying my damndest to build up my savings again. I hope I ever have another breakdown that bad as it was so embarassing when I eventually told my parents the full extent of the spree.

To add insult to injury, I also got an ill-advised Mohawk so I was both broke and (semi) bald.

Nowadays I've grown my hair out but I'm still struggling to recover my savings. Squirelling a away a few bob each week and hoping for the best. Thankfully, I'm on better medication now but yeah, things were bad for a while.

Image credits: GothTheLife88

#16

As f**ked as it is, the financial expense is what got me to quit nicotine. I realized that I was spending $150 a month on disposable vapes and started comparing it to my other bills.

I was paying more for my unhealthy addiction than my car insurance, or my utilities. Kinda hard to justify when you look at it like that.

#17

Sold my signed Banksy prints for a couple of grand to fund a new kitchen. Saw the same prints a couple of years later selling for £80,000.

Blurgh. Just swallowed another mouthful of sick thinking about it (and they did a s**t job of the new kitchen floor).

Image credits: RobotGoatBoy

#18

Hate to admit it, but I got nailed by a crypto scam. So dumb.

Image credits: shoelessmarcelshell

#19

5 years ago I bought plane tickets for my ex to come and see me, he cancelled on me 3 days before saying his grandma was on her deathbed (she is currently still alive) I was 16 and I wasted 3 years worth of savings

Image credits: mangotangy

#20

When I turned 21, I gained full control over my inheritance account. It was how it was written in my grandparents will. At that time, it was only worth $15k.

It was the only time my financial advisor ever met with me. I said I wanted to invest all of it in AAPL.

I still remember the face he made in disgust. "Why would you want to invest in Apple?" I explained that I had just done a college paper on Steve Jobs and I truly believed that now that he was back in charge of the company, he'd turn the stock around. (valued around $1/share at the time, it has split many times since)

He convinced me to stay the course and keep the same investments my parents already had my brokerage invested in. At its peak, it grew to about $70k in value. (I still have the investment today). If I had invested in AAPL at that time like I wanted to, I'd have a cool 10M, and I could retire today.

Trust your gut people.

Image credits: taxable_efficiency

#21

Nearing the end of the dotcom boom (it hadn't busted yet) I had a about s**t ton of stock options to exercise. I was about to do it, when I heard that my Dad was entering the hospital for a cancer operation. I put the stock options exercise on hold for a week and went to be with my Dad (and Mom).

While my Dad was in the hospital, my company released an earnings warning and our stock price got annihilated. When I did eventually exercise my options, I was down about $1,000,000 from where I was before my Dad entered the hospital.

For the record, my Dad is OK. And if faced with the same situation I would make the same decision. It might have been a big *money* mistake, but it was not a mistake.

Image credits: khendron

#22

I paid for my ex-girlfriend's college tuition for three semesters as she 'just one semester left'-ed me for all three. That was AFTER she got a letter stating she was no longer eligible for the Pell Grant or further loans. So, the banks said, 'No more,' but I paid for another year and a half, while also paying all the household bills and supporting her kid.

We broke up, and she had the nerve to talk about what I supposedly OWE her.

#23

Student loans

Image credits: Fit_Obligation1594

#24

i went to america for 10 days to visit a buddy of mine. cost me a fortune and i arrived to find he had been absorbed into his new girlfriend and was not the guy who left. Anytime he was away from her he was miserable and didnt want to do anything when he was with her all they wanted to do was have sex so they tried to get rid of me. massive waste of money and the loss of a friendship

Image credits: EdwardJStoddard

#25

Not mine, but my dad's. He bought like $500 worth of collectable Star Trek dinner plates in the 80's thinking they'd be worth a ton of money in a few years. They're not.

Image credits: Theareyj

#26

I discover bitcoin very early: I bought 100 of them at 63 cents a piece.

Sold the whole bunch for 300 dollars.

Image credits: Abject-Student-2446

#27

thought i was just being a generous and kind person helping people out and never really expected them to pay me back. i was an IDIOT

#28

Sports betting losses have cost me about a year's salary

#29

When I was younger I invested in beer and parties. Payoff was very bad.

#30

Procrastination.

I have paid so many procrastination fees for late bills, and missed opportunities that the mind boggles.

#31

I invested $890 into a stock and it later became a little over 1.5 million dollars. I did not take the money out because I thought it would go up. I quit my job because I thought I was going to be rich. My stock crashed to worthless, I’m struggling to get by. I could’ve had a house, started a business. Now I have nothing

Image credits: ImmuneToTheCure

#32

Sold my MTG collection in 1998. Almost full power9, 40 revised duals, all the playable cards from beta, legends etc. Sold them for $1000 and bought booze and meth.

Would be able to pay for a house with those cards now.

Image credits: useLimhamn

#33

I was not good at checking my company email inbox, nothing important came through there anyway (we mostly used Slack). And that is how I missed the deadline for my company’s IPO. They offered us stock at $10 and it opened at $40.

Now I read my emails.

Image credits: BehindTrenches

#34

Spending all my student loan refund checks instead of saving those f*****s to, oh, I don't know - PAY OFF MY STUDENT LOANS.

Image credits: JanisRBoyes

#35

Bought a condo in July of 2007. The timing literally could not have been worse. Could have bought it for virtually half the price if I waited a year. Sold it just last year for less than I bought it (after inflation).

Image credits: wei_ping