Past $ mistakes....confession time
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Past $ mistakes....confession time
| Wed, 03-10-2010 - 2:15pm |
I know we've all done it, ME, more than once.
| Wed, 03-10-2010 - 2:15pm |
I know we've all done it, ME, more than once.
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Except for the last job I left, I cashed in my 401k from every other job as I left it.
I think our biggest mistakes over the years were:
*not knowing exactly what we wanted/needed
*buying the wrong things & trying to force them to work - leading to us buying the right thing later
*thinking that just because we could afford the payment that we could afford the "thing"
*NOT LOOKING AT THE BIG PICTURE!
If I had realized that by NOT buying so many things for the last decade that I could have my second house by now I would have spent very differently.
First Debt BUSTED 2/12/10
Second Debt BUSTED 2/26/10
Norma
I don't know how that one slipped my mind when I posted.
Norma
"Patience is the best remedy for every trouble"- Plautus
1) Well one mistake isn't really a mistake. I racked up about $35k in student loans going through University and my Masters. I did have some money saved, but my Dad used it to start a business when he and my mom separated. The idea was he was going to pay for my school and/or student loans after. He has done this so far, but if I move and he buys my house I am on my own. The total payment is $500 a month and I have about $28k owing still. Keeping in mind I ALSO worked two jobs throughout school so it wasn't like I was being lazy!
2) Making a calculation error that started this whole debt spiral. When I went from contract to permanent I didn't get paid for quite a while. This is the same time I bought my house. So I put things on CC's expecting to get paid "anytime". And when I did, I got paid for several backweeks. I miscalculated how much my take home would be (significantly) and starting buying other things for the house. Suddenly I have a few thousand on a card that I couldn't pay off, a sick cat and bam, 10k in CC debt! Ugh!
3) BUYING THE TRUCK. It was a good idea at the time IF I followed through on the grooming business, but after seeing all the work for such a small return, it was not something I wanted to do. SO
Bex -
My dh and I were just talking about this last night. We've made mistakes but the biggest one, the one we really regret is refinancing our house in 2004. We were 10 years into a 15 year mortgage. I still cannot believe we did it. But as was posted here, we did not look at the "big picture". We saw only an immediate need to pay our taxes (dh is self employed and did not pay quarters that year) and get rid of some cc debt. We only wanted to refinance our mortgage and HELOC that we had, but the company we went through made us roll all credit card debt in as well. That company is now out of business and there is a class action suit against them for their business practices, but really it was our fault for not seeing the big picture and just struggling a bit more and finding the money to pay the government. No one's fault really but our own.
But, oh, how I regret signing those papers!
#1 Mistake: Not contributing to 401k at all, nothing, until about 2.5 years ago at the age of 41
#2 Mistake:
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