Mistakes We've made
Posted on February 13, 2006 by Her and tagged carnivals, mistakes
We recently heard about the Mistakes Carnival, and we got inspired to have a good laugh at some of our dumber financial moments. Please, don't try these at home!
He took out a payday loan at like 200% interest...then locked his keys in his car in the parking lot and had to call her collect to come rescue him. Yes kids, it's true: She got a collect call from Check Into Cash.
She bought $500 Manolo Blahnik shoes because Sarah Jessica Parker said they were cool on Sex and the City.
She took out a student loan freshman year of college, right when she was learning about personal finance. She read somewhere that it's important to start investing young, so she invested $1,000 of her student loan money in a Roth IRA. Her rate of return over the last 6 years: around 1%. The interest rate on that student loan: around 9%, with a term of 30 years. We refuse to calculate the cost of this mistake!
She bought a $300 Hermes silk scarf on ebay as an "investment." As such, it's un-wearable.
He got a debt consolidation loan then maxed out his credit cards within 3 months.
He bought a surround sound stereo system for $250 -- then decided it wasn't cool enough. He sold it to an acquaintance for $100, and then bought another home-theatre-in-a-box system for $700. And spent another $200 for an additional subwoofer.
We're lucky we're not bankrupt.
Comments/Trackbacks
Trackback URL: http://www.makelovenotdebt.com/MT/mlnd-trackbacks.cgi/815
There are lots of people that think shoes and handbags are an investment, that's why there are so many japanese at gucci and lv on fifth avenure. You thought about ebaying off some of your stuff? You'll probably make back a lot of the money that you spent.
Trackback sent from MyMoneyBlog on Feb 15, 2006:
Wow, I am really, really impressed with the great quality and variety of submissions for this Reverse Carnival of Money Mistakes. Everything from everyday expenses to complete lifestyle overhauls is covered, and I'm sure everyone reading it can relate ...
Continue reading Reverse Carnival of Money Mistakes
Investing wisely | Feb 18, 2007
I'd have to say that even though you've only received a 1% return on your roth ira, it's still a great investment when you're young because of the tax free compounding it provides. As to what you're investing in that returns only 1% in the past 6 years, perhaps you should look into investing in the Index ETFs, like QQQQ or DJIA, which try to match the performance of both Nasdaq and Dow respectively.
Flexo | Feb 13, 2006
Well, if nothing else, I have to say I admire your guts for admitting all of that! :-)
Reply to this comment