My Biggest Money Mistakes...So Far 

For me, my biggest mistake is really not investing at a younger age. I’m sure most people would agree with that. You’re light years ahead of 99% of people.

My first financial blunder was buying a whole life insurance policy from a "friend" without really understanding it. I realized my mistake after researching it and got out.

Excellent video, thank you for sharing so openly. I have always saved, I’m 67 now and transitioning into part time work. We are very comfortable financially, a lot of it is due to my wife. She had a great job and is a saver. I have done ok, but I wish I had studied more on investing. I’ve always had an interest in finances, but I just didn’t put the effort into it I should have. One mistake stands out. We have an account with Edward Jones. A few years ago I consolidated most of my finances into that account. I don’t feel I have been well served by that decision. I don’t fully trust our advisor that he has anything other than his own best interest at heart. With our accounts combined now it would be difficult and problematic to change.

Hello from Texas! I made some of your mistakes too😭 Please thanks your husband for his service 🙏

While in the military. I rebuilt an old 1981 Chevy Camaro. Rebuilt the motor from a 350 to V8 377. New paint job. You name it, I did it. Standard transmission. $20k was spent on it only to have the car catch on fire.

Right we all made the same mistake or pretty close. From not investing enough or stopping investing to not shopping for a better rate. Keep up the great job you are doing! We all need your help to reminders to stay focus on the price. Your grandma was a very smart lady you were blessed to have her and guide you plus her support, awesome . Keep smiling!!

Bad relationships and not being financially educated until my 30's. It's worked out so far, so can't complain. Absolutely agree on learning from mistakes; I reflect on most major decisions to see what I could have done better and what I did well. Great video! :)

100% Agree on quality furniture. I have a 15 year old leather couch that cost $$$ when new. Been through 3 different sectionals in that time in the family room - all nice, but not quality.

Great content Erin. I am learning a lot from your videos. My blunder was buying a house that we couldn't afford. My wife and I struggled for many years to make ends meet and we had to leverage an equity line of credit to make ends meet. Eventually we refinanced the house to pay off the debt. It worked out OK in the log run, but for a while, we had a lot of debt.

Enjoy your videos and I have asked my early 20’s kids (2)to check your videos out. I’m positioned well and want them to go down a wise path early.

One of my many investment mistakes was buying Lehman common stocks, then holding it. I held on until the very end, when their own custodian took the penny stock off the OTC market, liquidating all my forsaken shares, converting it to cash that was equivalent to 0.03% of my original investment.

Marriage…..or at least ending a marriage was BY FAR my biggest financial mistake.

My biggest mistakes haven't been financial, but they've changed my ability to succeed financially.

I really liked this video. I think all of these thoughts were relatable in one way or another. The "buying too much stuff" really bothers me when I look at other people. I think living life is important, but buying everything you set eyes on is problematic. I think my largest money mistake was investing large amounts of my money in low return bonds for the first 6 years out of school.

Another great video, Erin. Thanks for being transparent. Everyone has their Achille’s heel; don’t beat yourself up about it. #1: Never walk into a store (of any kind) without a purpose, without first knowing what I want to buy. Never just “browse” to kill time. That’s how you kill a checking account! (And like you, buy clothes I don’t really need.) #2: Never pay sticker price on a new car, and NEVER buy insurance via the dealer. I learned this when I was young, stupid, in the military, and desperate to not have to rely on buses to get around. I was hammered good, but I learned from it. #3: Avoid paying with credit whenever possible; it’s far too easy to get in deep and spend more than you intended. The only thing good about this recession is that goods (other than food) are going to drop in price soon because few will have the money to purchase them. Like 2008, when the banks faltered. By this time next year, you will probably be able to have that $20,000 couch you mentioned for less than half that price, and they’ll probably throw in some other furniture too to sweeten the deal! #4: Always keep saving something, even if it’s less than what you normally save; even if it means going without a few luxuries like eating out, or buying anything that is not a necessity. Not only is it better to have the habit of saving (vs spending) in the short term, there will always (I have learned) be some sort of an ugly situation manifested at the least convenient time, and only a large chunk of money will take care of it. (I’m thinking ‘replace a sewer line’, 'medical expenses from a car accident’, 'flight and hotel costs for the family when a relative in another state passes away’…) But I learned this: inevitably, there will always be something.

Many of my money mistakes involve spending on family members- I’m somewhat frugal on myself but feel the need to spend more on spouse and child - expensive cars, toys, etc., had a couple tax planning mistakes too - I owed the IRS $20k one year - yikes - in hindsight wish we had rented out rather than sold our two townhomes

Great video Erin! A lot of the mistakes are also mine I must admit.But I feel in life we constantly juggle with living a life with wants rather than needs, and penny pinching knowing what it costs us 10 20 30 years down the road. If there is someone who abides by laws, and his or hers finances are everything that is achieved in life, it promotes isolation and weirdness from "normal" people and their part of dragging us to spend on wants. Yes, emotion is key player in making mistakes, but, it also reminds us that it is not just the brain that matters, we also have a heart.

Thank you for sharing! I've made some financial mistakes too. We sold a car years ago and ending up rolling in $10k of negative equity into the new vehicle. In hindsight I should have held onto the older car longer and we have spent too much on cars over the years too. Also I went most of my 20s with barely investing ( child care expenses , and following Dave's Ramsey's advice on paying down debt first) and I'm behind now I feel but making headway. Only $14k left in debt ( apart from the house) and almost out! Making good money moves now and will continue to do so going forward!

I used to buy all quality stuff. Then I moved to Thailand and sold everything I had (or gave it away). It was actually pretty liberating. My lifestyle reset has got me buying cheap stuff. Yes you have to replace it more often but here in Thailand stuff is REALLY cheap.

My worst mistakes. 1. Always way to much stuff that the stores are giving away. 2. Buying vacation property as an investment, 3. Having too many huge houses that don't make money. Other than that, I'm a blessed man. Get out of the things that don't perform financially and get rid of stuff that doesn't make money or make you happy

I've made my share of mistakes. Most of the mistakes I made were due to a lack of knowledge at the time, so I really can't beat myself up about them. I bought a whole life insurance policy. That mistake has been corrected. When it came time to buy a house, we bought the first house we were shown by the realtor. We were more excited that we learned we could afford a house of that caliber than we were about the house itself. We didn't over-buy, but it had some issues that we didn't take the time to catch and neither did the home inspector...evidently. I've pulled my money out of my investments during a downturn....and let it sit in cash holdings...for 7 years before getting back in the game. Ouch! Thanks for sharing about your sofa. I've noticed that I'm more of a functional person than an aesthetic-oriented one. My sofa is 10 years old. Its worn. I tend to be a 'if it isn't completely unusable, why replace it' kind of guy. I drive my cars until the engine or transmission go out. I rarely buy trendy things because others are buying them. I lput an emphasis on "how long will this last" when I buy something versus "how cool does this look." Your point about not negotiating your salary...I'm a guy and I'm later in my career. I've been the guy just happy to get an offer that never negotiates. Would you consider doing a video on how to negotiate salaries? After all, the more you earn, the less you spend, the more you can invest and make money work for you. Thanks for more great content. Have a great weekend!

Totally appreciate the comments about the tax bill. That happens to us just about every year and there doesn't seem to be anyway around it. I listen to all sorts of people talk about ways to avoid taxes and most of it's #$%!. Ultimately they are all just selling their own services, one more person trying to get inside my wallet. As for mistakes, when I was young I used credit cards. They gave them away when I was in college and it made living easy. It took me years to pay those off. Never again. I still have a credit card, and excellent credit, but it's not something I use to indulge myself with, it's just a tool for making payments. I wish I had learned not to be so self-indulgent. I was lucky, I was able to turn things around, that doesn't happen for everyone.

Excellent topic. I continue to learn the lesson of buying too much stuff. Better but still too much. I’ve learned and tried teaching my grown children that less is better in many situations. It is totally liberating by having less and not having to make decisions on what to wear. Being a minimalist comes in handy when traveling. I only take carry on luggage. Additionally being a minimalist is great when the money saved is applied to saving and investing.

I have been lucky with my mistakes. They all seemed to turn around in the end. I overpaid for a lake house that has ended up doubling in value. I invested 60% of my wife’s 401k in her company stock but luckily her company was bought out by a huge company and the stock rocketed in value. I will admit that I do have way too much stuff. My wife says I have two of everything and this morning at breakfast she said she was going to clean out her side of the closet so I would have more room for all of my new clothes. Yes, I am a spender and she is very frugal. I also have clothes with tags still on them. Now, on the good side…. Our couch is thirty years old and still looks good!

Excellent subject to tackle, especially for the benefit of younger people. The points about excess "stuff" and poor quality furniture I can definitely relate to. After living in Asia for nine years we came back and had to buy a bunch of furniture, and did so at a popular discount furniture chain. It was amazing how quickly it all started to look awful. Btw, being in New England, I think Jordans offers "good" quality furniture, lots of variety, for a fair price...a much better place to go. On the "stuff" point, so true. Once you get a little older you can't get rid of it and de-clutter your house fast enough, so the best advice is to just skip it entirely! Good one Erin!

To much money spent on drinking at bars, eating out, and car loans. Did not start to save for retirement until I was in my mid thirties. Did not pay off credit cards. Today my wife and I are debt free except for our mortgage and have a well stocked 401k’s. Retirement is just around the corner.

I wanted to warn you that with furniture higher prices don’t necessarily mean higher quality. That’s a myth. You do need to know exactly what you want and to look long and hard and in out of the way places. I furnished my home very cheaply, out of necessity, but made good choices. I have found that the best quality pieces I found were from small family owned businesses rather than the large, well known chain stores. I have two couches that I bought in a small shop for less than aud1000 (around us650) each. 23 years later they are still as good as new. Another good trick is misdirection. I bought a very pretty but very cheap wooden hall table, around $100. But then I put a Waterford crystal vase on top and now it looks expensive. It’s like wearing an inexpensive outfit and finishing it off with a designer bag, it works every time. Investing in good skincare is a good thing. It’s our biggest organ and needs to be well looked after just like the rest of our body.

I've made plenty of financial mistakes already. I bought a car I couldn't afford, and then I gave it to someone who wasn't trustworthy. I spent too much on an engagement ring. I used to buy too much food and wasted a lot of it. But as you say, we love and learn.

My furniture is "Early Miscellaneous". My clothes are so old and ratty that when I go out, people put a dollar in my hand. On the actively managed mutual funds I have left, all distributions are not reinvested. That is an easy way to slowly move away from active funds. I did tax loss harvesting to sell some of those mutual funds and buy more index ETFs.

Whiskey, beer, green, 20 grand in tattoos, motorcycles, floozies…..but I can’t really think of anything I’ve wasted money on 😎

for the managed mutual fund you could set it so the dividends and capital gains aren't reinvested and taken as cash so you can pay the tax bill on it. They always announce what the end of year capital gain distribution is about 1-2 months before.

I'm not a financial planner but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

3 words: credit card debt. When I was in my 20 and early 30s, I worked low wage jobs and got into the habit of using credit cards to cover costs. At first it was essentials, but then it grew to frivolous purchases. By the time I was 32 or 33, I had almost 20k in credit card debt and my credit was a mess. It took me until age 40 to clean it all up. Now I'm 53, debt free and well on my way to a comfortable retirement at 62. I can only imagine how much further along I'd be if I had good financial sense in those early days.

When my family moved to Michigan, we brought our dining room table and our piano, but I think the rest of the furniture was from people's driveways! Honestly, nothing matched very well, but it was often high quality!

Steve was nuts to not demand you come with him to buy a couch. One rule I have is if the wife is going to use it she needs to help pick it out. I had an 85K remodel done to our kitchen and I had her help with everything, and before I signed I told her she needed to sign a short note I wrote up that said, I will not blame my husband if anything does not come out perfectly the way you thought it would. She laughed but the contractor thought it was genius. Your Grandma sounds like a great person. Have a great weekend.

Dividends and capital gain distributions would have to be 133k to get a 20k tax bill (at a 15% federal tax rate). You would have to have millions to get that much distribution, or a terrible mutual fund that distributes a huge amount.

Hi Erin, great subject. One of my biggest regrets was only putting in the matching amount of 3% that my employer would contribute to my 401K. I should have put in 15% on my end from the beginning. But like you said, live and learn. And now my employer only matches less than 1% of what I put in 😳 And with you spending money on skin care, I gotta tell ya, don’t regret that, you are gorgeous! You could be a model if you wanted 😊 Have a blessed weekend 😊

Staying in a joint investment account with my grandma rather than her giving me the assets. When she had to go into a nursing home though medicare the federal government came in and took everything (even though I was paying the income tax on what it generated).

Re_ think brokerage accounts as a mistake...401k not the end all for wealth building...love your channel.

Few things are made to last anymore. I have had the same coffee table since 1966. Looks the same in photos year after year.

Great video. My biggest mistakes were not investing enough early on and making some knee jerk moves in my 401k trying to time the market.

I started fairly early with investing, but to fix the fact that l also went into debt, l took a loan from my retirement account...smh... big mistake. I tell anyone who mentions they are thinking of doing the same, that they should find another way and leave the retirement account alone!!!

Skin = fine!

Another great video Erin. Regardless of the "mistake" with your/Grandma's brokerage accounts, I am sure she'd be proud of you. As for your RI mortgage story, everywhere else in the world there are 6 Degrees of Separation. In RI, that number is probably closer to 2, which results in your broker saying "I've got a relative/friend/acquaintance who works in the mortgage field.........". That 2 Degrees of Separation in RI can sometimes be a curse, but it can also be a blessing. Enjoy your weekend.

Great video, thanks for sharing your lessons learned as painful as they were a great opportunity for all of us to learn. I do agree on the need to negotiating salary. It’s so important to negotiate going in as once you’re in less opportunity for a good salary bump in out years. One of my mistakes, of many, through my journey was emotion. I bought stock in a company that I felt very strong on, they had a technically superior product, however they did not execute well so market hammered them. I held onto this stock all the way into the ground since I knew they had a technically superior product. Again, emotion and ignoring the market… live and learn.

Everyone has their financial Achilles heal. First, live within your means, otherwise, find the balance between "future" you and "today" you.

My worst mistake was not understanding that I needed to do ROTH conversions while in the age sweet spot. 😂

We were saved from what would have been a major financial mistake when trying to buy our first house shortly after we were married. We were living in a depressed area back in 1982, and made an offer on an older 2 bedroom 1 bath home that was affordable ($30,000 back then). The offer was accepted and we were approved by the mortgage arm of the bank I worked at, and the rate was locked for 45 days: 15.875% for 30 years! Fortunately for us, the house failed inspection and by the time the seller got the foundation repaired, our lock expired and the interest rate had climbed to 19.25%, at which point I no longer qualified for the loan. A year later, I resigned from the bank and we moved across the state to another depressed area where we were able to rent a 3 bedroom apartment in a nice complex for just $265 per month and a year or so later bought our then 5 year old 4 bedroom split level house with 2 car garage for $61,500 assuming a 10% VA loan. We are still here, paid off the house 16 years ago (after repeated refi's reducing rate and term). So glad we missed out on the first attempt to buy a house! (Also, not sure why people are so freaked out about 7% mortgage rates?)

I guess my biggest money mistake, amount wise, was not locking in the rate of 2.6% on our mortgage back in nov 2021. When we closed on our new built home our rate was 4.1% 😐 i dont even want to know how much money we would have saved 😭

My biggest mistake was to buy last years hot managed mutual fund when I started investing. I got over that loss quickly then invested in index funds with a dollar cost averaging program.

Hey Erin, I would like to recommend that you make a video for people new to personal finance and investing. I have a friend who I would really love to send to your videos, but I don't see a video for beginners. Things you could cover would be budgeting, what retirement accounts are and what you're doing when you put money into your 401k, and why investing is important to do when you're young. This would be geared more toward someone who is just learning about investing and retirement, let alone FIRE.

Thoughts on IUL in your retirement portfolio?

Your grandma worked with you on investing!? She deserved a high-five. Sorry to hear about her passing.

Erin- ur skin looks great, never send hubby to do shopping, and thanks for military service.

Honestly, none of the mistakes I have made financially have been so terrible that I regret them. The biggest was probably taking out 50k in student loans. But I enjoyed my time in college and learned and paid off the loans in 2 years so it wasn't terrible. The reason I went out of state for software engineering was because I was sick of following my brother (who is just 1 year older) who went to the best in state school

My parents grew up during the depression. Dad’s family lost their home due to the downturn. My parents actively discouraged any investments. Unfortunately, I followed their advice until I was in my 40s. I wish I started sooner with stocks and mutual funds.

Real estate. From 2008 till January 2020 we owned 6 properties with a total of 12 apartment units in a nearby city. For the first 2 years it was going good then things went bad. We had constant problems with people not paying and causing damage. We tried to sell around 2014 but we were upside down. By 2020 we owed back taxes and water bills. In January 2020 we signed a contract that took them all off of our hands. We walked away $80K in debt but so relieved to be free from the nightmare. We got the debt paid off and with my other investments I am on track to retire next year. I will be 60.

12:45 not bitter or anything, right Erin? 🤣🤣 Tricare is second to none though

Now you can justify buying the clothes and skin care products to support your youtube business. 🙂 You can even deduct them as business expenses if you use them in your videos. 🙂 (Not tax advise, I'm not a CPA).

That 20k tax bill could’ve almost bought your 21k couch haha

I can't believe that the discrimination against using a bank outside Rhode Island isn't a lawsuit in the waiting?

I have 30+ year old Lazy Boy and a 60+ year old couch. They work great.. I guess😂. Your skin looks great, and that’s worth something! Do you ever think Index Funds will be in a bubble though?

Damn, if you had a $20K tax bill from the cap gain fund distribution you must be balling.

you can probably deduct both your clothes and skin care as expenses for your business. image is everything for your youtube business.

Don’t feel bad about your mortgage rate. My first mortgage rate in 1983 was 12.375%.

Your skin rocks!

I've spent 4k on tattoos in the first few months of my new job. I don't regret it but there are definitely people in my life that think I should 🤣. Jokes on them I'm dropping another 1-2k to finish out the sleeve in the next few months. I'm almost 24 and it's the only fun I've really had with money so I couldn't care less what other people think of it. Better than getting into massive car and house payments I can't afford I'd say!

It's like you're a unicorn. Good traits and no one is perfect. If you happen to have any like minded friends do send them my way!

As a kid what type of investment account did you have opened?

Are you saying Index and mutual funds should only be sitting in a Roth as opposed to like a Schwab brokerage account?

Gosh, Erin! I'm sure you understand now that "reinvested" is still income! The only time it's not, as you pointed out, is when the account is tax-advantaged, such as an IRA. Think of it as using your income to buy extra shares. Your income would still be subject to tax, regardless of what you bought with it. Still, I can understand the shock of a $20K tax bill! Yikes!

Time share. Just don't. It will NEVER be worth what they say and I promise you that you won't be able to do what they claim with it.

Guys can be just as bad with clothing. I have a love for buying fleece jackets from LLBean.

Funny that we all come to the same conclusions. Too much stuff! I remember moving to South Florida years ago and attending a small church there for the first time. The pastor’s sermon was on how we all have too much stuff. Thought the guy was talking directly to me and my family. On the emotion side, I watched my dad’s mistake during a market downturn in the 80’s. He jumped out and took a loss. By the time he got back in he had missed out on a sizable market increase. I have had my bouts with trying to time the market each time I did worse than if I had just stuck with dollar cost averaging. The key is to diversify as best one can and have a realistic view of the risk. People who haven’t served in the military don’t really understand that the sacrifices made aren’t limited to the members but also to their families. My wife suffered the same career stagnation. Took her a long time to learn that lesson.

Where are the bloopers? That’s half the reason I watch to the end lol.

Why has no one mentioned choosing the wrong life partner? That's a multi six figure one ....so I'm told!

First, your skin looks flawless. Second, let me flip your "mistake" of your brokerage account around. You made so much additional money that you had to pay $20,000 in taxes. What a terrible problem to have. Sorry, I couldn’t hold back the sarcasm there. The unexpected additional tax bill sucks, but ultimately you are still making money. So at least that should feel pretty good. I have two mistakes, I handed a conman thousands of dollars that I can do really nothing about because in the end the lawsuit would cost more than the money I handed this “contractor.” Second, I bet thousands more on a startup company that ultimately failed. I learned important lessons from both. First, some people can say all the right things, shake your hand, and lie to you face for money. Trust no one with your money unless you can vet them adequately. Second, even if the idea looks like a great one that doesn’t mean that enough people, especially those with deep pockets, will agree with you or the people that have the great idea can manage an idea into a marketable product and build a company to bring it to the market.

I'd need to create my own RU-vid channel to list mine. The first car loan I ever took out, '92, was at 27.5%!!! You read that correctly 🤣 My boss took me right to Eglin Federal Credit Union and helped me take that to 10%! Still high, but saved me $60 a month. When I was an E-4 and stationed in South Korea, circa '96, I'd float checks for 8/9 days because I was literally BROKE! When I got divorced (first marriage) in '02, I wanted to be done so I took on the $37,000 in credit card debt. I met my current wife in '05 and she said she's not marrying someone with that much debt! Needless to say I cleared that debt up 😂 I'm proof you can be an IDIOT for decades, but just one change in life can shift everything about you! For me that change was my wife! Now the two of us are doing extremely well and debt is something we don't have to worry about.

my biggest mistake was not to start saving aggressively before age 40.

You sent your husband to buy a couch? Good thing you do financial advice and not marriage advice.

the biggest mistake i ever made was spending £1.50 p on my mate.... screw u tony never again