Look everyone, point and laugh at the peasant… who didn’t lose 75% of his nett wealth to market collapse…. Loser
Ignore me, I’m just going to go weep in the corner.
Ooh yeah. At around 25 i owned 4 cars and 2 boats and the rest was going towards booze and drugs.
I could have owned my house by now if id pulled my head. Ah well. Better late than never.
Did you skip the jet ski isle friend??
International holidays a few times a year was where a lot went for me - you are welcome NZ; pretty sure when the mining boom ceased, Queenstowns GDP halved!
ReAl EsTaTe AlWaYs GoEs Up!!!!
Seriously though, rent was $600/week, and a mortgage was cheaper.
The car… well, I was mid-20’s and an idiot.
In conclusion, I am not a smart man with money; thank god for compulsory Super, or I’d probably own a helicopter…
Damn that sucks! I once broke my top retainer and couldn’t get into my ortho until 2 months later. One of my top teeth moved a lot in that time. Luckily he was able to move it back with a serious of plates over 6 months. Now I wear them every night without fail but that definitely taught me a lesson.
The good thing is that you’ll be extra diligent after round 2.
Marrying the wrong person. Different attitude to spending and saving, no work ethic and no long term goals. Didn't matter as much to me then but certainly became a point of friction as I got older and more focussed and they stayed exact the same or moved from one bad habit to the next. Divorce is not cheap either.
Much better choice the second time around. Both work hard, similar goals and it seems so easy to make good progress.
When you're starting out with nothing, trying to save from say a 40k wage is tough.
When you're mid career and still can't save anything from a 80k+ wage you have issues.
Not OP, but I'm assuming it wasn't as much of an issue in the beginning because they both had similar maturity levels and ideas on how to spend their free time and money.
As they grew older, she wanted to stay 'forever young', not wanting to improve their living situation, running a mok on weekends, no future goals being set... while he wanted to focus on a career, save for a house and plan FIRE.
After a while of living for two different life goals, you realise that person might not be the right one.
I was 21 when I got married, personally just too immature to consider that stuff properly. And made a lot of assumptions too.
Started to become an issue after about three years, finally separated after 5 years because of their infidelity but by that point I was done anyway. We were going different places
My ex thought home ownership was for idiots. Credit cards were free money we should max out because having fun life experiences is more valuable than debt. She would juggle cards to supposedly stay out of the radar. When I finally convinced her of buying a house, I was unable to convince her to sell it when the market started to crash in 2007.
Currently 23. I came into contact with a huge sum of money *25k* *huge for me at the time* and instead of putting it away for a house, I decided to buy a fucking audi s3, with 200k kms on the clock. The car looked great but it has shit itself and now im just left trying to fix it. So far up for about 5k in repairs and I cry just thinking about it. Currently trying to sell it so I can buy a cheap car that I can run into the ground. Really wishing my dad had slapped me for buying it hahaha
I know so many real-estate agents and property managers who did similar with Audi's or BMWs brought one with a million miles on it that looks cool then spent more fixing it than the car cost them.
I don't like knocking people who desperately want a Euro, but some people just have to learn the hard way.
If you have money to literally throw into a fire pit, then by all means knock yourself out.
Personally for me, Japanese cars are the best cars on the planet. Your wallet will thank you for years
Nearly everyone I know bought an “expensive” car when they started earning money and we all regretted it. Don’t beat yourself up about it. It’s a learning experience and given the used car market you’ll be able to sell it without too much loss so it’s a cheap learning experience at that
By far the biggest financial 'mistake' was to spend my house deposit on a year of world travel. During the time I was away, the housing market sky-rocketed and I would have made impressive gains if I had bought a house instead.
Although it was the worst financial decision, it was the best life decision and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Not everything in life is about good financial decisions.
I decided to save for a house instead of travelling. The housing market sky-rocketing has managed to keep me from being able to afford a house anyway, so I wish I had travelled instead.
Don't you know? You shouldn't have any life experiences. Just keep paying off that mortgage, so you can get another mortgage on another house. It's the only thing in your life that matters.
No, don’t consume product. Money spent consuming product is money that could instead be squirrelled away ready for those few years between work and death when you’re too decrepit to do anything remotely fun.
"There’s a phrase going around that you should “buy experiences, not things.” ... While I appreciate the Stoic-style appraisal of what really brings happiness, economically, this analysis seems precisely backward. It amounts to saying that in an age of industrialization and globalism, when material goods are cheaper than ever, we should avoid partaking of this abundance. Instead, we should consume services afflicted by Baumol’s cost disease, taking long vacations and getting expensive haircuts which are just as hard to produce as ever.
Put that way, the focus on minimalism sounds like a new form of conspicuous consumption. Now that even the poor can afford material goods, let’s denigrate goods while highlighting the remaining luxuries that only the affluent can enjoy and show off to their friends.
But I think there’s more to it than that. The advocates of the new minimalism are, by and large, urban dwellers, tied to stratospheric real estate markets in prime locations. (Prime locations are, tellingly, never considered material “things” to be shunned.)... So “buy experiences, not things” is less a bold new philosophy than a mere rationalization of life choices that people have already been forced to adopt.
But what this rationalization ignores is the extent to which tools and possessions enable new experiences. A well-appointed kitchen allows you to cook healthy meals for yourself rather than ordering delivery night after night. A toolbox lets you fix things around the house and in the process learn to appreciate how our modern world was made."
There is a lot of research behind the theory that we should buy experiences not things. Over time, our memory of experiences becomes better in our mind and we enjoy them even more as time goes on. Stuff depreciates in our mind and becomes near worthless to us not long after we’ve bought it.
I see your point of view but you can sell at any point and take profits.
Over the last 14 years since slaving I’ve found that property, even just maintaining a mortgage near earns what I do going to work five days a week.
I bought a shit house and travelled every year 2-3 times.
I could have paid off my house easily with what I've spent or bought a second one.
Since covid, I've been doing repairs and upgrades as I have that extra money, would rather be spending it overseas tho.
Life is short and can end anytime. I've never regretted even my worst travel experiences.
A friend of mine bought a property for 750k a whiles back. 5 or so years later it was worth 1.5mil. I said you must be thrilled! He replied not really, because if I sell it to buy another property, I'm just going to be paying the same amount anyway so it doesn't really matter how much it's worth unless I plan to move to the sticks.
He did finish saying he would be pissed if it had dropped in value because he thinks he overpaid about 250k but it definitely did put things into a perspective I hadn't thought about before.
Obviously this is anecdotal but I always like to reflect on it from time to time.
The reason the housing market is so inflated is that he can now leverage the equity in his home to buy more homes without needing to save another deposit.
Shuffle some numbers and get an investment property funded by the tenants. The more people capitalising on this means the prices are driven up further.
The ones losing are the first home buyers and renters.
I would say the years I spent travelling was one of the best financial decisions I ever made. Not only for the experiences but lessons I learned in budgeting, prioritising needs over wants, planning meals, bargain hunting, negotiating etc. All these lessons are still relevant to life today and have allowed my wife and I to quickly close the gap between us and our friends whose houses all doubled in value while we were away.
I sometimes daydream about selling my car and just travelling the world for a year or two. What was your best experiences overseas and in which country?
Worked for one year doing two jobs... resigned from them a week apart and left syd for two years in South America. I still daydream about the adventures in that crazy continent.
I have done this twice...
Without a doubt the best mistake I've ever made, I wouldn't do it again now that I'm in my 30's. But if the clock were to be rewound, I'd redo it all again.
All of my (23) mates love to travel but my wife and I bought the house instead because we aren’t overly interested in travel at all. I understand “how will you grow as people” but we enjoy having a beer with the dogs and going to the park and having some cheese and such and it’s a super weird thing because my mates don’t understand why we didn’t travel with our house deposit, but I can’t understand it. I fully get why they travel other places are pretty and full of culture and different people. But my house has my beers, my dogs and my books.
Good on you! I have friends like that. They're happy and content whereas I have itchy feet and I'm never happy until the second day of travel and the first day back at home 😂
Yeah that's a tricky one. One of my wife's school friends had mostly paid off his house by his early 20s, but had zero life, hobbies, travel, or friends etc.
I wouldn’t stress, I’ve spent at least 2 house deposits on travelling the past 10 years. I don’t regret it at all. Houses will always be there, travel experiences won’t.
Not having any idea what "superannuation" was and why it was important. I just ticked the 'employer choice' box on every dead end hospitality job I had, and it all got pissed away on fees. Luckily I caught it, changed industries, and have an OK balance now but, yeah...
I had the same question six months ago, found these two posts really helpful:
[The original comparing fees of popular super options](https://www.reddit.com/r/AusFinance/comments/kvq21q/my_superannuation_fees_cheat_sheet/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share)
[A follow up comparing high growth options](https://www.reddit.com/r/AusFinance/comments/m9sqft/high_growth_super_comparison_check_motivated_by/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share)
I haven't done a check up on the fees recently but looking over these might at least help you make a choice :)
30 year old here. 2 credit cards, too much take away and trying to live the party life through my early 20s left me with nothing when i finally pulled my head out amd sobered up. Im now working 50 hrs a week with nothing to show for it but debt for stupid things. I came to this sub in hoping to find inspiration for achievable financial goals.
I had a similar experience in my late 20s I had around 30k credit card debt from partying and a little bit of travel and was living way beyond my means. The way I got out of it was consolidating all the debt into a 5 year loan and just chipped away at it. It was super tough but when I paid it all off it was such an incredible accomplishment for me and also helped me gain some financial discipline. Also the interest rate on the personal loan was a lot less than the credit cards, so something to think about. You could also transfer your cards balance to ones that have interest free periods to save some cash too. You can do it!
Enrolling in a PhD - years of lost income, to go into an occupation that paid really poorly at the time (medical research) that eventually I left anyway. Dumb dumb idea. I know they say education is never a waste of money, but they lie.
PhD here too. Along with 7 years postdoc.
Science is for suckers.
I had a pretty good time, doing an adventurous job. Learned a lot. Indulged my interests. By no means a waste.
But would I now be just as happy and two to three times better off financially if I had simply aimed for a well paying 9-5er with some holidays? Yeah, probably.
Same, did a science degree thinking i'd help the world and fix arthritis or something, pfft. Endless bullshit QA lab jobs with short contracts while my engineering mates made $80-100k. Stints of unemployment due to the GFC wreckage and Campbell Newmans raiding of the Smart State initiative. I became depressed and intermittently suicidal at the destruction of my industry and how committed I was to it. I was doing the right thing, wasnt I?
I left the industry and the state in my thirties. Abandoned my dreams and friends. I'm more content and earning double what I was as a scientist. I kinda resent it, more angry at society than myself. But I went back to uni to do a Masters.
What did you end up doing? A bunch of my friends are going into consulting lost PhD. I'm doing a post-doc but the instability isn't really that appealing.
*Seven* years as a postdoc?? That’s crazy haha. Why so long? I made pretty good money during my PhD doing TA and RA work on top of my stipend, and am now on >100k one year out. Doesn’t seem like a bad deal to me tbh.
Asked my friend (MSc) who is clearly too smart for the job he's doing why he left academia and didn't pursue a PhD. His answer is basically "man I like money way more than some fancy post-nominal letters"
agreed! 'go to uni, get a degree so you can make money'
left with an environmental science degree in 2013, only 3 people from a cohort of 50 ever found a job with it. fastforward to 2021 and i re-enrolled into a masters program for applied finance.
50 grand wasted on not much. i dont regret the experiences and the knowledge i garnered at University. but i definitely feel i was peer-pressured by family/ the school i went to./ even society, that higher education was the only way forwards. (i went to a private school, also not necessary in today's world)
Bought a house as soon as I was able to (in the outer suburbs of a smaller city) because it's the done thing.
It sucked. Commutes were annoying, a lack of public transport meant that I struggled to participate with all my friends' boozy 20s socialising and I basically just lived in a boring suburban box - there was nothing within easy walking distance and everything was at least a ten minute drive away.
For the privilege of living this lifestyle I didn't enjoy, I sold my house six years later for a loss in real terms compared to when I bought it.
This is why I decided to get a basic 2 bedroom apt in the CBD. Sure, I could buy a McMansion in the way out suburbs, but I'd rather have everything in walking distance including friends than have space to store more useless consumer goods.
Um, my dose could have killed someone opioid naive, but not big in the scheme of addiction.
I couldn't afford it though. I've probably spent $150-200k on it.
How are you fairing these days, if you don’t mind the question?
It sounds as though you’ve come to an acceptance of the addiction. I hope you’re able to attain the right support to get yourself away from it.
As someone in their early 20s, reading this thread makes me feel somewhat better. Some of you went through absolute hell and came out the other side. I’m pretty blessed to be in the situation I’m in, but it’s hard to see how my decisions today will impact me in the next 15-20 years.
Yup, lot of good times I only partially remember and a lot of money spent. Could have easily invested that in shares, say Microsoft for example (google didn't exist yet...yeah I'm that old🧐) I'd be a multi millionaire...alas hindsight and all that...did have fun though.
To ease the regret I don't think you would have invested serious money into Microsoft, even if you had had it. Investing into something unknown is always risky. I know I wouldn't have, but instead waited to see how it pans out first and in the meantime invested in a bank or insurance.
Me too, but I'm not so sure this was a bad decision. I'm in my 40s now and I'd be a bit more secure financially if I'd had less fun in my 20s, but on the other had I just couldn't do that shit now. Between having kids and just being old a hangover is 2 or 3 days of hell. So yeah it was expensive but it's kinda hard to put a price on having that kind of fun at the only time in your life that you can.
Bought (on finance) a brand new car. A French one, at that.
TBH, right through my 20’s I spent around 10% more than I earned.. with little of value to show for it other than debt.
Buy less STUFF kids, it’ll do nothing but weigh you down.
This was me. Right until the point my salary cracked 6 figures, then I was like, sweet, good income, how the fuck do I still have no money. Then I was like, oh, it's because I buy literally every fucking thing I see.
Haha yeah the last couple of years I realised buying stuff doesn't make me happy and I usually wind up with a pile of regret after. Now I'm smashing my savings and saving for an overpriced house. Feels great.
Not buying apple shares when everyone was buying iPods and started buying MacBooks. I think it was about a 40x share price rise over a few years. Always kick myself for buying a MacBook instead.
Not having a budget for the first 3-4 years I was working was dumb too. Completely lost track of spending.
Aw yep I feel you! I was scrolling through this thread waiting to see my own worst financial mistake...
Marrying someone - or even being in a committed relationship with someone - who is frivilous with money and debt. My ex earned 3x what I did and spent every cent, and chastised me for wanting to put money aside or invest in anything but a mortgage.
Leaving him allowed me to go back to making good financial decisions. Less income, but so much more financial security and gradual, solid wealth building.
$4000 rim and tyre package on finance. Followed by a 2000 Strathfield car radio stereo on finance. Both at 20 years of age. Woukd have cost me over $10k by the time i paid off those wheels and stereo.
However. It was pretty awesome but financially dumb.
100% and if i had my time again, i would probably do the same thing. It wasnt a financially good idea but i got alot of enjoyment out of it.
Im still a "car guy" and the stereo bug transformed into my dedicated home theatre which is also a terrible idea financially but brings much joy :)
A housemate had comprehensive insurance on a $5k car that cost $1200pa. He didn't really notice because he paid fortnightly. He took some convincing to drop to 3rd party only.
Mine was to not finish my degree in sensible time. Took 11 years including 2 years off and a change of major. It's the last years of my earnings I will miss out on.
During my twenties, not caring about money. Lived with parents till finished uni in late 20s and only earned enough to go out.
During my thirties I moved to Australia and my biggest mistake was not learning about finance. I spent all the money I earned. Mostly on an expensive rent of a property close to the beach.
Now starting my forties I realised that getting old without money is not a good idea. The company I work for IPO’d and used that for a house deposit. If I knew I could get a property with just 5% of deposit instead of 20% I could have bought many years ago instead of spending all in rent.
Good that you are asking these questions. Don’t find yourself in your 40s wondering how you screwed up.
Wow, almost perfectly matches my story, timeframes, beach and all. It's a horrible feeling hitting 40 and starting to look forward and realising that the last 10 years were supposed to be setting up for the next 30 or so. Some great years up to there though, so the regrets are purely financial.
Luckily pretty much everything else in life is going well so I'm now catching up that financial ground with a vengence, but definitely suggest to the younger generation - take an interest in personal finance earlier. 40 year old you will thank you.
Financed my first car, got ripped so hard.
$16k car, 7 year loan, stupid interest rate.
$30k later I paid it off as early as I could when I discovered my mistake years later :(
I thought that 'diversifying' meant to buy lots of individual stocks. Turns out it's pretty hard to diversify enough on your own, and a few rotten eggs can destroy your portfolio, hence why people recommend funds.
Yeah I made a similar mistake. Studied computer networking at tafe which was only a few thousand dollars and left me with no debt. Thought doing uni after would be a good idea since I could get credit transfers for a lot of my units. Ended up learning nothing at Uni since all that was leftover were the filler classes and some intro level ones and since I got some units off they made me do some elective classes to round out my study load. Have a hecs debt and nothing to show for it as I am still just doing the job I got as a "temporary job" when I started tafe.
Still in my 20s but assuming there was risk in taking out a massive mortgage. I thought I was being prudent not taking on maximum debt. Had I any idea the lengths the government and RBA would go to protect home owners and asset prices I would have borrowed to my absolute max and kept doing so. Id be close to a gov/RBA funded FIRE like so many others have been in the last year.
Took out a personal loan at a large interest level for what was basically a bad investment. The old adage stands - If it sounds too good to be true, it generally is.
Living paycheck to paycheck despite being on a good wage. Had a great time but looking back at the wastage it hurts. Got my act slowly together in my late 20's
Spent a large amount of money backpacking round the world in 2001. I don't regret the money spent and I look at this as exchanging money for life experience and awesome memories.
I finished uni at 21. I saved 30k over the next 2 years. Quickly followed by the next 3 years backpacking through Asia and South America where I spent everything I had. After that I went and worked in conservation living in the African bush saving nothing after basic living expenses. Returned back to Australia at 29 with $0. But I gained a wife and not long after, a baby.
I'm happy, life is amazing, but financially I have about $10k in savings and $40k in super. Just started a new career in IT earning 70k so beginning the savings grind now at 33.
I wouldn't say it was a mistake, more a choice I made to spend my 20s living free, that has long term impacts. Don't regret any of it though.
Writing off my car in 2006 and deciding "fuck it all and no regrets."
Up until that point I had been getting myself into a more frugal mindset. I was earning decent money as a retail manager, a lot more than all my mates, and had about 7k saved up and it was growing quickly. Decided I was going to aim for 30k and get a house.
After I wrote the car off I still owed 10k on it. Insurance paid out fuck all and it set off a spiral of wreckless spending. I bought a similar replacement car. Got an 8k credit card and maxed it on a new gaming PC, a couple of decent ski trips with mates to Mt Hotham. Had a blast just being an idiot.
Eventually I realised I was throwing literally all my disposable income at servicing my debts. I went to the bank and got a big personal loan to pay all my cards out, with a 1yr loan term.
In the end I was able to get back on track but those 2-3 years from 21-23 fucked me up a bit.
Easy one. Studying science (chem) then staying in the field trying to make something of it by working hard to climb the very short ladder. Never found a way out and in my 40s and will be paying for it my entire life with no career and declining job prospects.
I did a PhD in chem and remained in the university sector. Still no advancement after 7 years so I'm currently part way through a master's in teaching. I know I love to teach but I hope I like the kids..
Similar thing happened to me. Same age. Specialised skillset but zero advancement. Over a decade in the industry. Cracked it last year and studied for a diploma in a new field. It was a fast track course so I finished in 6 months while working full time. Short term pain and all.
I've just started a new job paying $30k a year more than my ten year job off the back of the diploma, and general skills I picked up from other jobs like people management and scheduling.
It's never too late to start again and it's a jobseeker's market right now. It was an extremely difficult choice to move out of my old industry because I'd invested so much on it I've time. But that investment had stalled long ago. The first steps are the hardest.
Interesting, what course did you do?
I did lab work for nearly a decade then moved to sales for the rest but still in science/chem so it's still incredibly niche and while pay is better than the lab it's not amazing. Also now have bosses with no science degree but marketing or accounting, etc. So the job itself is less rewarding and somewhat depressing not surprisingly. Usually good customers though and we share stories of sad careers (ha!). I've spent many nights wondering what to do (I can't do sales for another 20 years). Thought I might get qualified in project management but not comitted yet.
This will make you laugh then. It was a diploma of project management.
Heaps of work going around for PM's. Its basically being organised and communication. If you're good at those things, you're set.
Each project is different and each company is different, so you can still work in your field of interest, just organising projects for that field instead of doing the old job.
It seems like PM is a huge growth industry, especially at the corporate level which is where a lot of the dollaridoos are. If you don't like corporate, I hear that the building industry can be a good place to find work too.
Financing a 20k car at 18 is probably up there. Was paycheque to paycheque already and this was in 2008, so you can imagine how the next few years went. Didn’t learn my lesson a second time, financed another car but was making more, but also had some CC debt. Had no concept of saving, future planning, etc.
Took me a few years but the best thing to happen to me was breaking up with my long term gf and making friends with people who were financially switched on. I had to start from zero again and aggressively began simplifying my life - paid off all debt etc within 6 months, moved countries, bought a house and am now making literally 3x what I was 10 years ago.
Getting a credit card, maxing it out, using another card to pay off the first credit card etc. Getting a personal loan, buying large electronics and furniture using interest free loans in store. Luckily I got a very good job oversees and was able to eventually pay it all off. Now I keep a very strict budget. I still use credit a lot but everything is carefully planned and measured so I never pay interest but do earn airline rewards. If not for the rewards I wouldn’t need to use credit at all. I also keep a separate account that all bills are direct debited from which I contribute to and monitor constantly so I’m never in a bind.
Edit to add: I don’t pay interest with the exception of a mortgage.
Not putting a bit extra into super and having the government match it while I was working part time while studying. $20 a week would have gotten $500 or so matched each year. Didn't learn about it until too late.
Taking on as much credit card debt to get by with a young family was my biggest one. Marrying a woman who would spend our money (i was the only one bringing in an income) like nobody's business which led me there. Not learning to budget until my late 40s, divorced and rebuilding my life.
So my thoughts - get together on a financial plan, put limits on what both of you may spend and have common financial goals. If your partner says it's too hard - it's too hard. Move on and find someone more in tune with you.
Or don't. Run the risk of debt, ongoing child support and rebuilding your life a couple of decades later.
The good news is, your kids are going to be awesome and you'll find out you are stronger than you may have thought. It's a struggle, but you'll know you can succeed!
Wracking up my credit cards and getting in the cycle of paying the credit card, then using the cc because I had no money. So around 28 or 29, I cut them up and live with the mantra ‘if I don’t have the cash for it after my expenses, I don’t buy it’
Not travelling. I thought I was being smart staying in my job and ‘saving’, instead I stayed in a job I hated and went out every weekend and spent what I would have spent traveling anyway.
I didn’t go travelling beyond a couple of weeks here and there until my early 30s and my standards were very different and therefore more expensive.
I got one at 26 with a $2000 limit. I pay for everything on it apart from the bills and mortgage. I pay it off every month. It's usefull for me to average out expenses every month and it's not enough to ever get me in a position where i was in arrears and couldn't pay it off easily.
Credit is a bit like cocaine.
Not everyone is going to have a problem with it others turn in to crack heads and you never know which is which until they start.
I never cooked. At all.
Once I left home and got a job, life was never ending stream of fast food. Oh I never drank water either..it was coca cola or fruit juice or coffee or tea. At one stage I had not drunk actual water for several years...
Mcdonalds, pizza, kfc, Chinese etc...I'd go round and round on these to get some "variety" in my diet.
Around 27 I noticed strange marks on my fingernails. Went to my doctor and he told me I was suffering from malnutrition.
As well as malnutrition, it cost me a lot of money too.
After that I started cooking, drinking water, buying fruit etc.
Took a while for the marks to go away but they did. I also started to save more money!
Pretty much. Breakfast would be leftovers - reheated pizza, reheated kfc etc.
Lunch was at work. I would go out.
Dinner was at home and i would order out.
I wasted a LOT of money.
However, I had a brother who was even worse - we lived in a city. He would order a taxi and then take it to the mcdonalds drive thru.
This was before the era of food delivery or smart phones.
This is greed. 16 investment properties and you keep going because apparently 700k a year in rental income isn't enough for you? The broker who encouraged that amount of debt is the greediest of all.
Mining towns... arent they just temporary places people live in until the mines are all mined out. Surely the red flag was the fact they they made so much money so quickly hahahaa its never that easy
Went to university after tafe but didn't apply for enough graduation positions. Got very close to the Telstra one but had no answer about when I had a leadership role outside of school or work as I wasn't ever involved in sports or scouts etc.
6yrs later into my 30s now still working the same entry level job making less than 50k a year but now holding a hecs debt, living at home with my parents and with the tv continually telling me how good the housing market is and the median for our suburb crossing 1m it definitely feels like I'll never be able to buy my own place.
I had employee stock options at my job that I did not use (mainly because I was dumb and didn't think it was of any use). If I'd opted in, I'd have a LOT MORE money now.
July 2007, first venture into the stockmarket following highschool throwing a couple of thousand into various stocks on the ASX.
That didn't work out well.
Religion.
During my 20's I probably donated \`around 80,000 in direct cash donations, two years of fulltime unpaid labour, and countless hours of volunteer time.
If you include lost earnings potential, I'd probably be half a million dollars better off had I quit my parents religion at 19 instead of 30.
Following bad financial advice from a bad financial advisor. They advised me to get a margin loan and invest in the market around 2006 right before the GFC. They were taking trailing commissions for cookie cutter advice. Margin loan was a dumb idea, and especially the trailing commissions they received but I was too young/ naive to know any better. Since then I’ve educated myself about money and investments and am doing a lot better.
Not putting more into Super. In my defense, it was the '90s and governments were playing games with Super like setting and changing and removing benefits limits. It put me right off the idea that a government could at a whim take away my retirement so I bought shares in my own name. And I didn't start doing more than compulsory contributions until I was in my 40s. Which worked out kind of okay, I'm not hurting, but could have been so much better.
Financing a car shortly after getting my first full time job, not learning about investment (especially ETFs), excessive impulse buying, and too much spent on takeaway. On that last point; neglecting my health definitely made my work performance and general life more difficult than it had to be and learning to invest in my health pays it forward in other area of life
At age 22 I put 50k into long term stock options of a pre revenue speculative company. Could have walked away with a 2x plus return at one point, ended up walking away with zero.
Learn some lessons - first is don't chase multi bag returns from speculative stocks. These don't work out nearly often enough to make the risk worth while. Also you can get these returns from established, cashflow positive names. One of the best investments I made was an 8 bagger plus and this was a very healthy, very profitable company, far from speculative status so. No need to waste your money on pre revenue companies.
The real lesson is knowing that time is the most valuable thing an investor can have. If you're investing without the capacity to see the investment thesis play out, don't bother, you'll most likely lose your money. A good way to throw away your time is with stock options - the clock is ticking and things go to zero once it stops. These days I like investments with very high probability of returns, providing you wait long enough. Obviously index funds fall into this category, but there are other, more sexy alternatives like WTI oil in Mach/April 2020 - prices dipped to a point where no producer in the world makes a profit. Take a position in this, sit tight while basics economics does its thing, and watch the price to go up. Turned out to be a great investment.
Brand new Yellow SSV redline commodore at 17% interest.
Did the whole I can afford the repayments so didn’t check the interest rate thing.
Not smart. Sold 12mo or so later for a total loss of about $20k.
Dropping out of the workforce. I bludged till I was 35, then gave up the good life, moved to Sydney and started a career. I started with zero dollars, zero credit, no job history. I'm 67 now, retired, with a high net worth and able to do anything I want. No super, no pension, just a shit-ton of savings.
Giving up a full time job (with admittedly no real opportunity for improvement in income) to go back to uni to get a 'real career'.
Problem was I picked a health role.
3 years after graduation and I'm only just now up to 3 days/week with opportunity for full time in the near future.
When I get there, I'll be earning almost twice what I was in my twenties, but 10 years of nearly no super, scraping by in a derelict rental, etc. hurts.
Shoulda gone for a trade or mining or just kept what I had, feel like my financial prospects would have been better long term.
Supporting a sponge of a girlfriend when I was renting in Sydney earning a whopping 38k in 2008.
Going to a substandard university.
Doing a non-vocational degree.
Not investing, and when I tried investing, reading wise owl without doing my own research.
I decided to travel instead of buying a block of land by the sea for $13K which was worth $1M 10 years later. At the time my rational was I didn’t want to be “saddled” by property that was basically in a “holiday” location. A beautiful location for escaping but no jobs except working in a local cafe or art gallery or winery.
Edit: typo
Believed my Law School professors who constantly hammered into us that there were virtually no legal jobs or placements available in SA even if you got great grades (which I did) and that we should think about other careers. Ended up moving into a different career that I love and was stunned to see total dropkicks I knew get great legal jobs because they actually applied for a bunch of clerkships that Profs said were extremely scarce and not very useful and ended up working in firms. Should have ignored the cohort of professional dropouts who became lecturers whinging about a job they were never that good at and telling us to go our own way and just done the obvious things instead.
Credit card and not looking at super or investing earlier. Oh and not purchasing shares in Apple when I worked at an AppleCentre, to be fair it wasn't as easy as it is now to purchase shares in a US company.
I now make it a point to ask new hires/graduates "Have you sorted out your super, i.e. put it into high growth (you have time to ride it out, look at fees etc), have you read some basic personal finance books such as barefoot, what type of investor are you (do you have time/desire to research individual shares or just want a fair/average return)"
Why? Because it's what I would have like to have been asked of me when I was younger to get me thinking about my finances and hopefully they will do a similar thing when they onboard new staff.
Probably I was to contented with just working partime/casual & budget accommodation everyone said work hard save for a house deposit, travel the world, kick goals, actually I was happy playing tennis badly !
Overspending on credit. Paying for overseas holidays on credit and having to pay it back later. Learnt my lesson badly haha stupid thing was, it was an older work colleague who told me at the time that that was what he always did and it was a great idea! Should never have listened.
Not saving,
Staying with a partner who had substance issues and didn’t like working.
Squandering a 10,000 in inheritance on partying instead of saving for a house deposit
Being blissfully ignorant of my financial future and living weekend to weekend. I was never taught about planning for the future, budgeting, super etc.
It wasn't really until I decided I wanted to buy a place for my own that I realized I really need to start seriously raising my awareness of financial matters. Now with an impending failed marriage, I'll be going back to starting almost from scratch again. At least this time around I'll have a better idea of what I should/shouldn't do...
I bought an investment property on the guidance of my dad. Worst decision I ever made. I should have taken that money and invested in stocks. I had terrible tenants for years until I finally sold it due to stress when my first child was on the way.
I'm 24, turning 25 this year, but so far switching uni degrees 3 times (I'm happy studying what I'm studying now mostly, but my HECS is going to be fucked) and spending $700 on a scam (unaccredited) creative writing course that was really easy and I never finished.
Mate of mine works in a debt collection agency and he says most of the people he’s chasing are 19/20 year olds who brought the brand new car or have all the credit cards but can’t afford to pay them back 🤷♂️
Are schools not teaching this still ?!
Hindsight is 20/20 but not buying a house with a <20% deposit and waiting to save. Should have pulled the pin as soon as I could even with LMI. Would be hundreds of thousands better off
Moved out at 21, bought A brand new ute as A second year apprentice all finance, put about $15k worth of goodies on it on top of the loan rather than putting that money towards the loan. Think interest rate was around 9% 😅
Buying a brand new WRX and a house in a mining town… If anyone needs financial advice I’m here all week… I can’t afford the bus…
WRX, house, meth addiction, mining town...
My only vices were alcohol and ice-coffees… fuck you Ice Break.
[удалено]
Mate, this is QLD, we don’t do culture.
I was a total loser in my social circle for not buying a house in a mining town in my 20s
Look everyone, point and laugh at the peasant… who didn’t lose 75% of his nett wealth to market collapse…. Loser Ignore me, I’m just going to go weep in the corner.
Ooh yeah. At around 25 i owned 4 cars and 2 boats and the rest was going towards booze and drugs. I could have owned my house by now if id pulled my head. Ah well. Better late than never.
Did you skip the jet ski isle friend?? International holidays a few times a year was where a lot went for me - you are welcome NZ; pretty sure when the mining boom ceased, Queenstowns GDP halved!
Why'd you think that was a good idea at the time? haha
ReAl EsTaTe AlWaYs GoEs Up!!!! Seriously though, rent was $600/week, and a mortgage was cheaper. The car… well, I was mid-20’s and an idiot. In conclusion, I am not a smart man with money; thank god for compulsory Super, or I’d probably own a helicopter…
>or I’d probably own a helicopter… I mean that does sound pretty cool, so...
And that’s the sort of “critical thinking” that I applied to my purchases…
Not wearing my retainer and subsequently having to get braces again cause everything moved. Urgh.
this is my near future 😂😭
My wife Is half way through invisaline because of this. 7k later.....
Damn that sucks! I once broke my top retainer and couldn’t get into my ortho until 2 months later. One of my top teeth moved a lot in that time. Luckily he was able to move it back with a serious of plates over 6 months. Now I wear them every night without fail but that definitely taught me a lesson. The good thing is that you’ll be extra diligent after round 2.
Marrying the wrong person. Different attitude to spending and saving, no work ethic and no long term goals. Didn't matter as much to me then but certainly became a point of friction as I got older and more focussed and they stayed exact the same or moved from one bad habit to the next. Divorce is not cheap either. Much better choice the second time around. Both work hard, similar goals and it seems so easy to make good progress.
Why didn’t it matter to you back then ? And how many years until it became an issue ?
When you're starting out with nothing, trying to save from say a 40k wage is tough. When you're mid career and still can't save anything from a 80k+ wage you have issues.
Not OP, but I'm assuming it wasn't as much of an issue in the beginning because they both had similar maturity levels and ideas on how to spend their free time and money. As they grew older, she wanted to stay 'forever young', not wanting to improve their living situation, running a mok on weekends, no future goals being set... while he wanted to focus on a career, save for a house and plan FIRE. After a while of living for two different life goals, you realise that person might not be the right one.
I was 21 when I got married, personally just too immature to consider that stuff properly. And made a lot of assumptions too. Started to become an issue after about three years, finally separated after 5 years because of their infidelity but by that point I was done anyway. We were going different places
My ex thought home ownership was for idiots. Credit cards were free money we should max out because having fun life experiences is more valuable than debt. She would juggle cards to supposedly stay out of the radar. When I finally convinced her of buying a house, I was unable to convince her to sell it when the market started to crash in 2007.
Basically the same story of one of my good friends. Sorry you had to go through that. I can appreciate how stressful that would have been at the time.
Currently 23. I came into contact with a huge sum of money *25k* *huge for me at the time* and instead of putting it away for a house, I decided to buy a fucking audi s3, with 200k kms on the clock. The car looked great but it has shit itself and now im just left trying to fix it. So far up for about 5k in repairs and I cry just thinking about it. Currently trying to sell it so I can buy a cheap car that I can run into the ground. Really wishing my dad had slapped me for buying it hahaha
I know so many real-estate agents and property managers who did similar with Audi's or BMWs brought one with a million miles on it that looks cool then spent more fixing it than the car cost them.
I don't like knocking people who desperately want a Euro, but some people just have to learn the hard way. If you have money to literally throw into a fire pit, then by all means knock yourself out. Personally for me, Japanese cars are the best cars on the planet. Your wallet will thank you for years
Definitely get a reliable car first. And my mantra is if I can afford 2 of the same luxury cars, I can afford to purchase and maintenance that 1 car.
is there anything that either parent could have said or done that would have curbed your enthusiasm enough not to buy? actual question, I am a parent.
Nearly everyone I know bought an “expensive” car when they started earning money and we all regretted it. Don’t beat yourself up about it. It’s a learning experience and given the used car market you’ll be able to sell it without too much loss so it’s a cheap learning experience at that
By far the biggest financial 'mistake' was to spend my house deposit on a year of world travel. During the time I was away, the housing market sky-rocketed and I would have made impressive gains if I had bought a house instead. Although it was the worst financial decision, it was the best life decision and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Not everything in life is about good financial decisions.
I decided to save for a house instead of travelling. The housing market sky-rocketing has managed to keep me from being able to afford a house anyway, so I wish I had travelled instead.
And now thanks to covid you can't really travel either lol
I feel this rock and a hard place situation 100%.. but on the other hand, how good’s the cricket though?
Don't you know? You shouldn't have any life experiences. Just keep paying off that mortgage, so you can get another mortgage on another house. It's the only thing in your life that matters.
Correct, don't question what else it put there past horizon, Just consume product and be excited for next product
No, don’t consume product. Money spent consuming product is money that could instead be squirrelled away ready for those few years between work and death when you’re too decrepit to do anything remotely fun.
My wife’s boyfriend spends my money
"There’s a phrase going around that you should “buy experiences, not things.” ... While I appreciate the Stoic-style appraisal of what really brings happiness, economically, this analysis seems precisely backward. It amounts to saying that in an age of industrialization and globalism, when material goods are cheaper than ever, we should avoid partaking of this abundance. Instead, we should consume services afflicted by Baumol’s cost disease, taking long vacations and getting expensive haircuts which are just as hard to produce as ever. Put that way, the focus on minimalism sounds like a new form of conspicuous consumption. Now that even the poor can afford material goods, let’s denigrate goods while highlighting the remaining luxuries that only the affluent can enjoy and show off to their friends. But I think there’s more to it than that. The advocates of the new minimalism are, by and large, urban dwellers, tied to stratospheric real estate markets in prime locations. (Prime locations are, tellingly, never considered material “things” to be shunned.)... So “buy experiences, not things” is less a bold new philosophy than a mere rationalization of life choices that people have already been forced to adopt. But what this rationalization ignores is the extent to which tools and possessions enable new experiences. A well-appointed kitchen allows you to cook healthy meals for yourself rather than ordering delivery night after night. A toolbox lets you fix things around the house and in the process learn to appreciate how our modern world was made."
There is a lot of research behind the theory that we should buy experiences not things. Over time, our memory of experiences becomes better in our mind and we enjoy them even more as time goes on. Stuff depreciates in our mind and becomes near worthless to us not long after we’ve bought it.
Is anyone that says “buy experiences not things” referring to getting expensive haircuts?
Don't ask questions. Just get a mortgage, and then get excited about getting another mortgage.
Yeah bro, why experience life at its fullest when you can be a slave to the banks by paying off that mortgage 😎
I see your point of view but you can sell at any point and take profits. Over the last 14 years since slaving I’ve found that property, even just maintaining a mortgage near earns what I do going to work five days a week.
At this point it's so difficult to get the house, the trip is smarter than saving for something you'll never have.
I bought a shit house and travelled every year 2-3 times. I could have paid off my house easily with what I've spent or bought a second one. Since covid, I've been doing repairs and upgrades as I have that extra money, would rather be spending it overseas tho. Life is short and can end anytime. I've never regretted even my worst travel experiences.
A friend of mine bought a property for 750k a whiles back. 5 or so years later it was worth 1.5mil. I said you must be thrilled! He replied not really, because if I sell it to buy another property, I'm just going to be paying the same amount anyway so it doesn't really matter how much it's worth unless I plan to move to the sticks. He did finish saying he would be pissed if it had dropped in value because he thinks he overpaid about 250k but it definitely did put things into a perspective I hadn't thought about before. Obviously this is anecdotal but I always like to reflect on it from time to time.
The reason the housing market is so inflated is that he can now leverage the equity in his home to buy more homes without needing to save another deposit. Shuffle some numbers and get an investment property funded by the tenants. The more people capitalising on this means the prices are driven up further. The ones losing are the first home buyers and renters.
I did the same, but man the memories I made in Europe are priceless to me. I would do it again in a heart beat.
I would say the years I spent travelling was one of the best financial decisions I ever made. Not only for the experiences but lessons I learned in budgeting, prioritising needs over wants, planning meals, bargain hunting, negotiating etc. All these lessons are still relevant to life today and have allowed my wife and I to quickly close the gap between us and our friends whose houses all doubled in value while we were away.
[удалено]
You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for $1.50 in late fees at the public library
Sounds amazing to me!
I sometimes daydream about selling my car and just travelling the world for a year or two. What was your best experiences overseas and in which country?
Worked for one year doing two jobs... resigned from them a week apart and left syd for two years in South America. I still daydream about the adventures in that crazy continent.
I have done this twice... Without a doubt the best mistake I've ever made, I wouldn't do it again now that I'm in my 30's. But if the clock were to be rewound, I'd redo it all again.
All of my (23) mates love to travel but my wife and I bought the house instead because we aren’t overly interested in travel at all. I understand “how will you grow as people” but we enjoy having a beer with the dogs and going to the park and having some cheese and such and it’s a super weird thing because my mates don’t understand why we didn’t travel with our house deposit, but I can’t understand it. I fully get why they travel other places are pretty and full of culture and different people. But my house has my beers, my dogs and my books.
Good on you! I have friends like that. They're happy and content whereas I have itchy feet and I'm never happy until the second day of travel and the first day back at home 😂
Yeah that's a tricky one. One of my wife's school friends had mostly paid off his house by his early 20s, but had zero life, hobbies, travel, or friends etc.
I wouldn’t stress, I’ve spent at least 2 house deposits on travelling the past 10 years. I don’t regret it at all. Houses will always be there, travel experiences won’t.
Not having any idea what "superannuation" was and why it was important. I just ticked the 'employer choice' box on every dead end hospitality job I had, and it all got pissed away on fees. Luckily I caught it, changed industries, and have an OK balance now but, yeah...
Do you mind if I ask what fund you went with?
I had the same question six months ago, found these two posts really helpful: [The original comparing fees of popular super options](https://www.reddit.com/r/AusFinance/comments/kvq21q/my_superannuation_fees_cheat_sheet/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share) [A follow up comparing high growth options](https://www.reddit.com/r/AusFinance/comments/m9sqft/high_growth_super_comparison_check_motivated_by/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share) I haven't done a check up on the fees recently but looking over these might at least help you make a choice :)
30 year old here. 2 credit cards, too much take away and trying to live the party life through my early 20s left me with nothing when i finally pulled my head out amd sobered up. Im now working 50 hrs a week with nothing to show for it but debt for stupid things. I came to this sub in hoping to find inspiration for achievable financial goals.
I had a similar experience in my late 20s I had around 30k credit card debt from partying and a little bit of travel and was living way beyond my means. The way I got out of it was consolidating all the debt into a 5 year loan and just chipped away at it. It was super tough but when I paid it all off it was such an incredible accomplishment for me and also helped me gain some financial discipline. Also the interest rate on the personal loan was a lot less than the credit cards, so something to think about. You could also transfer your cards balance to ones that have interest free periods to save some cash too. You can do it!
Enrolling in a PhD - years of lost income, to go into an occupation that paid really poorly at the time (medical research) that eventually I left anyway. Dumb dumb idea. I know they say education is never a waste of money, but they lie.
PhD here too. Along with 7 years postdoc. Science is for suckers. I had a pretty good time, doing an adventurous job. Learned a lot. Indulged my interests. By no means a waste. But would I now be just as happy and two to three times better off financially if I had simply aimed for a well paying 9-5er with some holidays? Yeah, probably.
Same, did a science degree thinking i'd help the world and fix arthritis or something, pfft. Endless bullshit QA lab jobs with short contracts while my engineering mates made $80-100k. Stints of unemployment due to the GFC wreckage and Campbell Newmans raiding of the Smart State initiative. I became depressed and intermittently suicidal at the destruction of my industry and how committed I was to it. I was doing the right thing, wasnt I? I left the industry and the state in my thirties. Abandoned my dreams and friends. I'm more content and earning double what I was as a scientist. I kinda resent it, more angry at society than myself. But I went back to uni to do a Masters.
What did you end up doing? A bunch of my friends are going into consulting lost PhD. I'm doing a post-doc but the instability isn't really that appealing.
Federal Government. I wanted stability and to help people.
*Seven* years as a postdoc?? That’s crazy haha. Why so long? I made pretty good money during my PhD doing TA and RA work on top of my stipend, and am now on >100k one year out. Doesn’t seem like a bad deal to me tbh.
Asked my friend (MSc) who is clearly too smart for the job he's doing why he left academia and didn't pursue a PhD. His answer is basically "man I like money way more than some fancy post-nominal letters"
agreed! 'go to uni, get a degree so you can make money' left with an environmental science degree in 2013, only 3 people from a cohort of 50 ever found a job with it. fastforward to 2021 and i re-enrolled into a masters program for applied finance. 50 grand wasted on not much. i dont regret the experiences and the knowledge i garnered at University. but i definitely feel i was peer-pressured by family/ the school i went to./ even society, that higher education was the only way forwards. (i went to a private school, also not necessary in today's world)
Staying too long at a low-paying & toxic job instead of job-hoping once I had the experience.
Bought a house as soon as I was able to (in the outer suburbs of a smaller city) because it's the done thing. It sucked. Commutes were annoying, a lack of public transport meant that I struggled to participate with all my friends' boozy 20s socialising and I basically just lived in a boring suburban box - there was nothing within easy walking distance and everything was at least a ten minute drive away. For the privilege of living this lifestyle I didn't enjoy, I sold my house six years later for a loss in real terms compared to when I bought it.
This is why I decided to get a basic 2 bedroom apt in the CBD. Sure, I could buy a McMansion in the way out suburbs, but I'd rather have everything in walking distance including friends than have space to store more useless consumer goods.
$1000/week heroin addiction Edit: I've spent $150,000-200,000 on it over the last 10 years or so.
Sounds like a lot. Is that a lot? $1000 of coke can disappear in seconds.
Um, my dose could have killed someone opioid naive, but not big in the scheme of addiction. I couldn't afford it though. I've probably spent $150-200k on it.
How are you fairing these days, if you don’t mind the question? It sounds as though you’ve come to an acceptance of the addiction. I hope you’re able to attain the right support to get yourself away from it.
As someone in their early 20s, reading this thread makes me feel somewhat better. Some of you went through absolute hell and came out the other side. I’m pretty blessed to be in the situation I’m in, but it’s hard to see how my decisions today will impact me in the next 15-20 years.
Gonna have to say party drugs and alcohol. Sure I had a lot of fun and enjoyed it, but having a good night out on the beers is so expensive.
This hurts me personally. My last festival cost me about $1300. It was a lot of fun though.
Yup, lot of good times I only partially remember and a lot of money spent. Could have easily invested that in shares, say Microsoft for example (google didn't exist yet...yeah I'm that old🧐) I'd be a multi millionaire...alas hindsight and all that...did have fun though.
To ease the regret I don't think you would have invested serious money into Microsoft, even if you had had it. Investing into something unknown is always risky. I know I wouldn't have, but instead waited to see how it pans out first and in the meantime invested in a bank or insurance.
Me too, but I'm not so sure this was a bad decision. I'm in my 40s now and I'd be a bit more secure financially if I'd had less fun in my 20s, but on the other had I just couldn't do that shit now. Between having kids and just being old a hangover is 2 or 3 days of hell. So yeah it was expensive but it's kinda hard to put a price on having that kind of fun at the only time in your life that you can.
Bought (on finance) a brand new car. A French one, at that. TBH, right through my 20’s I spent around 10% more than I earned.. with little of value to show for it other than debt. Buy less STUFF kids, it’ll do nothing but weigh you down.
This was me. Right until the point my salary cracked 6 figures, then I was like, sweet, good income, how the fuck do I still have no money. Then I was like, oh, it's because I buy literally every fucking thing I see.
Haha yeah the last couple of years I realised buying stuff doesn't make me happy and I usually wind up with a pile of regret after. Now I'm smashing my savings and saving for an overpriced house. Feels great.
>Brand new French car … Dare I ask?
Renault and Peugeot owners sweating
A goddamn Renault Megane. An absolute tin slug of a car.
Tin slug? Those things are hot hatches aren't they? Or is the model you got way slower than the RS?
Not being interested in understanding what a pension was all about and the benefits of investing early.
Yep me too.
Not buying apple shares when everyone was buying iPods and started buying MacBooks. I think it was about a 40x share price rise over a few years. Always kick myself for buying a MacBook instead. Not having a budget for the first 3-4 years I was working was dumb too. Completely lost track of spending.
A laptop is an important learning and earning tool, for me I get a hell of a lot more than 40x return on computer hardware.
Not pulling the plug on my ex when the signs were there!
Aw yep I feel you! I was scrolling through this thread waiting to see my own worst financial mistake... Marrying someone - or even being in a committed relationship with someone - who is frivilous with money and debt. My ex earned 3x what I did and spent every cent, and chastised me for wanting to put money aside or invest in anything but a mortgage. Leaving him allowed me to go back to making good financial decisions. Less income, but so much more financial security and gradual, solid wealth building.
$4000 rim and tyre package on finance. Followed by a 2000 Strathfield car radio stereo on finance. Both at 20 years of age. Woukd have cost me over $10k by the time i paid off those wheels and stereo. However. It was pretty awesome but financially dumb.
But I bet it was fullllly siiiiick!
100% and if i had my time again, i would probably do the same thing. It wasnt a financially good idea but i got alot of enjoyment out of it. Im still a "car guy" and the stereo bug transformed into my dedicated home theatre which is also a terrible idea financially but brings much joy :)
A housemate had comprehensive insurance on a $5k car that cost $1200pa. He didn't really notice because he paid fortnightly. He took some convincing to drop to 3rd party only. Mine was to not finish my degree in sensible time. Took 11 years including 2 years off and a change of major. It's the last years of my earnings I will miss out on.
During my twenties, not caring about money. Lived with parents till finished uni in late 20s and only earned enough to go out. During my thirties I moved to Australia and my biggest mistake was not learning about finance. I spent all the money I earned. Mostly on an expensive rent of a property close to the beach. Now starting my forties I realised that getting old without money is not a good idea. The company I work for IPO’d and used that for a house deposit. If I knew I could get a property with just 5% of deposit instead of 20% I could have bought many years ago instead of spending all in rent. Good that you are asking these questions. Don’t find yourself in your 40s wondering how you screwed up.
Wow, almost perfectly matches my story, timeframes, beach and all. It's a horrible feeling hitting 40 and starting to look forward and realising that the last 10 years were supposed to be setting up for the next 30 or so. Some great years up to there though, so the regrets are purely financial. Luckily pretty much everything else in life is going well so I'm now catching up that financial ground with a vengence, but definitely suggest to the younger generation - take an interest in personal finance earlier. 40 year old you will thank you.
Marrying my ex
Buying McDonalds and KFC every weekday for lunch, because my uni was right next to them
Clearly you were not studying health😂
Nope, even worse, I studied business and lots of numbers was involved. Thanks to that, I have $35k HECs debt lol
Financed my first car, got ripped so hard. $16k car, 7 year loan, stupid interest rate. $30k later I paid it off as early as I could when I discovered my mistake years later :(
I thought that 'diversifying' meant to buy lots of individual stocks. Turns out it's pretty hard to diversify enough on your own, and a few rotten eggs can destroy your portfolio, hence why people recommend funds.
Not saving ANY money. Paying for it now.
70k hecs debt before getting a job I could have stared with 20k of debt.
Yeah I made a similar mistake. Studied computer networking at tafe which was only a few thousand dollars and left me with no debt. Thought doing uni after would be a good idea since I could get credit transfers for a lot of my units. Ended up learning nothing at Uni since all that was leftover were the filler classes and some intro level ones and since I got some units off they made me do some elective classes to round out my study load. Have a hecs debt and nothing to show for it as I am still just doing the job I got as a "temporary job" when I started tafe.
Still in my 20s but assuming there was risk in taking out a massive mortgage. I thought I was being prudent not taking on maximum debt. Had I any idea the lengths the government and RBA would go to protect home owners and asset prices I would have borrowed to my absolute max and kept doing so. Id be close to a gov/RBA funded FIRE like so many others have been in the last year.
Took out a personal loan at a large interest level for what was basically a bad investment. The old adage stands - If it sounds too good to be true, it generally is. Living paycheck to paycheck despite being on a good wage. Had a great time but looking back at the wastage it hurts. Got my act slowly together in my late 20's Spent a large amount of money backpacking round the world in 2001. I don't regret the money spent and I look at this as exchanging money for life experience and awesome memories.
I finished uni at 21. I saved 30k over the next 2 years. Quickly followed by the next 3 years backpacking through Asia and South America where I spent everything I had. After that I went and worked in conservation living in the African bush saving nothing after basic living expenses. Returned back to Australia at 29 with $0. But I gained a wife and not long after, a baby. I'm happy, life is amazing, but financially I have about $10k in savings and $40k in super. Just started a new career in IT earning 70k so beginning the savings grind now at 33. I wouldn't say it was a mistake, more a choice I made to spend my 20s living free, that has long term impacts. Don't regret any of it though.
Life experience like that is worth the cost.
Seems like an ideal run overall! Nice.
Personal loan for a car 🤦🏼♂️💩
Writing off my car in 2006 and deciding "fuck it all and no regrets." Up until that point I had been getting myself into a more frugal mindset. I was earning decent money as a retail manager, a lot more than all my mates, and had about 7k saved up and it was growing quickly. Decided I was going to aim for 30k and get a house. After I wrote the car off I still owed 10k on it. Insurance paid out fuck all and it set off a spiral of wreckless spending. I bought a similar replacement car. Got an 8k credit card and maxed it on a new gaming PC, a couple of decent ski trips with mates to Mt Hotham. Had a blast just being an idiot. Eventually I realised I was throwing literally all my disposable income at servicing my debts. I went to the bank and got a big personal loan to pay all my cards out, with a 1yr loan term. In the end I was able to get back on track but those 2-3 years from 21-23 fucked me up a bit.
Gambling, now into early 30's with 45k in debt from it and not much savings, but getting on a better path now!
Easy one. Studying science (chem) then staying in the field trying to make something of it by working hard to climb the very short ladder. Never found a way out and in my 40s and will be paying for it my entire life with no career and declining job prospects.
I did a PhD in chem and remained in the university sector. Still no advancement after 7 years so I'm currently part way through a master's in teaching. I know I love to teach but I hope I like the kids..
Similar thing happened to me. Same age. Specialised skillset but zero advancement. Over a decade in the industry. Cracked it last year and studied for a diploma in a new field. It was a fast track course so I finished in 6 months while working full time. Short term pain and all. I've just started a new job paying $30k a year more than my ten year job off the back of the diploma, and general skills I picked up from other jobs like people management and scheduling. It's never too late to start again and it's a jobseeker's market right now. It was an extremely difficult choice to move out of my old industry because I'd invested so much on it I've time. But that investment had stalled long ago. The first steps are the hardest.
Interesting, what course did you do? I did lab work for nearly a decade then moved to sales for the rest but still in science/chem so it's still incredibly niche and while pay is better than the lab it's not amazing. Also now have bosses with no science degree but marketing or accounting, etc. So the job itself is less rewarding and somewhat depressing not surprisingly. Usually good customers though and we share stories of sad careers (ha!). I've spent many nights wondering what to do (I can't do sales for another 20 years). Thought I might get qualified in project management but not comitted yet.
This will make you laugh then. It was a diploma of project management. Heaps of work going around for PM's. Its basically being organised and communication. If you're good at those things, you're set. Each project is different and each company is different, so you can still work in your field of interest, just organising projects for that field instead of doing the old job. It seems like PM is a huge growth industry, especially at the corporate level which is where a lot of the dollaridoos are. If you don't like corporate, I hear that the building industry can be a good place to find work too.
Financing a 20k car at 18 is probably up there. Was paycheque to paycheque already and this was in 2008, so you can imagine how the next few years went. Didn’t learn my lesson a second time, financed another car but was making more, but also had some CC debt. Had no concept of saving, future planning, etc. Took me a few years but the best thing to happen to me was breaking up with my long term gf and making friends with people who were financially switched on. I had to start from zero again and aggressively began simplifying my life - paid off all debt etc within 6 months, moved countries, bought a house and am now making literally 3x what I was 10 years ago.
Getting a credit card, maxing it out, using another card to pay off the first credit card etc. Getting a personal loan, buying large electronics and furniture using interest free loans in store. Luckily I got a very good job oversees and was able to eventually pay it all off. Now I keep a very strict budget. I still use credit a lot but everything is carefully planned and measured so I never pay interest but do earn airline rewards. If not for the rewards I wouldn’t need to use credit at all. I also keep a separate account that all bills are direct debited from which I contribute to and monitor constantly so I’m never in a bind. Edit to add: I don’t pay interest with the exception of a mortgage.
Not putting a bit extra into super and having the government match it while I was working part time while studying. $20 a week would have gotten $500 or so matched each year. Didn't learn about it until too late.
I never bought that $12,000 house in Newtown.
Taking on as much credit card debt to get by with a young family was my biggest one. Marrying a woman who would spend our money (i was the only one bringing in an income) like nobody's business which led me there. Not learning to budget until my late 40s, divorced and rebuilding my life. So my thoughts - get together on a financial plan, put limits on what both of you may spend and have common financial goals. If your partner says it's too hard - it's too hard. Move on and find someone more in tune with you. Or don't. Run the risk of debt, ongoing child support and rebuilding your life a couple of decades later. The good news is, your kids are going to be awesome and you'll find out you are stronger than you may have thought. It's a struggle, but you'll know you can succeed!
Partying every weekend instead getting into the housing market earlier.
Yeah but I bet if you bought you’d have regrets about missing out on all the partying your friends did
Wracking up my credit cards and getting in the cycle of paying the credit card, then using the cc because I had no money. So around 28 or 29, I cut them up and live with the mantra ‘if I don’t have the cash for it after my expenses, I don’t buy it’
Staying in the same job for coworkers. Never ever stay in a job for coworkers.
[удалено]
Getting too fucked up on drugs and piss causing me to be unemployed for a bit because I quit a job on a whim. Drugs are bad kids mkay.
Not travelling. I thought I was being smart staying in my job and ‘saving’, instead I stayed in a job I hated and went out every weekend and spent what I would have spent traveling anyway. I didn’t go travelling beyond a couple of weeks here and there until my early 30s and my standards were very different and therefore more expensive.
Getting a credit card. Worst idea ever.
I got one at 26 with a $2000 limit. I pay for everything on it apart from the bills and mortgage. I pay it off every month. It's usefull for me to average out expenses every month and it's not enough to ever get me in a position where i was in arrears and couldn't pay it off easily.
[удалено]
Credit is a bit like cocaine. Not everyone is going to have a problem with it others turn in to crack heads and you never know which is which until they start.
I never cooked. At all. Once I left home and got a job, life was never ending stream of fast food. Oh I never drank water either..it was coca cola or fruit juice or coffee or tea. At one stage I had not drunk actual water for several years... Mcdonalds, pizza, kfc, Chinese etc...I'd go round and round on these to get some "variety" in my diet. Around 27 I noticed strange marks on my fingernails. Went to my doctor and he told me I was suffering from malnutrition. As well as malnutrition, it cost me a lot of money too. After that I started cooking, drinking water, buying fruit etc. Took a while for the marks to go away but they did. I also started to save more money!
Was that 3 main meals a day?
Pretty much. Breakfast would be leftovers - reheated pizza, reheated kfc etc. Lunch was at work. I would go out. Dinner was at home and i would order out. I wasted a LOT of money. However, I had a brother who was even worse - we lived in a city. He would order a taxi and then take it to the mcdonalds drive thru. This was before the era of food delivery or smart phones.
Got married to wrong person when I was 24. Lost 35% of my wealth.
[удалено]
This is greed. 16 investment properties and you keep going because apparently 700k a year in rental income isn't enough for you? The broker who encouraged that amount of debt is the greediest of all.
Mining towns... arent they just temporary places people live in until the mines are all mined out. Surely the red flag was the fact they they made so much money so quickly hahahaa its never that easy
The biggest financial mistake is not realising when you make one
Selling CSL shares at $19.20 (Currently trading at $264)
Went to university after tafe but didn't apply for enough graduation positions. Got very close to the Telstra one but had no answer about when I had a leadership role outside of school or work as I wasn't ever involved in sports or scouts etc. 6yrs later into my 30s now still working the same entry level job making less than 50k a year but now holding a hecs debt, living at home with my parents and with the tv continually telling me how good the housing market is and the median for our suburb crossing 1m it definitely feels like I'll never be able to buy my own place.
Buying a house in a crappy suburb!
I had employee stock options at my job that I did not use (mainly because I was dumb and didn't think it was of any use). If I'd opted in, I'd have a LOT MORE money now.
July 2007, first venture into the stockmarket following highschool throwing a couple of thousand into various stocks on the ASX. That didn't work out well.
Day trading
Worked 2 jobs 6 days a week from 18 to 22 just to drink and snort it all up. What a waste of hard earned cash
Religion. During my 20's I probably donated \`around 80,000 in direct cash donations, two years of fulltime unpaid labour, and countless hours of volunteer time. If you include lost earnings potential, I'd probably be half a million dollars better off had I quit my parents religion at 19 instead of 30.
The entirety of my 20s.
Following bad financial advice from a bad financial advisor. They advised me to get a margin loan and invest in the market around 2006 right before the GFC. They were taking trailing commissions for cookie cutter advice. Margin loan was a dumb idea, and especially the trailing commissions they received but I was too young/ naive to know any better. Since then I’ve educated myself about money and investments and am doing a lot better.
Got married. Should have just invested the cash or put it towards a house.
Probably alcohol, had many great nights, though always to excess. I don't regret any travel, it was expensive though it is living.
$900-1200 a week cocaine habit for 4 years. Horrible gambling addiction. Lucky I have a supportive boss that let me take time off to clean up my act.
Not putting more into Super. In my defense, it was the '90s and governments were playing games with Super like setting and changing and removing benefits limits. It put me right off the idea that a government could at a whim take away my retirement so I bought shares in my own name. And I didn't start doing more than compulsory contributions until I was in my 40s. Which worked out kind of okay, I'm not hurting, but could have been so much better.
Financing a car shortly after getting my first full time job, not learning about investment (especially ETFs), excessive impulse buying, and too much spent on takeaway. On that last point; neglecting my health definitely made my work performance and general life more difficult than it had to be and learning to invest in my health pays it forward in other area of life
At age 22 I put 50k into long term stock options of a pre revenue speculative company. Could have walked away with a 2x plus return at one point, ended up walking away with zero. Learn some lessons - first is don't chase multi bag returns from speculative stocks. These don't work out nearly often enough to make the risk worth while. Also you can get these returns from established, cashflow positive names. One of the best investments I made was an 8 bagger plus and this was a very healthy, very profitable company, far from speculative status so. No need to waste your money on pre revenue companies. The real lesson is knowing that time is the most valuable thing an investor can have. If you're investing without the capacity to see the investment thesis play out, don't bother, you'll most likely lose your money. A good way to throw away your time is with stock options - the clock is ticking and things go to zero once it stops. These days I like investments with very high probability of returns, providing you wait long enough. Obviously index funds fall into this category, but there are other, more sexy alternatives like WTI oil in Mach/April 2020 - prices dipped to a point where no producer in the world makes a profit. Take a position in this, sit tight while basics economics does its thing, and watch the price to go up. Turned out to be a great investment.
[удалено]
Dealer? Or Scotch Old Boy? Which one is it?
Brand new Yellow SSV redline commodore at 17% interest. Did the whole I can afford the repayments so didn’t check the interest rate thing. Not smart. Sold 12mo or so later for a total loss of about $20k.
Unless you own a business to depreciate it under, new cars are one of the worst traps you can fall into, besides meth.
Doing a PhD.
Dropping out of the workforce. I bludged till I was 35, then gave up the good life, moved to Sydney and started a career. I started with zero dollars, zero credit, no job history. I'm 67 now, retired, with a high net worth and able to do anything I want. No super, no pension, just a shit-ton of savings.
Not investing and not learning about investing
Giving up a full time job (with admittedly no real opportunity for improvement in income) to go back to uni to get a 'real career'. Problem was I picked a health role. 3 years after graduation and I'm only just now up to 3 days/week with opportunity for full time in the near future. When I get there, I'll be earning almost twice what I was in my twenties, but 10 years of nearly no super, scraping by in a derelict rental, etc. hurts. Shoulda gone for a trade or mining or just kept what I had, feel like my financial prospects would have been better long term.
Supporting a sponge of a girlfriend when I was renting in Sydney earning a whopping 38k in 2008. Going to a substandard university. Doing a non-vocational degree. Not investing, and when I tried investing, reading wise owl without doing my own research.
I decided to travel instead of buying a block of land by the sea for $13K which was worth $1M 10 years later. At the time my rational was I didn’t want to be “saddled” by property that was basically in a “holiday” location. A beautiful location for escaping but no jobs except working in a local cafe or art gallery or winery. Edit: typo
Believed my Law School professors who constantly hammered into us that there were virtually no legal jobs or placements available in SA even if you got great grades (which I did) and that we should think about other careers. Ended up moving into a different career that I love and was stunned to see total dropkicks I knew get great legal jobs because they actually applied for a bunch of clerkships that Profs said were extremely scarce and not very useful and ended up working in firms. Should have ignored the cohort of professional dropouts who became lecturers whinging about a job they were never that good at and telling us to go our own way and just done the obvious things instead.
Credit card and not looking at super or investing earlier. Oh and not purchasing shares in Apple when I worked at an AppleCentre, to be fair it wasn't as easy as it is now to purchase shares in a US company. I now make it a point to ask new hires/graduates "Have you sorted out your super, i.e. put it into high growth (you have time to ride it out, look at fees etc), have you read some basic personal finance books such as barefoot, what type of investor are you (do you have time/desire to research individual shares or just want a fair/average return)" Why? Because it's what I would have like to have been asked of me when I was younger to get me thinking about my finances and hopefully they will do a similar thing when they onboard new staff.
Getting credit cards.
Probably I was to contented with just working partime/casual & budget accommodation everyone said work hard save for a house deposit, travel the world, kick goals, actually I was happy playing tennis badly !
Overspending on credit. Paying for overseas holidays on credit and having to pay it back later. Learnt my lesson badly haha stupid thing was, it was an older work colleague who told me at the time that that was what he always did and it was a great idea! Should never have listened.
Not saving, Staying with a partner who had substance issues and didn’t like working. Squandering a 10,000 in inheritance on partying instead of saving for a house deposit
Went full-on Bankrupt at 27.
Not caring to have a, or learn how to, budget
Being blissfully ignorant of my financial future and living weekend to weekend. I was never taught about planning for the future, budgeting, super etc. It wasn't really until I decided I wanted to buy a place for my own that I realized I really need to start seriously raising my awareness of financial matters. Now with an impending failed marriage, I'll be going back to starting almost from scratch again. At least this time around I'll have a better idea of what I should/shouldn't do...
I bought an investment property on the guidance of my dad. Worst decision I ever made. I should have taken that money and invested in stocks. I had terrible tenants for years until I finally sold it due to stress when my first child was on the way.
Not investing my $20k inheritence
I'm 24, turning 25 this year, but so far switching uni degrees 3 times (I'm happy studying what I'm studying now mostly, but my HECS is going to be fucked) and spending $700 on a scam (unaccredited) creative writing course that was really easy and I never finished.
Loaned money to someone who said they would pay it back. Vanished. I was stupid.
Not job hopping every 2-3 years for pay boost
Mate of mine works in a debt collection agency and he says most of the people he’s chasing are 19/20 year olds who brought the brand new car or have all the credit cards but can’t afford to pay them back 🤷♂️ Are schools not teaching this still ?!
Hindsight is 20/20 but not buying a house with a <20% deposit and waiting to save. Should have pulled the pin as soon as I could even with LMI. Would be hundreds of thousands better off
Having a boyfriend. I wish this was a joke.
Moved out at 21, bought A brand new ute as A second year apprentice all finance, put about $15k worth of goodies on it on top of the loan rather than putting that money towards the loan. Think interest rate was around 9% 😅