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

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

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

Read More: 35 People Share The Biggest “Money Mistakes” They’ve Made That Changed Their Life For The Worse

#1

43 years of buying and smoking cigarettes

Image credits: GrandpaKel

#2

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

Image credits: eatafetus632

#3

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

Image credits: daphodil3000

#4

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

Image credits: elieayoub

#5

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

Image credits: SaulWellandGood

#6

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

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

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

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

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

Image credits: GothTheLife88

#7

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

Image credits: shoelessmarcelshell

#8

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

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

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

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

Trust your gut people.

Image credits: taxable_efficiency

#9

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

Image credits: mangotangy

#10

Student loans

Image credits: Fit_Obligation1594

#11

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

Image credits: Theareyj

#12

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

Now I read my emails.

Image credits: BehindTrenches

#13

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

Sold the whole bunch for 300 dollars.

Image credits: Abject-Student-2446

#14

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

Image credits: ImmuneToTheCure

#15

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

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

Image credits: useLimhamn

#16

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

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Image credits: wei_ping