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Equity crowdfunding.
I was listening to a lot of popular VC’s at the time and thought I should try investing in startups too. My only goal at the time was “get rich.”
I have 1 company that is doing really well, a few that held my money for years only to return my original investment when the company was acquired (0% return!), and the rest have either failed completely or are chugging along with few prospects for growth or acquisition.
I don’t think I realized at the time how painful having money tied up somewhere you can’t access it would be. Since then, I’ve realized other goals and expenses I would have rather saved the money for instead, with much less risk.
Learned the lesson though, and now try to keep my investing simple, goal-oriented, and liquid.
Buying WorldCom after falling for the hype and thinking I was smarter than everyone else. Learned from the experience though and it now keeps me away from bitcoin and trading in general.
Switching in and out of the stock market over the past 40 years convinced it was on the verge of collapse.
Several years before the summer Olympics in Beijing I was buying stainless steel for a factory. The owner of a supplier, just back from Japan, made a sales call. The Japanese stainless steel mill execs were all worried because China was busy building multiple stainless steel mills. The were afraid steel prices would fall. I knew there is limited nickel available (one of the metals that makes steel stainless) and the mills would have to bid the price up. That night I found a publicly traded nickel mining company in Canada trading on the NYSE, my wife and I figured out how much we could afford to loose, and we bought stock the next day. The price of nickel, and the stock, rose. When the stock price doubled I sold half, the price kept rising, then the company got bought out at a premium. We made a nice amount of money but I thought I was so smart. Then I lost too much of my gains buying losing stocks before I switched to broad ETF’s and mutual funds.
my thought also when an investment goes up 100% sell original investment than you all to gain and nothing to lose
Dragging my heels on getting my first aviation job, and ending up spending over $300,000 AUD on flight training and aircraft rentals. If I had of pushed myself out of my comfort zone and gotten a job earlier, I could have avoided a lot of this expense which could have been invested.
Oh and, buying farm pride shares (egg farmer in Australia). Lost 50% of my nest ‘egg’ haha
2 regrets
Don’t be so sure investing was the correct way opposed to savings. You may have strayed off course from what now is monday morning quarter backing. Bet you slept well?
We didn’t know anything about finances for quite a few years, so didn’t save enough for retirement in our 20s and 30s. Thankfully we are naturally frugal so we will be ok, but have had to save a greater percentage in our later working years.
Before I learned about diversification I had too much of one company’s stock, and paid the price when it took a 50% cut.
Not understanding the value of tax advantaged accounts like a Roth at a young age.
I didn’t start earlier and I didn’t put at least enough in my 401k to get the full match.
I moved my retirement money out of a stock index fund and into a money market fund several years ago. I thought the market was high and I would jump back in when it was bottoming out. I waited way too long to get back in. Trying to time the market is not a great idea. I’ve also been known to chase yield only to have dividends cut because of poor earnings. The stock then drops because of the poor earnings/dividend. Lesson is not to chase yield without looking at earnings. And the best investment advice is to start investing at an early age and on a regular basis. You can’t win if you aren’t in the ball game.
When I was young I invested too much of what discretionary income I had in rent houses, and not enough in the stock market. I missed out on some very valuable compounding.
When I was young and just starting out with investing, I took way too much advice from friends and family who were chasing the next best thing. I ended up purchasing a few MLPs (master limited partnerships) which I knew nothing about at the time. I lost money and had to wait considerably longer to file my taxes due to the K-1s that come from these types of investments.
I had a few financial hiccups – like buying a little sports car when I was in my early 20s in 2008. It was used, so it wasn’t too expensive, but had I kept my old Camry and just invested the extra money in a stock portfolio, that would be a tidy sum today. Other than that, nothing really comes to mind. I’ve found, however, that whenever I’ve tried to get too cute with my portfolio (i.e. holding more cash or investing in Lending Club notes), it just generally lost out to a diversified and simple mix of index funds. Keep it simple and stick to your plan.
I was in my early 60’s in ’08. That said lucky you, ur reading Humble Dollar.
My top two:
1) Spending too much (and consequently not saving enough) when I was in my thirties. I was all about ‘stuff’ back then. I thought having the most up-to-date furnishings, cool electronic ‘toys’ and new cars would make me happy. It didn’t (see mistake number 2). If I would have saved a fraction of the money I spent, my retirement portfolio would likely be significantly larger today.
2) Not fighting to retain my pension when I got divorced. My ex-husband fought for the right to take 1/2 of my state pension when we divorced. I didn’t fight back because I just wanted out of an incredibly unhappy marriage. I realize now I should have tried harder to retain my entire pension, especially since I didn’t receive any portion of his retirement benefits.
I made three big financial mistakes (there are more smaller ones). The biggest blunder was staying out of stock market for first 12+ years of my career. I did save regularly. Unfortunately, my investment knowledge was so limited during that period that I knew nothing outside Bank Savings and CDs. I stayed on the sideline because I mistook it to be the playing ground.