Stupid money crap I’ve done
Following my post on three money-smart moves I don’t make, I started thinking about truly dumb money moves I’ve made. The list is long and storied. Here’s but a sample.
In college, even though I had a job part of the time and student loans were paying for school almost in its entirety, I lived well. I did it through that time honored college tradition of burying myself in credit card debt. If I bought it in college, I probably paid for it with a credit card. A night of drinking at the bar? Card. Furniture for apartment? Card. Books? Card. Late fees at the library? Freakin’ card. I even paid for food with a credit card. I paid the bill for one card with another card at one point. Right about now I’m imagining my readership dropping to zero. Before you go, remember that was like 15 years ago (oh dear God has it been that long?). I’m much better now. Really.
After graduation, I was commissioned as an officer in the Army, so I had a job immediately. I spent every dime of my paycheck, but not paying off debt. Oh, no. I went out to dinner nearly every night while in the Army school I was attending. No, wait. I ate every meal out - breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We lived in dorms without kitchens but there are still cheaper ways to eat. I also spent money traveling to visit my girlfriend (later, my wife) nearly every weekend. Maybe I can consider that an investment in the future.
If I have any readers tomorrow, you can read about some smart money crap I’ve done.
April 30th, 2007 at 10:21 am
I may have to steal your idea for a story here! ‘Cause I’ve done alot of stupid money stuff. Wow, some of my stock picks were so uninformed, just awful. And the cars I used to buy…. I owned a Chrysler K-Car! It’s amazing I’m standing here with what I have.
April 30th, 2007 at 10:33 am
Yeah, this might turn out to be a regular series. I completely forgot about trying to pick stocks!
April 30th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
I did the same thing — went seriously in debt during college.
In hindsight, that’s probably the best thing I did. I got it out of my system and learned my lesson when I was young and earned fairly little, so that $30K or so worth of debt seemed insurmountable. I learned my lesson, and as my wages increased it became easier to pay off the debt.
People who didn’t learn that lesson young may go into debt at a later age, when their earning power is higher. For them the problem may be tougher to solve.
May 3rd, 2007 at 5:36 am
I’ve got a doosy. When I was in flight school, a guy wanted a group of us to get together and pool capital to buy some properties in a hot real estate area. This was before the now-over boom and in coastal Florida. So we all put in, about $300k in all of which I had $15k or so. So the guy buys the properties under our company’s name. 3 years goes by, he sells the 4 or 5 properties we had, doesn’t tell us, goes up to South Carolina and takes a “loan” from the company to buy 3 houses in his name. No big deal at this point, but then he gets a divorce and all the properties get tied up in that. Well, after basically hunting this guy down all over the place and badmouthing him to everyone that had any contact with him, and then finally catching up to him, I got $20k from him to leave him alone. I think only 2 or 3 other “partners” got their money out. So overall I made 30%, or 9% a year, but consider we bought 4 or 5 properties that appreciated more in those 3 years than all of what we invested in them, it didn’t turn out like I’d hoped.
Guess what? I found out he was just doing Russ Whitney’s late-night infomercial real estate program. And we didn’t have a solid legal partnership and even through the military, there was little recourse for his theft.
So don’t partner with anyone without EXTREMELY thorough contracts. Even then, be prepared to lose either your money or your friendship.
May 7th, 2007 at 8:09 am
[…] Stupid Money Crap I’ve Done by KMC @ Advanced Personal Finance. Sounds like money trouble most college students get into. Here is an excerpt: A night of drinking at the bar? Card. Furniture for apartment? Card. Books? Card. Late fees at the library? Freakin’ card. I even paid for food with a credit card. I paid the bill for one card with another card at one point. […]
May 7th, 2007 at 9:02 am
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