Wednesday, September 13, 2017

"What's the most expensive mistake you've ever made?"


I bought a business. Turns out I'm not all that great at being a business owner.

Taking the wrong backpack out of the trunk of a car a hitched a ride with. I wound up with a bunch of girl's clothes I couldn't wear and without all the travellers checks in my pack. Made for a difficult summer.

Wrecking my cars.

3 words. University. Of. Phoenix.

Waiting 5 whole years before I began investing in my 401K. Despite a very generous company match.

Bad time during life and thought buying a new sports car would solve my internal issues. It didn't and I was stuck with a debt. It was sweet to drive and I loved the looks it got, but it did little to resolve my actual problems. I paid it off and sold it 3 years later for a net $30K loss.

Lighting that first cigarette.

Freshman year of college I thought my final exam was at 11:30.
It was at 9:30. The exam was 40% of my grade, so I failed. I lost my scholarship, and had to pay to retake the class.

10 comments:

The Dude said...

Getting married.

Chip Ahoy said...

My whole life can be described as a series of expensive mistakes but I prefer to mentally file all that under education costs because compared to actual college expenses it all seems fairly well priced.

College is a complete rip off. When you consider how easy education is to come by on your own. Especially now. It's never been easier. And yet college expense keeps rising exponentially. If they keep going this way, and it looks like nothing can stop them, then they assure their own doom. Thus sprach Sara Thrustya. *thunder clap*

So I have nothing relevant to contribute to this discussion.

To compensate for this shortcoming I'll regale you with an anecdote that you might find somewhat amusing.

Yesterday I pushed my little blue trolly to dump the trash that built up. Those little bitty flies zipping around the watermelon rinds were getting on my nerves.

I must go down the hall, take a right, take a left, take a right and continue to the end. It's a pain in my firm boyish beau tox.

The light is burned out inside the trash closet.

I wedge the trolly in the door so I'm not in total darkness in there to open the bin.

I hear voices way down there at the bottom of the chute and I hear scraping sounds. Could it be that somebody is inside the dumpster down there doing some kind of work? Or just in the room with dumpsters cleaning up.

I drop an egg carton down the chute.

I hear a male voice, "Aww, braw."

That confirms it. Someone is inside the dumpster way down there. What could he possibly be doing scraping like that? Is he cleaning the dumpster? How odd. Dumpsters are supposed to be filthy. I drop a second egg carton down the chute.

I hear a male void, "Aww, BRAW!

That double confirms it. There really is definitely somebody inside the dumpster way down there. No doubt now. I cannot wait this out. I'm in trash removal mode. This trash must go.

I retrace my steps, go past my apartment to the elevators, go outside, go the same distance outside this time, go directly to the room holding the two dumpsters. Our general key will unlock the door. The door is opened and two guys in their 20's are working, sweeping, and cleaning out the whole room. Another woman from the bottle shop says, "Hi, Chip! Nice to see ya."

As I approach the two guys study me. They wonder about my relationship with the woman who told them, "Good job, Guys." They are both racially indeterminate. I tell them what just happened. They go, "That was our boss."

I said, "I heard a voice say, "Aww, braw" and they laughed. And then the second egg carton and I heard "Awww, BRAW! " Ans they both laughed more intensely imagining their boss annoyed by being hit on the head with two egg cartons.

I go, "So, I'm Braw" and they folded up laughing hysterically. Still laughing they empty my trolly and tossed my trash in the dumpster for me. Their boss being vexed doing his job was very funny to these two guys, I didn't find it that funny, I didn't laugh, and that increased their glee,one guy said to the other, "Now this shit is just fucking funny!"

Such good natured garbage handlers in obvious enjoyment at work. They were very pleasant to me. For I am Braw admitting my stupidity openly.

Leland said...

My wife got her bachelor's from University of Phoenix. It turned out very lucrative. But I should note that she already had her RN license with an associates degree, which is sufficient for such a license. However, more and more hospitals are looking for RN with bachelor degrees. They don't really care from whom you are degreed, especially if you have good experience. So UofP was sufficient for her to punch that ticket, stay with her company, and gain promotions. Like anything, especially college degrees, its about picking the right one for what you want to do with it.

Leland said...

My own personal expensive mistake was taking on revolving credit debt. It started with $400 and within 5 years ballooned to about $10,000. I heard Dave Ramsey, paid off my credit cards, and only have one now, which is required by my company. My life and marriage improved significantly once I eliminated that debt. I'm not full blown Dave Ramsey, as I do have a house and car note, but those are well managed.

ricpic said...

Trusted an analyst's report on a stock. Yikes, was that naive. Didn't do due diligence. Lost big bucks.

Dave Ramsey is a national treasure.

Methadras said...

Sixty Grit said...
Getting married.


Getting divorced.

AllenS said...

I've made a lot of mistakes in my life, but none have been devastatingly bad, but now I'm worried.

The Dude said...

As night follows the day...

bagoh20 said...

Staying in California after it became a one-party state. When you smell smoke, git out da house!

bagoh20 said...

Not having my own kids, but I needed a wife first, and I never found one. They get such terrible reviews that I just figured they were all lemons.