Whats been your biggest financial blunder

benny5

Not selling any of my 11,000 Marconi (employee) shares before all went belly up.

Simpson and Mayo (sound like a circus double act) what ever happened to them????

Glen_Clark

benny5 wrote: »

Not selling any of my 11,000 Marconi (employee) shares before all went belly up.

Simpson and Mayo (sound like a circus double act) what ever happened to them????

Marconi is my biggest loss on shares too.
I recall they fell from £13 to 40p. A friend in the trade predicted (correctly) that Marconi would survive, not least because they owned technology needed by BT. So I bought 10,000 shares. But neither of us predicted what would happen next. The creditors (banks) declared Marconi worthless, and helped themselves to 99.5% of the equity in return for writing off the debt. Incredibly, they were allowed to do this without a shareholder vote. Then, surprise, surprise, Marconi turned out to be worth a lot more than the banks said it was. But since they had helped themselves to 99.5% of the equity, we shareholders were still stuffed. I got about £40 for my £4,000 investment. But it has cost me a lot more than that because it put me off investing in shares. (all my share investments since then have done well, but I haven't put as much in as I would have done, and have kept too much cash) A hard lesson that the Banks are a law unto themselves. :mad:

Rob_192

Canecelling my DD for monthly investments into my S&S Isa in 2008. Dooh! Classic mistake, but I was not alone!

mark55man

Probably the decision that feels the worse for me (if I am allowed a second bite at the cherry) was fixing for 10years at 4.99 in 2009. Costing me £250 a month now over the 5 year fix I could have had (with strong likelihood of fixing again for less next year)

It was insurance I needed (we could not have afforded higher interest rates), and I successfully predicted the inflation that cam over that period, I just didn't think that noone would be in a position to do anything about it.

So a better way of doing it would have been to take the lower SVR for a whil or even a 1 year/2 year fix and then see what happened. Its not that the insurance of a fixed amount wasn't necessary - or that I made a hasty decision, its just that I paid too much for the insurance provided, and should have been able to see that then and identify a better way of achieving it.

sabretoothtigger

Glen_Clark wrote: »

They could, but they won't.

I believe they would if they could. I dont favour politics for principles when up against a wall, they'd do it alright

Except UK as a finance centre is not just talk, we are a partial reserve currency amazingly we represent stability, security and free trade.
To bypass legal process like that would be exceptional and disturbing long term to holdings many of which are foreign.
Its long past since Great Britain was an empire but we still benefit from trade not ours. Its likely we'd lose more money long term

fixing for 10years at 4.99 in 2009

I cant agree thats such a great mistake. In retrospect you cant punish yourself for what you couldnt know, these are exceptional times.
That rate is actually very good and 2019 needs to turn to recognise any mistake

Which provider gave that, I thought that rate was recent only

Incredibly, they were allowed to do this without a shareholder vote.

Debt outranked the shares and Banks will grab the tail and wag the dog. That happens all the time, someone like Robbie Burns will warn as much.
I think his rule is debt < 3x revenue or something like that, insolvency is a killer

18 years out of a Maestro is amazing, not all their engines were that reliable and you got lucky on the rust there. I have a early 90's Rover with an engine made while they were still partly owned by Honda

mark55man

My 10 year fix was coventry - who are good but there is a hefty redemption charge that won't decay until 2015/2106 - if we are still at 0% I might take a shorter 5 yr fix until then and try and over pay a bit

It wasn't a great mistake - but my view on this bit off hindsight is - I could have achieved the same protection (except in really quite unlikely scenario) for a lot less money therefore I count it as a bit of blunder in that over 10 years that's 30K and that is expensive insurance

in reality it was combination of wage inflation not matching goods inflation and the lack of interest rate action that really double whammied me as my plan had been for the fixed part to decrease as %age of disposable (in that sense the more inflation the better, but not if I don't get paid that !!)

nearlyretired2004

Selling all my BG shares at what was then an all-time high of around £6 ..... they have been up to nearly £16 since!!
(although as I got them for nothing or next to nothing as an ex-employee, my IFA says if thats the worst mistake I ever make I'll be doing well !!!!!)

Also getting caught up in the Cadogan hype and buying at around 37.5p .... now at around 13p .... although only a few £hundred
so no huge loss ..... and still hope I suppose!

YoungBusinessman

Buying a van at £3,000, not realising the actual condition of it,even with a years mot! Sold at auction for around £900 after 9 months and someone reversing into me in a car park and taking off.

ceegee

With hindsight (!), I really wish I had not bothered paying into the state second pension. I started with GRB in 1972 and continued with Additional Pension and then S2P.

My last pension forecast, about 3 years ago, had my total state pension at about £139 p/w. I was very happy with that amount.

Now, with the proposed flate rate pension, I'll be getting £140 p/w and would be getting that even if I hadn't been paying the extra NI contributions for 41 years.

I am fuming about it.....all those years of paying extra and for what? I could have used my extra contributions to build up an additional pot elsewhere to help with retirement. That is, if I ever do retire.......



If anyone can convince me that those extra contributions were not a complete and utter waste of my hard earned wages, I'd be very grateful!

Mo_L

So far it would Probably be blowing student loan money on a student life style ..had I rather used my loan to invest or been more stringent (proper budgeting)..it would've boded well for after uni, live and you learn