What are the worst financial decisions your parents made when you were growing up?

leecall4a

Wasted too much money on cars.

HouseMartin567

Whatever financial decisions my parents did/didn’t make never led to a house repossession or eviction - therefore I wouldn’t dream of judging their decisions!

artyboy

Jack Cork has returned!

Exodi

HouseMartin567 said:

Whatever financial decisions my parents did/didn’t make never led to a house repossession or eviction - therefore I wouldn’t dream of judging their decisions!

Interesting take - though if your position is that of not holding a view or being unwilling to commenting on your parents financial decisions, you could have... you know... just not commented?

Fortunately I'm not as precious as you are, so for me personally I'd say it was DIY projects:

My mother often had big renovation ambitions, but instead of shelling out for builders, opted to try her hand at doing the projects herself. Oftentimes she'd get part way into a project before appreciating the gravity/complexity of the project and it would slump to a halt (but not before she'd knocked a few walls out, or ripped up the carpets, or removed half the wallpaper). Oftentimes these projects would then stay like that for many years until the money/inspiration was built up to finish the project. I remember one of the kitchen walls which had been knocked through (none of the studs had been removed, it was just a big hole you could climb through) up to the point the house was sold - so over a decade. While I can't be sure, I suspect the cost of her attempts likely outweighed the cost of getting a professional in to begin with.

The other one was my mother had a spending addiction when she was younger, and I'm pretty sure my parents declared bankruptcy at one point. She never told me this directly, but I remember overhearing conversations and my step-father would often unload his frustrations on me as a young adult about her spending and the effect it was having. Fast forward a few years and they had a pretty bad leak in the roof, which they were seemingly financially unable to repair. Eventually they sold the house with the leaking roof (which had collapsed one ceiling and was working on the floor below it) at a steep discount to a cash buyer - I think the whole thing was a wake up call for my mother.

With that said, I don't ever remember feeling like I was missing anything, so they clearly look after the kids above all else.

Fortunately I have the opposite problem - I find it very hard to spend money, often deliberating on the most insignificant purchases (my wife despairs shopping with me as I'll often spend half the time reading the ingredients and nutritional information to decide on the 'best value' item - which I accept will be annoying when she just wants to pick up a tin of tomatoes for our spag bol!).

I've no doubt our children will probably begrudge our frugality, and vow to spend their life living in the moment, thus perpetuating the cycle.

DullGreyGuy

HouseMartin567 said:

Whatever financial decisions my parents did/didn’t make never led to a house repossession or eviction - therefore I wouldn’t dream of judging their decisions!

A rather low bar to set and especially without any context 

leecall4a said:

What are the worst financial decisions your parents made when you were growing up?

The biggest impact wasnt a financial but career decision that had financial implications, gave up a well paying secure job to start a new business with two work colleagues; one an accountant, one a sales guy and the third, my father, the only one who could actually deliver the service they were selling but each had 33% interest. Needless to say one put in far more hours than the other two and when he became ill suddenly no money coming in. 

The worst financial decision, linked to the above, was to acquiesce to maintaining the lifestyle my mother demanded despite the big drop in income. When he died we found he'd cancelled all his insurances and pensions to save costs and taken out a number of loans and credit cards to fund holidays and presents etc.  

lincroft1710

Trading a Morris 8 (2 weeks after buying it for £32) for a 3 years younger Morris 8 costing £175, then 9 months later only getting £90 in part exchange.