Great ''Financial Mistakes” Hunt. What’s your biggest mistake… help others avoid it.

JayZed

At my former employer there was a group personal pension scheme, under which the employer doubled your contributions (i.e. if you paid in 5% of your income, the employer matched this with 10%). Good deal, no? Free money! So why did it take me SIX YEARS to get round to signing up for the scheme? Because I was lazy and couldn't be bothered, that's why. And then a year later I left the company!

It's stating the obvious, but if I'd started paying into a pension in my twenties rather than my thirties, my pension pot would be much bigger.

Shain

Steve1981 wrote: »

i signed up for a year with BT for their internet and phone package, a month later I moved (back home so there was a phone there already so could not transfer it) BT said it was a year contract minimum and i had to pay up £300 notes. my own fault but I always check stuff like that now

I had the same thing recently with BT (we were moving to another company). I asked them to send me a dated copy of the document they'd sent me setting out these terms and conditions, as I had no recollection of these fees/fines for early ending of the contract, and I wasn't going to pay it. I was very polite and friendly but very firm, and in the end they couldn't tell me what they'd sent me and when, so agreed to cancel the umpteen quid bill.

On the stupid front, I married a man (who didn't love me, but that's for another forum!) and paid for virtually everything for the 13 years we were together. When we divorced, the legal situation was that I had given him a reasonable expectation that I'd continue to "keep" him for the rest of his life so I had to pay him many thousands of pounds for the privilege of having paid for everything for years and because he didn't have a job! Morals of the story: 1. don't assume (s)he'll be "reasonable", 2. if you're the earner a divorce is really going to shaft you, 3. don't assume things like having both the house and the mortgage in your name only will make the slightest difference when it hits the fan...

But if you really love him and vice versa, marry him anyway. Not doing it costs you a lot more than money!

skintscot

Tried to keep up with a lifestyle of partner (now ex) that I couldn't afford instead of putting my foot down and saying if you want us to do that you need to pay for it


Done this twice, shame on me. Came out of the relationships with large credit card debts from living lifestyle I couldn't afford and hadn't even particularly enjoyed. From now on the answer is NO!

Not checking the small print on a personal loan over three years. After a year I became very ill and was then told that the year's payments I'd made all went on the interest and that the entire sum was still outstanding. The bank pursued me aggressively with many threats even though they knew I was in hospital. In the end my Dad paid off the lot and they didn't rescind one penny of interest. Shame on them.

Dad (bless him), refused to accept repayment from me but the lesson has been well and truly learned.

HappySad

My biggest miskate was the same as others. Lending money to friends & to my partner at the time. The fact that the person has to ask you for some money is a strong sign that they have no control of their finances & will have no control when it comes to pay you back. Give money to your friends & family & never lend. If you cannot give them the money then do not lend.

Same goes for family. It has only been one family member who has always paid me back. The others have not.

pipk62

My biggest financial mistake, out of many over the years, has to be something I restarted about 15 years ago...

Smoking!

A fellow smoker (at the time, he has now given up) asked me this question...

"If smoking hadn't been invented, would we dry some old leaves, bleach some cotton wool and some paper, roll the dried leaves into the paper and bung the end with the cotton wool, put this into our mouths and set fire to it?"

when put like that it sounds like a remarkably stupid thing to do...

which it is.

Am now taking steps to give it up, with thanks to NHS.

P.S; Sorry if someone has posted similar to this, but havent got much time, so haven't been able to read through (I will tho'), just thought 'great post idea'.

khdgsa

About twelve years ago my ex-wife (the serial spender) and I were beginning to struggle, so approached Lloyds bank for a small loan.
We were convinced that a "small loan" wouldn't be available to us, but a far bigger one to "consolidate all our other debts" with the bank would be, as they could then "manage the risk".
We were also specifically told that the payment insurance cover would be mandatory, or there would be no loan.

So, the application was made whilst we waited, and was refused.

So, the cunning Banker had a plan - make two applications for half the amount, as the computer wouldn't pick up that two applications were made in time to block the second one.

That was the beginning of a slippery slope that I've only climbed out of this year.............

My biggest regrets - trusting a bank, and not keeping any of the old paperwork, if only I knew then what I know now !

kaznelson

My expensive mistakes

Don't go into business with friends, BIG mistake

Don't trust Solicitors - re above

Accountant missold us a poor endowment policy when we were very young & very naive

stingyscot

Another financial mistake I made recently was to order a flatscreen TV from an Amazon marketplace seller...except that it transpired that the site had been highjacked. Very convincing it was too, with all the graphics copied exactly, and emails purporting to come from Amazon. No TV, of course, and my £400 now lining the pocket of some Nigerian scamster, according to the police fraud office. What about the Amazon guarantee? Well, if you don't pay through their website they don't cover you...and of course my payment was made to the highjacked site.
By the way, the fraud office told me that this highjacking is also commonly done on eBay sites, and, scariest of all, on PayPal sites :eek: . Obviously not cynical enough (see username)

viv17

Paying for a man on my credit card.
Paying for wedding and divorce, Must of been mad..*

And also another thing I would never do again is buy my own council house. As the council dont care who they move next door to you. And if it goes wrong your on your own. Making a loss when you have to move.......

recycle_queen

Don't always go with IFA policies. I am in the process of taking out Life Insurance. Going through Cavendish Direct will in 21 years save us £13,000 in premiums for exactly the same policy for an initial cost of £35.00. Get advice, but do your own reseach too. It pays off...

:j