Our 6 Financial Mistakes and 15 Lessons Learned

Ms 99to1percent

Blogging about Personal Finance along with a little touch of humor. Immigrant who started from the bottom and now I’m here…to tell my story, inspire and learn from others. Paid off $40K in student loans before graduating. CPA. Saved a $100K emergency fund in my 20’s. Hopping to pay off $500K+ mortgage within 5 years at 39. Hopping to become financially independent at 45. Happily married. Mom of 1.

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48 responses

  1. Thank you for sharing your dirty laundry! It’s good to see how people make mistakes and triumph in spite of them. 🙂

  2. I fell into the credit card trap in grad school (plus took out student loans I didn’t need.) I ended up paying for both pretty much through my 20s.

    I’m not sure I regret buying new cars, as I had a lot of work travel and needed dependable transportation. Having a new under-warranty car meant peace of mind. What I do regret, though, is not maintaining my first car. It’s why I ended up with the credit card debt in first place. Oil changes are much cheaper than engine replacements, tire rotation/balance is much cheaper than new tires.

  3. GYM says:

    Thanks for mentioning my post on Investing Mistake in my 20’s! Thanks for sharing your financial mistakes. Wow, a $7000 course on an investing tool! I went to a ‘learn how to day trade’ free course (I don’t remember if there was a free lunch) and of course it led to a ‘bid’ for a purchase but I thankfully escaped unscathed. They do continue to send me letters to encourage me to buy their course (it’s been 7 years).

  4. Thanks for sharing! I’ve had some similar mistakes as well. Namely getting a credit card as a freshman in college and buying a new car that I couldn’t afford.

    Your Mistake #2 sounds painful and definitely scam-ish. I always think that if someone knew some magical method to beat the stock market, they wouldn’t be selling it. They would be using it themselves to get rich.

  5. I still cringe knowing that I bought a brand new car out of college and now I’m actively preaching against doing what I did. It’s crazy how easy it is to fall into thinking that you can “afford” certain things after getting your first “adult” job after graduating. Thanks for the post!

  6. Haha! I can relate to mistake #2. While studying in the UK, I did attend a similar financial seminar and was so taken by their promise of a “sure-fire” trading strategy and automated software for trading the stock markets, I ended up shelling out over £3,000 for their course and other materials. My disappointment was predictable and I definitely learned my lesson!

  7. Kris says:

    Thanks for including other bloggers and our financial mishaps.
    I bought a new car too, it was a 2013 Prius and bought in January of 2014 thinking we could get a good deal because the dealership probably wanted last year’s models off the lot so they can bring the current models. But the price we bought the car was only $500 lower than the actual value of the car so it wasn’t much of a bargain. And like you mentioned the value of the car went down 20% once we drove it off the lot.
    Next time we car shop, we are definitely going to get it used, it’s not the worth buying it new.

  8. Erik says:

    Paying off the credit card monthly is key. I really liked this article, thanks for sharing your mistakes. I’m sure there are a lot of people who can benefit from this!

  9. I can’t hate but think about how many of us have fallen for the brand new car candy. In my case, it was a Toyota Rav4 that ended up losing ~+40% in value after 5 years. Not gonna happen again for sure. I also made the mistake of paying the minimum on CC even when I was able to pay them in full … please don’t judge 🙂

  10. Cubert says:

    Appreciate those who share their mistakes. Too often the blogging community is preaching about their mad skills at saving and “winning”. I’ve made a few of those mistakes in the list. With cars, we’re done and done with ever buying new. In fact, we hope to downsize to one car in the next couple of years.

  11. I love lessen learned #10. It’s okay fail! Many of us are so fearful of failure that we never try. That is the real risk. Thanks for sharing your mistakes. Lot’s to learn from.

  12. Thanks for sharing. Make any more minor mistakes this year?

  13. Mr Groovy says:

    I got my first credit during my senior year in college. I promptly went out and bought a $1,000 stereo. I think it took me around 10 years to pay off. Meh. Thanks for sharing your financial mistakes, Mrs99to1. It’s nice to know that even super smart people like yourself make foolish decisions. I don’t feel so bad now.

    • Super smart? Not even close 😊

      You actually just reminded of another mistake. For my first (beat up) car I talked about, I also bought a stereo for it, that cost more than the car itself 😀😀😀

  14. Thanks for honesty 🙂 There’s a lot to learn from other people’s mistakes. I’ve made some too, and looking back how bad with money I was, I think I was just lucky that I didn’t get myself in any big financial troubles 😀

  15. not paying parking and speeding tickets on time. eventually your car will be towed and it will cost you much more, same with license suspension. getting too cute with stock picks cost us some money over the years until we wised up. specifically, chasing yield is not a great idea. we owned a decent chunk of CLMT at one time then the dividend disappeared *poof* and the price reacted accordingly. its good you learned it young and had time to recover.

    • Oh Oh you just reminded me of another mistake I made. I got a ticket, decided to fight it, but then changed my mind and didnt show up at the court. Ended up with a hefty bigger ticket, plus court fees, plus penalties and interest. Then I forgot to pay by the due date, and my drivers license got suspended and then I had to pay additional fees to activate my license again. All in all a $100 ticket turned into a $1,500 ordeal.

      So many stupid mistakes we made while in college huh?

  16. I was about 1 year too slow to refinance my student loans which were sitting at 7.8%. The delay probably costed me >$10,000!

  17. Daron says:

    I don’t even understand how I stopped up right here, but I thought this submit was once great. I do not recognise who you’re however definitely you’re going to a well-known blogger when you are not already 😉 Cheers!

  18. Bluenote says:

    Who’s your mechanic? I need someone competent and trustworthy in the GTA.

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