I bought a laptop i don't really like. Screen is too small to get real work done. I thought i was saving money with the smaller model
this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2026
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Listened to the internet and held onto Gamestop for longer than I should have.
I still did ok, but fuck I could have paid off my mortgage.
An old job where transportation literally cost me half my salary.
Too many people don't factor in the cost of transportation, and it's such a big one, especially now. In the midwest especially I know I did. I got a new job that was an hour away by car, which is about 40 miles including navigating from my city, the interstate, and the destination city. I knew my old car wouldn't make it that much, so I bought a new car to help (and stupid younger me thought I looked cooler with it). At the time, gas was about $3/gallon and I got 30mpg highway, and I'll round down to account for city mileage. So about 2.5 gallons of gas per work day, so $7.50 a day, or $150 a month. That's $1,800 a year gone to gas alone.
Then add in that new car payment ($500/month), and higher insurance (+250/month compared to previous insurance) and that's $10.800 a year just to get to work, not counting anything else.
Then I think that I took the job because I could get 20k more than my current job in the same city thinking "oh that's so much more money". Only looking back do I realize I immediately lost over half of that just to driving there, plus probably ~6,000 to taxes. So my "cool" new job in the other city netted me about $3,200 additional in my pocket per year, which is an additional $250 a month. Was it worth the additional stress of driving 2 hours every day, 40 hours a month (an additional work week every month) just for $250 a month? Probably not.
Yeah... Bought a luxury sport car years ago. Gas was $2.5-3 for premium, now it's over $6! I spend almost $350/mo now for roughly my 1k miles a month.
I was young and dumb and didn't know how to say no.
Timeshare.
It's so hard to get rid of. Fuck that thing.
I was married, in my 40’s and listened to my now ex hubby #2 because his family had several. The payment was $600 a month… a second mortgage for a one week vacation? The timeshare, nor our marriage, lasted long after that.
Maybe I'm lucky, but I just stopped paying the maintenance fees. It never showed up on my credit, the phone calls stopped years ago, and all I get is the occasional scam offer in the mail to help me sell it.
Taking an interest in restoring cars.
Rebuilding an old diesel
I bought a new car one time. Huge mistake. Buy a cargo bike and ride the bus, folks.
Cocaine and cocaine accessories.
How much could a little spoon cost?
She was more expensive than i could ever imagine.
formatted my drive 2010 thinking the bitcoin scam would not last so long.
Probably the time I used a cash machine in a weird place in my home town to draw out the maximum I could for Christmas spending and all I got from it was the receipt saying the money had gone from my account.
The place was weird because, although it was in a very public square, it was kind of high off the ground, like it had been installed for people over 6ft tall. I am not that tall. The novelty appealed to me anyway. Mistake.
I was so ashamed, I never reported it. I didn't think I'd be believed.
If you want actual things, I own a pre-smartphone electronic personal organiser that I used about five times and about a dozen calculators from when I got really into them for some reason. And at least one of those was "parts only" that I completely missed in the description.
But if I could undo anything, I'd rather have that cash machine money back.
Should have decided to be born rich. Darn.
University
I spent 50 grand and 4 years of my life to be told by prospective employers that I either lacked real world experience, or that I was overqualified. It took me another 3 years to find a job after university - one that doesn't require training and is barely relevant to my field.
I get to hang a pretty piece of paper up on my wall, I guess.
Overall, I guess this wins
Strippers
Yeah, but now Sham-payne can go to college.
Got convinced by someone I very much trusted to join an MLM as a 19 or 20 year old. After my parents learned about it, they were able to talk some sense into me, and I realized I was part of a pyramid scheme. I got out and basically broke even, which was honestly the best possible outcome of that whole scenario. It unfortunately degraded my relationship with the person who convinced me to join, and I never really could fully trust them after that.
Marriage.
Getting into debt while being underemployed. Thank goodness for my wife, my privilege, and the fcra. Though I suppose it’s more the undiagnosed (until my mid 30s) ADHD that led to that, and most of my other problems
My entire existence is a financial mistake. To make a financial mistake, you have to have finances in the first place.
A new car
I read that in The Price is Right announcer's voice.
My kid’s mom.
Girl is a hole in spacetime that I’ve been throwing money into for eight years now.
Underestimating the lengths that Trump admin would go to prop up equity markets during COVID
Bought a house with my ex and we were instantly house poor. We didn’t account for buying things for the house at all. Ended up selling and moving two years later at a loss even though we sold for a bit more than we bought it for.
continuing to attend college without a plan to graduate
Community College machine shop. Too many graduates, not enough available positions.
Maybe a few $100 in total so not too bad.
I on the otherhand cannot wait until I can have a place of my own with a lathe and mill.
The best thing of having a machine shop and getting proficient with the machines is simultaneously having a god complex and imposter syndrome when you get to make cool stuff.
why imposter syndrome? ~~is it like "I can't beleive I just did that!!", or something else?~~
E: The second Follow Up isn't impostor syndrome iirc (I might be wrong about that)
The crypto craze of 2017