What is the worst financial investment you've seen someone make?

[paulinkansas]

3 years ago there was the sheriffs delinquent property tax sale in my county. An individual that lives 2 hours away bought about 50 vacant lots and a few run down homes in my town. He did the same thing with another 75 lots and a few homes in another town 12 miles away. Mind you, all these places have to be mowed or else the city does it for you and sends you a bill for $125. Within a few months I see him trying to sell the lots on Craigslist. A few months after that he has another ad up looking for a handyman/lawncare person to fix up the houses and mow the lots in exchange for a free run down house. Then he was posting ads looking for a room to rent just for the weekends. I'm guessing he wanted to come down and do repairs and mow lawns. Last week the county newspaper published a list of all the delinquent tax properties. This guy had about 125 properties on that list, the same amount he bought.

So he bought 125 lots and a few houses. Had the mowing done for 3 years and didn't sell very many. Now he hasn't paid the real estate taxes on all of them, which is around $15,000 in total. If he is lucky, another fool will buy his properties at the delinquent tax sale.

[Harry362]

Not anything substantial like that but I have met a few people who bought timeshares. Anytime I hear someone talk about their timeshare I know not to take a single thing they say seriously.

[Omnivium]

Bitconneeeeeeeect

[Jasonw1178]

I'm sure he thought he could buy them in bulk and then sell them for profit. The only thing is nobody wants those lots. Let me guess: Detroit/Cleveland?

Know a couple guys that took out home equity loans on their homes to buy the the business they had worked at for 20 years during the heart of the recession. Business went under and they were without a job, a business, or homes. Sad really.

Not anything substantial like that but I have met a few people who bought timeshares. Anytime I hear someone talk about their timeshare I know not to take a single thing they say seriously.

Well that's not really an investment as it just is a stupid purchase. The only one's to make money off timeshares are the companies that manage them.

[AgentSkyhawk]

3 years ago there was the sheriffs delinquent property tax sale in my county. An individual that lives 2 hours away bought about 50 vacant lots and a few run down homes in my town. He did the same thing with another 75 lots and a few homes in another town 12 miles away. Mind you, all these places have to be mowed or else the city does it for you and sends you a bill for $125. Within a few months I see him trying to sell the lots on Craigslist. A few months after that he has another ad up looking for a handyman/lawncare person to fix up the houses and mow the lots in exchange for a free run down house. Then he was posting ads looking for a room to rent just for the weekends. I'm guessing he wanted to come down and do repairs and mow lawns. Last week the county newspaper published a list of all the delinquent tax properties. This guy had about 125 properties on that list, the same amount he bought.

So he bought 125 lots and a few houses. Had the mowing done for 3 years and didn't sell very many. Now he hasn't paid the real estate taxes on all of them, which is around $15,000 in total. If he is lucky, another fool will buy his properties at the delinquent tax sale.

The fu-

So instead of just getting a few and doing maintenance and getting profit he's 15 grand in da hole, gotdamn.

[LurkoLantern]

Real talk - marrying the wrong person is the worst financial investment that 99% of people can make.

Outside of that, there were some ultra-obvious crypto scams back during the 2017 bull run that absolutely no one should have fallen for.

[paulinkansas]

nobody wants those lots. Let me guess: Detroit/Cleveland?
.

Worse than that. Coffeyville Kansas. Just google "worst town to live in Kansas". My town is #1.

[_zman]

I've seen people buy new cars.

[4Mum69]

Marriage and its not even close. 50% divorce rate.

Imagine investing in something that does not just cost you half of what you put in but takes half of everything you did before and for a period going forward too. The cumulative, compounding effect of it is devastating to the pocket.

[wave_length]

Marriage and its not even close. 50% divorce rate.

Imagine investing in something that does not just cost you half of what you put in but takes half of everything you did before and for a period going forward too. The cumulative, compounding effect of it is devastating to the pocket.

That‘s not marriage, that‘s US marriage.

[Travis99]

Bachelor degree in woman studies.

[pojo18]

Marriage, 50% failure rate.

Kids, many times in excess of $250k to raise them, substantially more if you foot the bill for college .

If you get married and have 2 kids and it doesnt work out, you're looking at a near million dollar loss. I think it takes the average person ~10 years to recover from a divorce if theyre SMART. in the above scenario, you're probably phucked for life.

brb lose 50% of your chit immediately, then child support/ spousal support.

I have a buddy who got divorced with three kids, $280 / month for each kid and he got off easy. dude lost his house in the divorce, and now has to live in a chit-hole $900/month one bedroom apt so he can make his ~$850 per month child support payments.

[LurkoLantern]

Ok so I mentioned "marrying the wrong person" as a bad financial investment. The other one that I've witnessed many times is going to college for unnecessary degrees. There's some degrees that are essentially worthless (poli sci, photography, gender studies, etc) that only make sense if you're moving on to the graduate level (which is also often a bad investment).

In the late 00's, with a lot of publicity around 2009 to 2012, many recent law school grads were shocked to discover that they absolutely couldn't find a job anywhere. The market was oversaturated and law schools pumped out too many attorneys. If you paid sticker price for the program you're in a financial hole you'll struggle for decades to get out of. Likewise for degrees in chit that people do as a hobby. Unless you plan to be a teacher, no one needs a degree in art or photography. Art schools are also pretty scammy. I saw a "whoa is me" story in the news about a chick that graduated from college with a degree in photography and $200,000 in debt. WTF

[keyboardworkout]

I've seen people buy new cars.

That were not Toyotas.

Paid $15,800 cash for 2004 Toyota Tacoma. 17 years and 170,000 miles later it is still worth $7,000.

[LurkoLantern]

That were not Toyotas.

Paid $15,800 cash for 2004 Toyota Tacoma. 17 years and 170,000 miles later it is still worth $7,000.

Well said, brah.

Bought a new 2005 civic for $16k after all costs/taxes/fees considered. Still driving it today 15 years later with 270,000 miles on it.

[PattBattmann]

It depends on how long you plan to own your car. I bought used, but I also plan on driving it for at least 10 years. Lol at these people that trade-in every couple years as if it there is any way to get a solid return.

[bigcat3655]

Buddy of mine bought a bunch of land parcels in a few states with his wife. Moved from FL to CO to start a new job. She was working on a project at her job she had to finish before leaving.

She meets someone, decides to stay, divorces him. She gets to keep all but two of the properties, so she gets 8-10, and his two are the chittiest. On top of that, she gets to live in their FL house until he's able to sell it and split the process. Only this was in the recession 10 years ago so he can't sell it. So she's living there with the guy she cheated with for utilities costs only. Hes struggling to pay the mortgages on the FL house, CO house, and the properties. Asks her for help but she tells him to fuk off.

Ending is him declaring bankruptcy, losing the Florida house and all but one property that even the bank didn't want. And credit is shot for the next 7 years.

[luckyboy23]

1. Buying lots/spots in Mexico which were promised to be areas where resorts would be built. They bought for 4 small lots. 3 Years later we drove to the area and looked.. It's literally wet mud in the middle of nowhere.

2. Financing car after car while trading in each one and continuously rolling negative equity into a new loan. They finally ended up financing a Tacoma for $48K on 21% interest. Best vehicle they could have financed but still, the loan is just absolute insanity. Even if the car was made out of gold.

[Harry362]

Getting married

[Gizzyhardcore]

lol people mention decisions that are bad for your finances.... marriage... new cars etc

But thread title is "financial investments"

[solidus2k3]

lol people mention decisions that are bad for your finances.... marriage... new cars etc

But thread title is "financial investments"

those are investments in a sense. time, effort, rejection of other opportunities, are all 'costs'

[Kewbrah]

lol people mention decisions that are bad for your finances.... marriage... new cars etc

But thread title is "financial investments"

Marriage is legit as a bad investment.

Nobody invests in cars. It's like saying travel is a bad investment because you come back at the end. Or saying food is a bad investment because it gets eaten.

[Jasonw1178]

Ok so I mentioned "marrying the wrong person" as a bad financial investment. The other one that I've witnessed many times is going to college for unnecessary degrees. There's some degrees that are essentially worthless (poli sci, photography, gender studies, etc) that only make sense if you're moving on to the graduate level (which is also often a bad investment).

In the late 00's, with a lot of publicity around 2009 to 2012, many recent law school grads were shocked to discover that they absolutely couldn't find a job anywhere. The market was oversaturated and law schools pumped out too many attorneys. If you paid sticker price for the program you're in a financial hole you'll struggle for decades to get out of. Likewise for degrees in chit that people do as a hobby. Unless you plan to be a teacher, no one needs a degree in art or photography. Art schools are also pretty scammy. I saw a "whoa is me" story in the news about a chick that graduated from college with a degree in photography and $200,000 in debt. WTF

Solid points here. Getting married to the wrong woman can ruin you in more than just financial ways.

About the useless degree thing. The information is easy to find. If someone is really college intelligence levels, they would do the research to find out what kinds of fields their degree opens for them, how many openings, the growth rate of that industry, and the kinds of salaries they can make. Also, the amount of people employed in the field after graduation. Ask a lot of college kids with these useless degrees what exactly they are learning that will give them the skills to do a job that someone who isn't in college and how those skills will play into the role they will fill in the future. Most will either have no idea or some lame answer about being able to write a paper. Even those who go onto graduate school. It's good to have a undergrad degree in something useful. Such as, get a business degree, then a law degree, which would help someone become a business lawyer. Maybe assist them in owning their own law firm. Someone with a undergrad in women's studies, gets a law degree, congrats on your paralegal position.

I've seen people buy new cars.

This depends. Working at a dealer, I know that most vehicles are abuses and not maintained properly. People generally don't sell cars that have been good to them, they sell vehicles they aren't satisfied with much. There are those who buy new, and then trade it in after a couple years, yeah, they take a hit. If they maintained it right, you can get better bang for your buck, but it's risky. I bought my truck new, but it was last years model, so I got a pretty good deal. I'm religious about maintenance. I plan on keeping it like I did my old truck, which is 18 years old with 355K miles on it, still running strong.

[oaktownabroad]

I’ve seen friends invest in obvious pyramid schemes. Warned them and they didn’t listen because they were convinced the dude selling them on it was a good guy. Six months later they were crying.

My personal worst investment has been in XOM.

[lockdev]

I've seen people buy new cars.

Brah, if you own a business, this isn't always a bad investment. But who was Section 179?

[2011change]

Nice to see like-minded people in this thread (new to this section)

Like others have said:

-Marriage, marry the right person
-Cars, why buy new unless your ballin CEO 10k a day. Buy something 4-6 years old most of the depreciation was already taken a hit off the lot
-People into these pyramid scams, fuk off

[AgRyan]

A guy at my work thinks the margin options on Robinhood is just free money...

[rectifryer]

I've seen people buy new cars.

Bro.

I bought my car new for 33,500. I just sold it used for 34k. Tell me how that was dumb.

It's no one's fault but your own if you're buying trash tier chit piles that no one wants used.

[iwant2beswole]

Bro.

I bought my car new for 33,500. I just sold it used for 34k. Tell me how that was dumb.

It's no one's fault but your own if you're buying trash tier chit piles that no one wants used.

what car?

[_zman]

Bro.

I bought my car new for 33,500. I just sold it used for 34k. Tell me how that was dumb.

It's no one's fault but your own if you're buying trash tier chit piles that no one wants used.

Make and model? When did you buy and sell?

Did you pay the taxes and registration fee?

New cars command a lot more money to register and insure. For example My Acura TL 2007 costs $50 to register. New is $5-600. But in my county the fee drops considerably after a few years. There's VERY few instances where buying new is a good deal. But those have been outlined, business expense for example.

FYI, I use to do financial analysis for a company and I tracked every nickel and dime on what it cost to buy, register, insure, etc for the fleet. There's a lot of hidden costs outside the sticker price for a new car that people conveniently overlook or just don't realize until you track everything.