Really dumb purchases

[pinkytoe]

As 60 approaches, I was reminiscing about some of the really dumb things I have purchased in my life. Two come to mind...a TR-3 sports car that a boyfriend talked me into buying when I was 19. It was so powerful that I could barely drive it on a city street. Second would be a new house in a far-flung suburb that we bought with an ARM loan right before the late 80s crash. My in-laws said we had to buy a house since we were approaching 30. Really dumb...to make purchases based on emotions and what other people think you should do.

[catherine]

Oh, please, here's another 60-ish person with plenty of "stupid tax" as Dave Ramsey would call it. I don't like looking back with regret but how about these purchases...

--$3000 to become a member in a Direct Buy club. We didn't buy ONE thing from it.
--$10,000 for a huge used conversion van that was a true lemon. We thought it would be a great vehicle for 4 kids, but it was such a monster. It was our only vehicle so we had to plan parking, because most decks were too low for us. It broke down on the NJ Turnpike shortly after we bought it, and it was all downhill from there.
--$700 to "win" a vacation in a silent auction. We won it, but never went on the trip because we couldn't afford the other things we'd have to pay for, like air fare and restaurant meals. At least it was for a good cause.
--A very, very expensive decision to co-sign on my MIL's primary house which we thought would sell quickly after we relocated her. Wrong. $194,000 misjudgment on my part.
--A very, very expensive decision to co-sign my DH's business loan. $140,000. (Of course, I discovered Dave Ramsey and his rule to "never cosign" AFTER I had already done it)
--DH talked me into my very first credit card purchase--a "his and hers" set of Earth Shoes back in the 70s. Hey, we were stylin' for a while, but the "stupid" part was the kick-off to meaningless debt.

The very apt moral to your story and I TOTALLY agree, now that I'm poorer but wiser is:


Really dumb...to make purchases based on emotions and what other people think you should do.

Amen.

[iris lilies]

...Two come to mind...a TR-3 sports car that a boyfriend talked me into buying when I was 19 Alternate view here: TR 3 through 6 vehicles are NEVER a dumb purchase. It is only the 7's and 8's that are dumb.

[iris lilies]

I'm not often guilty of buying things that other people think I should have, even in my youth, but I do remember a very ugly contemporary coffee table that my mom thought I should have and in a weak moment, I bought it. It didn't cost much but it wasn't really my style because, frankly, I didn't HAVE a decorating style. I preferred to have money in the bank.

[pinkytoe]

a TR-3 sports car
I also bought a turquoise Jaguar XKE shortly thereafter. In retrospect, I was buying these cars for the boyfriend and not me. And he turned out to be the real lemon. I don't even recall where exactly the money to buy them came from.

[iris lilies]

Oh now I remember another one: My funniest "emotional" buying thing was a book that I bought at a high end antiquarian book sale in Chelsea, London. This was during a time of heavy book buying for me. It was beautiful! It was $175! And I KNEW what I was buying, I just didn't think of the implications. So when I got back to the hotel and was fondling the book, it struck me that it was an American imprint. I knew that when I bought it, I just didn't think: how stupid is it to go to the mecca of children's literature (England) and pass up all of the Victorian illustrated items only to buy something that had been printed in my home country, shipped to the U.K., and price jacked up accordingly. doh.

[iris lilies]

I also bought a turquoise Jaguar XKE shortly thereafter. In retrospect, I was buying these cars for the boyfriend and not me. And he turned out to be the real lemon. I don't even recall where exactly the money to buy them came from. ...thud. You had an XKE? OMG. And, you gave it up? OMG. Could the boyfriend at least do work on it?

[iris lilies]

...thud. You had an XKE? OMG. And, you gave it up? OMG. Could the boyfriend at least do work on it?Of course, one doesn't buy these vehicles for transportation, they are not reliable. You need an old beater for that. Turquoise Jag XKE, I can barely imagine how thrilling that would be.

[early morning]

I really have more regrets about stupid sales than dumb things purchased... we have sold, over the years and NOT at peak times, several VW beetles, a 1968 Camaro, a 1969 Barracuda, a 1967 Dodge Dart, and a lovely, racing green 1967 Triumph Spitfire. To be fair, all were in middling condition at the time, and we did not have the time or money to restore - or a place to stash- them. Of course now I wish we would have sacrificed something other than the cars, but hindsight is 20-20, sigh. At least they all went to collectors/restorers, so I guess we in effect "saved" them, but still.

Oh well, not trying to hijack, we've made our share of dumb purchases too - the one that comes to mind was a lovely barn that was about to be destroyed. We took it down and moved it here (cost of that - 5K) and during the process DH lost his job, so we didn't have the funds to put it up. So it ended up being used, piece-meal, for lumber, and a lot of it just rotted. It was really beyond our skill-set, equipment ownership, and available funds, but we were young, stupid, and thought we were invincible, lol.

[SteveinMN]

Alternate view here: TR 3 through 6 vehicles are NEVER a dumb purchase. It is only the 7's and 8's that are dumb.
I'd agree with that. Joseph Lucas (the "Prince of Darkness") did manage to give them all his special touch. But the earlier Triumphs (and MGs and Austin-Healys) at least had that fit-like-a-glove thing going for them.

I can't think of too many tremendously expensive dumb purchases I've made. My dumb purchases are more like death by a thousand cuts. I would not want to see how many thousands I've spent over the years on audio gear and computers, most of which spent some time with me and moved on. And I'm only an early adopter, not a gadget king.

Probably the stupidest big money I've spent was buying a life insurance policy from a brother-in-law. Even a little shopping would have proved that a bad buy. But, well ... family. :|(

[rosarugosa]

I'm with you Steve. "Death by a thousand cuts" is a great way to put it.

[razz]

A dining set that matched the built-in oak china cabinet but the chairs are garbage.

[Selah]

My fingers would fall off from fatigue if I were to list all the dumba** purchases I've made over the years. Overpriced education for topics I was only vaguely interested in and didn't subsequently use were a big one (too many seminars and learn-at-home courses!). Credit card debt for things I didn't need to impress people I didn't know. Holding on too long to crap I didn't use, then paying to have it shipped to wherever I happened to be moving next. I even bought a house for the convenience of an overseas boyfriend, who had already dumped me without my knowledge, before I bought the house for him!

I am 47 and am still having a very hard time forgiving myself for being such a total mess-up when it comes to finances. I have seriously mended my ways, but in many ways, it's too late for me to make up for all the STUPID wastefulness I engaged in until I started changing about ten years ago.

[SteveinMN]

Selah, I wouldn't be too hard on yourself. Maybe it's a little different in Israel, but here in America, you -- as we do -- would find yourself surrounded by people who still are messing up their finances. You caught on years ago. Good for you!

[Gardenarian]

I've spent a lot of money on alternative therapies that didn't work. A person in pain is a perfect target for snake oil.

[Lainey]

The marriage license for my second ex-h. ;)

[ginastarke]

I have a weakness for bicycles. I feel silly for what I spend on them until someone tells me what they spend on car insurance. That said, there have been some wastes:
1. The state Auction website was selling a bike called a "Katakura Sport Pony" (Pony? More like Clydesdale!) It looked amazing- very vintage Dutch. I overlooked that it was far too big for me, and that it weighed a TON. When I tried to take the back wheel off to change the tire, no dice. Between the chain-case and the bizarre Chinese setup, I was out of my depth, and it wasn't worth hauling it to the shop.
2. A garage sale bike trailer. Much easier to tip than I expected, and the extra carrying ability wasn't worth the trouble to put it together and hook it up.
A late night infomercial kit on how to buy a foreclosed house :|( Oregon state law doesn't allow for the kind of deals that were advertised.

[ToomuchStuff]

There has been a lot of stupid little purchases by me, over the years. (from cassette tapes as a kid, instead of the radio, to books by people like Charles Given's and Dave Dell Dotto) Of the big items, only one really comes to mind and that is a car (bought from family friend, in large part because of the daughter washing it in a bikini). I've had a few that I wondered what if I hadn't (like my house, where would I have ended up if I didn't buy this).
Due in part to some non discussed stuff, I've lived my life with the view of sitting on a porch, dying and viewing my life through hindsite. Some stuff isn't important then, but I see enough benefit about it, to go a head and do it (nothing in the big picture but may make life easier in some way).

[larknm]

A big, sometimes-leaky fridge from the guy who sold us our solar panels--it was his so we figure he knew it wasn't good. And we've never needed or used big fridges.
A bunch of expensive clothes for several years when I first started out as a psychoanalyst. I could have worn jeans and saved that money.
Not accepting a friend's offer of a lease on a $150 apartment on St. Marks Place in NYC in1985.

[24prins]

My last two houses. Both times dh pushed me into buying houses that I knew weren't right. The first (bad) house we were able to sell and break even. It was just too much land and too expensive to keep up, too isolated for me, and the second floor was actually too small (not enough working bedroom space). We wound up buying a smaller, in-town house in the right location and for the right price, but not a good house for a family and (again) too much work needed.

[kib]

Most of my more recent stupid purchases have been very well intentioned, but turn out not to really mesh with my lifestyle. I'm not susceptible to flash, but "smart" gets me every time.

I keep winding up with alternative-to-car transportation and realizing after the fact that I honestly have little interest in scooters and bicycles. I want to have interest in these things, but when it comes to actually using them in a practical way, it's more appealing to take the car and make one trip into the fray instead of six.

I am also not a big picture taker, but for some reason I have it in my head that a good camera is simply a must. On my last trip I finally just used my phone to take pictures (fancy expensive phone which I am thrilled to realize was Not a mistake) and hey guess what, it was totally fine AND I got to actually show these pictures to people because I didn't have the trauma of getting pictures out of a camera somehow.

Right now I'm in the process of putting solar panels on the roof and it's taking so long that I'm having buyer's remorse before they even go up. Actually taking the panels off grid would cost as much as the initial purchase and installation of these (grid tied ones), so I'm not really much further ahead in my self sufficiency goals and I have months to wonder where the heck my money's gone so far.