Just last year:
Paid 2500 for motorcycle, after I license it, I ride it for two weeks. Stupidly let a friend ride it - naturally it gets wrecked. His insurance guy says "no problem, get it fixed". Run up an 1800 repair bill. Oops, bike only worth 1500, plus you already fixed it, so we'll give you 750 (we totalled it and you bought it back at salvage and had it fixed). Sell it with salvage title in winter for 825. After all is said an done, and interest paid (over four years), it'll cost me nearly $5k to ride for two weeks...
Also last year, we bought into GREATEscapes Vacation Club for $4500. They work by getting newlyweds in a certain income range into their "new member meetings", then appeal to the wife, to whom the husband simply can't say "no". Then we bought a house and now have a kid on the way, we won't be using our "wonderful club" for at least 5 years.... To this day, the ONLY person on earth I simply cannot say "no" to is my wife....
Plus, when I bought my car (2000 Focus in 1999), I didn't quite understand the way financing through the manufacturer worked, and wound up overpaying for my car by about $5k (could have got top model for nearly $3k less than I paid - I don't even have power windows)....
Never signed up for the 401k at my company, and I've stayed long enough to be 100% vested, I could have made more than $20k between growth and matching in that period of time...
The funny thing is, I'm actually very good with money, it's just the big things that hurt me...
Paid 2500 for motorcycle, after I license it, I ride it for two weeks. Stupidly let a friend ride it - naturally it gets wrecked. His insurance guy says "no problem, get it fixed". Run up an 1800 repair bill. Oops, bike only worth 1500, plus you already fixed it, so we'll give you 750 (we totalled it and you bought it back at salvage and had it fixed). Sell it with salvage title in winter for 825. After all is said an done, and interest paid (over four years), it'll cost me nearly $5k to ride for two weeks...
Also last year, we bought into GREATEscapes Vacation Club for $4500. They work by getting newlyweds in a certain income range into their "new member meetings", then appeal to the wife, to whom the husband simply can't say "no". Then we bought a house and now have a kid on the way, we won't be using our "wonderful club" for at least 5 years.... To this day, the ONLY person on earth I simply cannot say "no" to is my wife....
Plus, when I bought my car (2000 Focus in 1999), I didn't quite understand the way financing through the manufacturer worked, and wound up overpaying for my car by about $5k (could have got top model for nearly $3k less than I paid - I don't even have power windows)....
Never signed up for the 401k at my company, and I've stayed long enough to be 100% vested, I could have made more than $20k between growth and matching in that period of time...
The funny thing is, I'm actually very good with money, it's just the big things that hurt me...
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