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Question of the Day – Experience
By JLP | November 16, 2006
This has been one heck of a week. My little wee one has been home ALL WEEK with some sort of cold (congestion, cough, runny nose, fever, and ear ache). So, I’m not getting a lot done. It was a miracle that I was able to get yesterday’s post finished.
Anyhow, here’s today’s Question of the Day:
My ONE thing? I wished I would have realized how entrapping debt is. I remember when I first got a job I foolishly charged some stuff (clothes, cologne, etc.) on a credit card. It took me forever to get that stuff paid off and I’m sure that those payments kept me from doing other wiser stuff with my money. So, ONE THING I am definitely going to stress to my kids is to NOT get lured into credit card debt.
What about you? I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
Topics: Question of the Day | 18 Comments »
November 16th, 2006 at 2:15 pm
I moved out at 17, graduating early from high school. I wish I had known how…dealing with my family for just a couple more years could have put me on a better trail. Living at least on their buck and not my extremely hard to earn one. Just maybe I could have squeezed enough out to go to college, instead of surviving.
This one step, would have changed my life and my childrens, substantially.
November 16th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
I would have to say that I would love to kick my own butt about debt also. I put myself through school, completely on student loans. That’s not THAT bad except that I took out loans for living expenses and often took out more to buy certain things that I wanted. I purchased a lot of camera equipment (I was a photography major) and other things with this money, not realizing how hard it would be to pay back. But under it all I was throwing money out the window gave me such a high . From what I’ve read, a lot of people seems to have done this.
My parents had no idea how to teach me about money and only now that I’m out of college and working, do I understand what a dollar really is worth. Now I’m on a budget and I’m lucky enough to be moving in with my girlfriend and she’s going to cover my rent while I pay off my credit cards ($5500) in 8 months. That’ll be the first time I will be credit card free since I was 16. oy!
November 16th, 2006 at 2:33 pm
I wish I could have saw the writing on the wall with my business. If I could have done a few things different, I wouldn’t have about 30k worth of business debt to work on paying off.
It was an issue where my work became my life, and I was so attached to it that I could not objectively look at the financial picture of the business, so I dragged the business along for a good 2 years longer than I should have, and by the time I was finally able to bring myself to sell the company, I couldn’t fetch enough to recover all of the debt. If I would have just pushed for the sale about 18 months sooner, I could have walked away with a nice profit.
So, I wish I could have gotten out sooner. What other people have done with personal credit card debt, I have done because I didn’t make a wise business decision.
While financially I wish I could change that, I don’t regret the experiences and lessons learned.
November 16th, 2006 at 2:49 pm
I wish I had known about mentors, and how to find a good one. My challenges have not been on the expense side, but on the income side. I’m convinced that I would not have had as many career issues if I’d had a mentor.
November 16th, 2006 at 2:53 pm
I didn’t do too bad with credit cards in college and only came out with debt because I used ot to buy food when I didn’t have enough money.
I wish I thought more about my money and put more into savings. Although I didn’t make that much money, I could have put a lot more away than wasting it on fast food and beer.
November 16th, 2006 at 2:54 pm
I agree with Cindy and Moneyfwd. I had a lot of friends engrain in me how bad credit card debt can be, so I always paid my debt off in full. I wish I had more advice on where and how to invest money starting out. Also, how to find deals in supermarkets, and when a sale is really a deal and whatnot.
November 16th, 2006 at 3:10 pm
I wish that I had an inkling of a major. I floated around with different majors for two years. Pre-med, Sociology, Ballet, Psychology. I’m an Accountant now but that didnt happen until about 5 years of already being in a dead end job.
November 16th, 2006 at 3:16 pm
I didn’t have much money back then, but I wish that I had put more effort into saving and investing instead of just “existing”. I graduated from college at age 22 with about $300 to my name, and I could have been much better off. Fortunately I started a job with decent pay right after graduation.
November 16th, 2006 at 3:37 pm
I wish I knew that I would actually find learning about investing and personal finance interesting, instead of spending all that time trying to get into sportscasting and sports journalism. It’s much more beneficial knowing how to invest than knowing who won the NL MVP in 1979 (Willie Stargell and Keith Hernandez).
November 16th, 2006 at 4:30 pm
I wish I would have learned how to be more frugal and live within my means. While I didn’t do a horrible job, I would be much better off if I would have learned how to save money 5-7 years sooner than I did instead of spending my money on everything! Literally, I had money for the first time in my life, so I spent it on whatever I wanted, books, clothes, vacations, stuff!
November 16th, 2006 at 5:26 pm
I wish I had known to explore the salaries of my different career options. I made my decision to major in journalism rather randomly or too simply, I guess. I was good at writing, so I’ll major in journalism. Thing is, I was good at other stuff that would have paid better from day one. I’ve since transitioned into something more lucrative, but wish I had known that my chosen field paid so badly and that I would have chosen differently because of it. Of course, at that stage in the game, my youthful naivete and liberal mindset may still have chosen journalism.
I also wish that win I finally did hit it big with salary in the .com boom that I had known it wouldn’t last forever and that I should be socking it away instead of living the high life. The basic lesson of keeping cost of living level regardless of wages is a great one — a fat raise should not mean a fat increase in spending.
November 16th, 2006 at 6:28 pm
Well I’m only 23, but I would have to say… I wish i didn’t spend so much money in the transition of me working, to not working, to working again. Got me in too much debt.
November 16th, 2006 at 6:29 pm
I wish I’d have done something with the loan surplus instead of letting it languish in my no-interest checking account (for three years, GEEZ!).
I also wish I’d understood all the bureaucratic hoops one has to jump through in order to get certification for many types of jobs, maybe not HOW to jump those hoops, but at least that they existed.
November 16th, 2006 at 7:15 pm
So sorry to hear your Babygirl isn’t feeling well.
If I knew then what I know now, I would have only accepted the amount in student loans that I actually *needed*. Not a penny less, not a penny more.
November 16th, 2006 at 8:07 pm
hmmm… everyone wishes they could change / knew better about money and debt. Sure, I wish I’d started saving sooner. But as an active duty Marine, “saving” meant finding a good deal on food.
I wish that I realized that life is so damned short and that we should get to know those close to us. While I’m not downplaying investing, I’m saying that I should have invested more time in family and friends.
Just my 2 cents…
November 16th, 2006 at 8:17 pm
22 is a bit too young. If you extend it up to, say, 28, I’d wish I was a bit less pig-headed with an ex-boss over whether to join his startup or not. At the time, I had “CEO disease” and really wanted my own company, but was definitely not ready yet.
His startup ended up getting bought and my share would have been worth about $3M.
So, I guess it would be to have toned down the ‘tude a bit and learned about the world a bit faster. It took a fair bit of seasoning to get past it…
November 16th, 2006 at 9:58 pm
I wish I would have been less self-absorbed in myself and my little self-induced dramas and not taken some people for granted.
November 17th, 2006 at 3:11 pm
I would have not taken on any debt; I was lucky enough not to have school debt and I started working during the bubble. Without the debt I would have been able to buy a condo and maybe even a cottage without too much effort. Just not having any debt would have saved years where I didn’t do much more than pay for interest.