Confessions of a Personal Finance Reporter (Part 2): 3 Money Mistakes

One of the greatest benefits of being a personal finance reporter is being able to recognize the many financial mistakes you’ve made in your life.

In the first iteration of this confession two years ago, I already leaked a few. Some of my failures were worse than others, but they all make me cringe. others may be related.

Either way, I hope sharing these helps someone else avoid making the same mistake. It’s hard to calculate the cost of flab over the course of Generation X’s adulthood, but suffice it to say that had they made better decisions, they would have had more money.

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Here are some gems. In no particular order.

I was at least a few decades into adulthood when I decided I could see the future. .

This crystal ball reading talent emerged when I rolled money from my old 401(k) into my then retirement account. I confidently put the rolled over funds into my money market account (almost 0% return). This made it possible to buy stocks during an imminent market downturn and profit when the market rose again.

Of course, as I was waiting for the big drop, the stock went up in the days and weeks that followed.

It didn’t come true.

I waited months. By the time I actually moved that money into a stock-heavy Target Date fund — not because the market had crashed, but because I had a fear of missing out by that point — stocks were going up. .

By setting my money aside, I missed out on those gains — and missed out on the compound interest the funds would generate, both in the months I sat in cash and in the future.

When I first joined my 401(k) plan as a young adult, I had only a basic understanding of investing.

That said, I knew that the stock market generally rises over time and is a good place to make long-term savings such as retirement. Not really.

So when I had to choose from an array of funds where to direct my 401(k) contributions, I did some research. She rattled that her name. I told her that it was fine, so I decided to go with it.

“Wait a minute,” she said. “If your investment fails, I don’t want to be responsible for ruining your retirement.” I dismiss the idea with a wave, saying she’s the smartest person I know I assured her.

Now, this was a long time ago and I have no recollection of how the fund performed or the account balance when I finally transferred the money to another retirement account.

But that’s the point. I didn’t know what I was invested in.

To the best of my knowledge, the funds I chose are “safe” investments (US Treasuries, cash), may not respond to inflation, and may not provide long-term growth like equities. I also didn’t know how much the Foundation would charge me each year.

In other words, I wasn’t quite sure if it was a good fit for my situation.

As an adult, I have been involved in five home purchases. One of which he was being sold “as is”.

A friend of mine at the time said, “Whatever you do, make sure you get a home inspection before you buy.”

I assured her I would and immediately decided to ignore her sage advice. By the way, I did a lot of research during my two visits to the house before I bought it, and nothing big came to mind.

Now, for those of you who don’t know this yet, let me tell you. Homes and their possessions are full of issues that may not be immediately apparent. Also, depending on the spec, it can be very expensive to fix them.

I don’t think that getting that particular home inspected before buying it changed my mind about the purchase, but it would very likely increase my bargaining power on the price, and in the process, I would be interested in Saved my boat load I should have figured it out with a lower mortgage amount.