what's the most expensive mistake you've ever made?

[007fair]

Grandfather rented a trendy flat in west end for 60 years from the council. In his 80's he was not coping with living on his own and we were to take him in. Before that we had to decide whether or not to buy his flat or just give it back to the council. Daddy decided not to buy.. would be worth 150K now
Not me directly - I was 4 years too young to intercede in this costly family decision

 

[007fair]

Ditto!
I had £17k in savings, my parents gave me £15k to add to this as a deposit on our house.
A year later hubby walked out on me... On contacting the mortage compnay i found we had, a 100% mortage, we'd not paid a penny deposit & we were 3 months in arrears!
He aslo left another £20k in debts in joint names for items I had never seen.. a car & a home entertainment centre.
He dispeared off the face of the earth, took 2 years to get divorced in whcih time he was still running up debts in joint names
I made over 20 court appearances to save my house from being repossesed by various companies trying to reclaim his debts, all of which was sucessful - warrants were served to arrest him for fraud & decption.
In all this time his name had to stay on the mortage as I was still in arraers & the Abbey woudn't take his name off until they were cleared!
A year after our divorce, he tried to take me to court for 50% of the house - Which had more than tripled in value from our buying price. The case lasted 6 months & the court/judge agreed he could have his half, but only from what the house was worth at the time he left and minus all the debts I had, had to pay out over the 3 years..
I had to pay him £1k which pissed me off no end, But I did get the last laugh - his legal fees were £7k

what a nightmare

 

[Moodyman]

2 mistakes:

£1k. Buying Northern Rock shares when they were about 10p each. They couldn't possibly go any lower could they? Oh yes they could.

£8k - Halifax Shares - went against the advice of my financial adviser brother and held onto the shares when they peaked at £11+. 6 months later the 2007 banking crisis came to light and the shares collapsed. Now practically worthless.

 

[Strick]

unlucky!! My Seat has been the best car ive ever owned,im sure a few owners of every make of car have a horror story to tell

So very true there Gary. It just left a really bad taste in my mouth, to the point we would never have another. Yet I know a good few people like youreself that have been more than happy with theirs.
The thing that was the bigger problem in my opinion was the "Service" manager at our local dealer.

 

[wiggydiggy]

It might help to know that Dell doesn't do cars, but Dell does buildings.

So, when Dell installed a ramp which didn't work (to précis), it didn't directly affect Dell (being the owner of neither an S Class nor a Cavalier) but it did affect his client.

Ah the penny drops, woops! Yeah that'd definately be a problem lol

 

[superbadger]

Depends in the development. For some the fact that a Vauxhall won't fit in would be a selling point.

 

[BluesDave]

I got married.

 

[Andrew_P]

Not my mistake - my parents in laws' Very recent event and they're still recovering. Ten years ago they accomplished their dream - bought a big barge in Nantes for the price of a house (I haven't dared asked them how much it cost). It was beautiful that barge - and in a prize position. They spent 10 years and thousands and thousands doing it up, fitting double glazing, re-doing the plumbing, fitting parquet floor...A couple of months ago they took it to dry dock - routine check. Estimated value of the barge - €400 000. But during the check it was discovered the whole hull was rotten. Nothing could be done to save it, only option was to get it taken apart - which they had to pay for. So not only did they lose the home they'd worked all their lives for, but they had to pay thousands in dry dock fees, and then pay thousands more to get it destroyed.

Such a sad story

 

[dellzeqq]

Piffle. I once didn't get in the way of a 1500 Kilo Autospec when it fell off a tail lift. £400000 down the shitter.

what is a 1500 kilo autospec when it's as home? Does it weigh 1500 kilos?

 

[jonny jeez]

Turnover expected to be £1 million+ a year!!!!!

I wouldn't loose sleep on that if I were you...turnover is meaningless..("expected" turnover even more so).Its bottom line that pays the mortgage and a Bikini car wash sounds a very seasonal (and unscaleable) buisness ... once the initital thrill wears off, I doubt many customers would go back twice.

Now a car wash on the other hand is a real cash generator. literally all cash in hand, pretty decent demand (even in a recession) and very low wage bills.

Drop the Bikini's find an old car park with a water supply, 4 eager young employees and yer off!!

 

[superbadger]

I wouldn't loose sleep on that if I were you...turnover is meaningless..("expected" turnover even more so).Its bottom line that pays the mortgage and a Bikini car wash sounds a very seasonal (and unscaleable) buisness ... once the initital thrill wears off, I doubt many customers would go back twice.

Now a car wash on the other hand is a real cash generator. literally all cash in hand, pretty decent demand (even in a recession) and very low wage bills.

Drop the Bikini's find an old car park with a water supply, 4 eager young employees and yer off!!

I don't lose sleep,i just wind her up bout it.... Esp when she wants to book a holiday and i say 'well if i had done that car wash we could have gone maldives,sorry hun its camping in wales again!!!!' . Then i say hello to the sofa......