None of us make perfect decisions.

Even those of us who end up becoming much more financially literate, and want to help others make better financial decisions, make mistakes.

Sadly, some of these mistakes lose us money, and all we can do is learn from the experience.

My Biggest Regret

Early on in my financial/investing journey, I fell into the trap of day trading.

When you just Google “How to trade stocks”, you’re bound to find videos and articles focused on making quick trades to turn a quick profit. Usually, they tout relying on stock trends to indicate when you should buy and sell to maximize profit.

I started off with $AMC since coworkers of mine had seen success in the past with it.

In summary, this is how it went…

The stock had previously jumped so high (I know people who were up $10,000s at one point) that everybody, including myself, was falling for FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).

The fear of regretting missing out on $10,000s in profit was just too much.

Because of this, I invested more and more money to be able to trade more and more shares.

All the while, the stock is continuing to go down.

All things told, I lost close to $1,000 from this endeavor alone.

The worst part is, I got nothing back for my lost money.

If you spend unnecessarily on a laptop for example, at least you get a laptop in return.

What I Learned

In short, I learned that stock trading wasn’t for me, and I would rather utilize the stock market to passively build wealth.

This is a mindset I carry until today, and for the forseeable future.

Trying to predict short-term market fluctuations feels like a complete guessing game.

Plus, I have no faith in myself, or anyone, to outstmart the algorithms that run much of the stock market.

A Missed Opportunity

I’ve spoken many times about my experience in college, and I’ve mentioned that I, thankfully, did not have to take on any debt to attend college.

Regardless, I took a job at the Student Union to earn extra cash and gain some experience.

I gained many valuable skills there, and earned additional money to help me out.

My regret is seeing this additional money as money to be spent.

When I would get my paychecks, knowing I could get by without them, I would spend them on food, events, or new gadgets.

Instead, I wish I had built the habit of saving/investing a good portion of this income.

By this, I don’t mean invest every single dollar, but even investing a quarter would have made a difference.

Even though I didn’t make much at the Student Union, this could have easily netted me $1,000s in contributions, and easily several $100s more by now through returns.

Honorable Mention

I would like to mention my biggest (almost) mistake here as well.

Sure, I didn’t go through with it, but I was 95% of the way to buying it, and I only held off due to external factors.

I made a YouTube video covering this (almost) mistake if you’re interested in learning more.

In short, I almost went through with purchasing a Tesla shortly after graduating college.

I had researched interest rates, costs, where I would charge, etc.

The only thing that stopped me was the rising cost of Teslas during COVID.

If I had gone through with this, specifically at that time in my life, it would have been by far my biggest financial mistake.

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