Horrible But Common Financial Choices People Have Seen

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Eric Lund
Jul 31, 2021 11:00 PM EDT

Everyone knows that skipping a morning coffee isn't going to push you into the next tax bracket, but truthfully, there are a few really unwise financial options that people see being made every day. For example, renting a lamp is a bad idea. Getting laid off and then immediately buying a brand new car when you haven't paid off the old one is a bad idea. And if you like having disposable income, getting super into Magic the Gathering is a really bad idea. Some bad financial options make themselves too available, but then there are also everyday scams and sketchy businesses that all we can do is hope to avoid. Here's a tumblr user's scary debt lesson and just for fun, the easiest and stupidest money people made.

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  • 01
    Font - blusteryflatus · 15h e2 S Seen a few people buy nearly all infant/baby/toddler cloths new from expensive brands. The most insane, a $350 dollar Canada goose winter jacket for a 4 month old. Jacket barely covered the winter and then was too small. Oh and nearly everyone I know that does this needs their parent's help each and every month to cover rent or mortgage payments.
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  • 02
    Facial expression - Strokedoutbear · 19h · edited 14h O Buying the latest everything. I have a coworker who struggles to pay rent and such but buys a new iPhone every time they release a new model.
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  • 03
    Hair - dreemkiller - 19h Buying a 2nd car (convertible Corvette) after getting laid off during the pandemic. Shoutout to my neighbor.
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  • 04
    Font - Minder1 · 15h I am a real estate agent and I work leads with my lender. We met this lady about 4 months ago who had bad credit and low income. We helped her identify what she needed to do to get better credit and she said she may get more money soon. We follow up last week, she got a new higher paying job, but when he ran her credit, he saw she just purchased a $64,000 car. He told her "things look better income wise, but the car payments take up pretty much all of your debt to income rat
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  • 05
    Font - PastyMcBasicFace · 10h - edited 2h Some people just have no idea how to live within their means. I work in lending and every single day I see clients who make a salary that exceeds six figures and they are tapping their home equity or setting up a brokerage secured line to consolidate six figures worth of credit card debt. I had a client last week that had over 20 credit cards they needed to pay off. Their minimum payments on the cards exceeded $3k/mo...just bonkers.
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  • 06
    Font - myohmymiketyson - 8h My husband is an in-house lawyer for an insurance company. One of his clients is the head of HR. She's been complaining about an employee in the finance department who's constantly borrowing from his 401k. Just when he pays it off, he borrows again. When the company asked employees for suggestions to improve morale, his submission was that the company ought to allow employees to take out 401k loans against the employer contribution (matching), too. He was mad that he
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  • 07
    Font - Frostbyte525 - 15h Legos. As much as I love the latest Star Wars sets and would love to make them a fine addition to my collection, they WILL break your wallet if you're not careful. And yes- I are a grown man playing with Legos. Fight me
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  • 08
    Font - gozba - 19h 3 That new Camaro after your first military paycheck 21.8k Reply Share Report Save turlian · 16h Hey, the dealer gave me an amazing 27% rate! 7.4k Reply Share Report Save JustaRandomoldGuy · 15h I remember having to explain to new enlisted why it's a bad idea to have a car payment that's 80% of your paycheck.
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  • 09
    Font - wickerottoman - 17h S Rolling car payments into your next car. I can't count how many people I know who traded in perfectly functioning cars they still owed money on because they "needed something newer" or "outgrew their current car". I know someone who was paying $900/month for a Hyundai Tucson that was listed for like $25k. It ended up getting repo'ed.
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  • 10
    Font - kplatinum777 · 12h 3 12 It's called rolling negative equity, and it's a bad idea, indeed. I did this once. When I was several years younger, I bought a brand-new 2014 Jetta SportWagen TDI. Nine months later, I was at the VW dealership, and the new version (this time called the Golf SportWagen) was out. I asked if they had one, and they did. And I bought it on the spot-a fully loaded TDI SEL. Since it was so new, I paid MSRP, plus the taxes got rolled in. They gave me $21,000 for my Jetta
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  • 11
    Font - Tacoma__Crow · 18h S Relying on pawn shops every time you're low on cash. I knew a woman who regularly pawned some jewelry, then got it out on payday, only to pawn it again a few weeks later. 8.8k Reply Share Report Save augustprep - 14h ,2 It's a vicious cycle. I got caught up in it for years in my early 20s. It all started because my roommate went to jail for 30 days. I was a cook living paycheck to pay check, then suddenly needed to cover the other $400 of rent. I went and got a payday
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  • 12
    Font - johnnylawrenceK - 18h 4 thousand dollar rims on a 2 thousand dollar car. 7.6k 5 Reply Share Report Save ImperiumSomnium · 15h I saw a beater 80s Volkswagen Rabbit on gold plated 100 spokes once.
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  • 13
    Font - HambdenRose · 15h I dated a guy who always impulsively spent his paycheck. If rent came a day or two after payday it got paid. If it came a day or two before payday it didn't. It didn't occur to him that he had to budget his check to meet expenses. His mom had always covered everything that he didn't pay so he never had to think about what his check needed to cover. After while his car didn't run and he couldn't fix it and he had to move out of his apartment because he didn't pay rent.
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  • 14
    Smile - dotby7 - 20h "We've been dating for 3 months, of course let's join bank accounts"
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  • 15
    Font - Romeo_Zero · 7h My ex would go spend $7-800 a week frivilously. Granted we were DINKS but I said "do you realize you spent $750 today?" She said "is that bad?" I said "well do you know how much money we have now until payday?" And she said "no? I just assumed since we both worked there was always money in there anytime I wanted something."
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  • 16
    Font - Smile - stupidperson810 - 17h 2 2 S Getting into a new hobby and by week 2 you have all the latest and greatest professional grade gear.
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  • 17
    Font - Rectangle - deekochana · 15h We live in a very cheap, neglected apartment building but someone here owns an Audi. With a cheaper car, they could live somewhere with hot water and no rats.
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  • 18
    Font - Rectangle - brotum248 · 20h People who eat out for every meal. I had a coworker who did this, but then complained about never having any money. She'd eat out for breakfast and lunch and go down to the Walgreens for a midday snack.
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  • 19
    Font - Font - OverlyAdorable · 18h I was going to say similar. Someone I used to work with would spend around £10 on junk food and energy drinks on both breaks and she'd apparently do the same on days off. 2 weeks after pay day (monthly), she'd say she only had £20 or less to lay her until pay day and what did she do during her first break? Bought her junk food and energy drinks. I tried convincing her that buying multipacks of everything and keeping them in her locker or the fridge with her nam
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  • 20
    Font - Font - RustedMauss · 18h When "saving for retirement" means dumping huge sums into the lottery. 5.6k Reply Share Report Save taxpayinmeemaw - 13h 2 Are you criticizing my investment strategy?
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  • 21
    Font - Font - PrisonerV · 19h Rent a center. 4 5.3k Reply Share Report Save KDM_Racing - 16h I did an inet install for a women who just got a new laptop from a rent to own. She was so happy with the deal. She excitedly said she got it for $100 month for 36 months. I was like, ma'am I just bought a laptop for $400 from FutureShop.
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  • 22
    Font - Rectangle - myshadowsvoice - 17h Filing for bankruptcy then immediately buying a new car with rims and new bolt ons. I work with this type of person who also complains about having to work and always trying to leave.
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  • 23
    Font - Font - AltUniverse_1 - 17h Sticking with something like cable that costs $250 a month when you don't use all the things you're paying for and could easily reduce your costs.
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  • 24
    Font - Font - MycologistPutrid7494 · 17h An expensive car in front of a rundown house. This was very common where I grew up. I remember behaving a conversation about it with a friend whose sister had just purchased a sports car and lived in a rough looking trailer. "Everybody sees your car and nobody sees your house if you don't invite them over." I guess he had a point. I wouldn't do it but I see now why people do.
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  • 25
    Font - Puzzleheaded-Bear513 · 13h · edited 1h Spending student loans on anything other than tuition and basic living expenses. Taking out all the loans offered. I had a college intern once. He already had some practical sedan. He automatically took the maximum amount of student loans the financial aid office offered, though he didn't need that much for tuition and living costs. He gets his excess loan disbursement the first week of the semester, and goes and uses it as a down payment on a conver
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  • 26
    Font - Tonberryc - 15h - edited 14h Frequent gambling. More specifically, the people that always have an excuse to keep gambling. "I win more than I lose." "You gotta have skin on the game to make it more fun." "I won't be able to sleep tonight if I don't check the scores." "Can't end on a loss." I have an uncle that almost lost his house by blowing the mortgage checks on sports and poker bets. Nobody, including my aunt, knew anything was wrong because he was intercepting the notices from the ba
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  • 27
    Font - Vikingwithguns · 17h Those predatory car loan places. I knew a guy who was paying almost $500 a month for a Pontiac Grand Prix. He didn't seem to know how much he was paying. Like dude you could literally lease a Benz for that much.
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  • 28
    Font - dlordjr · 20h Loaning me $20
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