'My mom paying $1,500 to have the house she was renting painted': 20+ Irresponsible Financial Decisions

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Dec 15, 2023 4:00 PM EST

The Holiday season is an easy time to make bad choices with your money. This is especially true for those of you who have needy family members asking for expensive gifts or if you have a burning desire to treat yourself. Unfortunately, most of the time, the smartest thing to do is the least fun thing. As much as I wish we lived in a universe where we didn't have to budget months in advance for a "treat yourself" moment, sometimes it's necessary. 

Now, before we get to enjoy the horrible financial decisions made by people on the Internet, I will confess that I myself am not immune to this. I will go grocery shopping for the full week and then give in to the impulse to order takeout every night. This can be especially annoying when my partner is the kind of person who is intensely careful about spending. Oh well, they're stuck with me!

Keep scrolling below for this list, which was compiled from the following r/AskReddit thread. When you're finished, take a look at this list of the top Karens of the year.

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  • 01
    20+ Irresponsible Financial Decisions Snel
    via Nick Pampoukidis
  • 02
    r/AskReddit. Posted by u/Ashroomyindividual 17 hours ago 8 Whats the worst financial decision you have ever made or seen someone make?
    via u/Ashroomyindividual
  • 03
    tweety231 17 hr. ago edited 17 hr. ago . A family member who makes $27,000/yr, got $60,000 from a lawsuit. She had ~$50,000 left to pay off her house. But she spent all of the money from the lawsuit on plastic surgery. 369 Reply Share
    via u/Ashroomyindividual
  • 04
    zc107 18 hr. ago Getting married to a financially irresponsible person. 229 Reply Share
    via u/Ashroomyindividual
  • 05
    3 Stefie25 18 hr. ago An old coworker won a million dollars on a scratch ticket. She didn't have any ID so instead of going to get ID on payday she gave the ticket to her mom who she had already had a rocky relationship with. Coworker was very surprised when mum didn't hand the money over to her & kept it for herself. 212 Reply Share
    via u/Ashroomyindividual
  • 06
    jones_marie 18 hr. ago Spending money before you actually have it in the bank. I have a friend who was hired for a gig that would pay $10,000. She bough a bunch of new furniture and put it on her credit card thinking she'd be able to pay it off in a month or two, but then the gig fell through. ↑ 210 ↓ Reply Share
    via u/Ashroomyindividual
  • 07
    triessohard Going into 120k of student loan debt on . 18 hr. ago degrees that didn't pay that well. I suspect it's put me back at least 10- 15 years on where I would like to be financially. And that's not even counting the interest I have missed on potential investments. 112 I should have paused college to figure out what I really wanted to do with my life. Reply Share
    via u/Ashroomyindividual
  • 08
    Brilliant-Lake-9946. 17 hr. ago One time a giant man- baby paid $44Bn for a social media company and destroyed most of its value within a year
    via u/Ashroomyindividual
  • 09
    MarylandBlue 17 hr. ago When I worked at Bass Pro Shop, I saw someone get declined for the store credit card and then pull out 2 other cards to pay for their camouflage recliner, half on each card Made me sad for them.
    via u/Ashroomyindividual
  • 10
    WayneIncUserBruce. 18 hr. ago edited 12 hr. ago attempting to treat my back pain through the US healthcare system
    via u/Ashroomyindividual
  • 11
    ISFJ_WaterSerpent. 18 hr. ago Buying a timeshare
    via u/Ashroomyindividual
  • 12
    JO Guest1019 18 hr. ago In hindsight, worst financial mistake was selling our Boulder condo in 2000. (It would have rented, cash flowed and appreciated bigtime.)
    via u/Ashroomyindividual
  • 13
    STAY Connect_Rough4848. 14 hr. ago I'm a financial planner. A 22 year old I was talking with had about $25-30k saved up, which is fairly remarkable for someone so young. He and his dad insisted I help him cash out the entire amount to pay off his car when he was between jobs, reasoning that he can just start over with his new job he's starting next month. Nothing I could say could convince them otherwise, as his dad was the expert and insisted he knew what was best. Kid likely threw away hundred
    via u/Ashroomyindividual
  • 14
    GIGLI_WASNT_THAT_BAD. 17 hr. ago I hired a lawyer off of Craigslist to write a letter to my insurance company threatening to sue for not covering a claim. It was an awful letter. It did not aid my pursuit of justice. I don't know what I was expecting.
    via u/Ashroomyindividual
  • 15
    ShortOneSausage. 16 hr. ago I once watched a dude lose like $15k on 3 spins at roulette at the Bellagio. But in all fairness, he acted like he lost 100 bucks, so it probably didn't set him back financially that much.
    via u/Ashroomyindividual
  • 16
    Commercial-Carrot477. 16 hr. ago A family members husband died and they got a hefty sum of money. I think around 800k in investments and a pension. Everything is gone but the small pension. Nothing to show for it, they were homeless for a time too before they went into government housing. It only took 4 years. What was it spent on? Cheap from ) Amazon and a couple big ticket items which this person never took care of so it ended up junked. It baffled everyone in the family.
    via u/Ashroomyindividual
  • 17
    ConIncognito 15 hr. ago My mom paying $1,500 to have the house she was renting painted. I tried warning her that it was a waste of money because it wasn't her house and the owners wouldn't reimburse her but she didn't listen.
    via u/Ashroomyindividual
  • 18
    Sorry-birthday01 - 18 hr. ago Moved in with my inlaws when i first moved in with my now wife. We all rented a big house together..... financially wrecked me and took a long time to rebound from thats not even touching on the relationship strain that nearly broke us up
    via u/Ashroomyindividual
  • 19
    Symnestra 12 hr. ago My freshman roommate decided to drop out of college and get a massage therapy certification because it was faster. She said she didn't want to be an "old mom" and had to get married/have kids asap. Her grandparents were paying for 100% of her schooling. She turned down a debt free bachelor's degree.
    via u/Ashroomyindividual
  • 20
    Dynasuarez-Wrecks 17 hr. ago I spent money on a degree for a field that I then realized that I did not want to work in.
    via u/Ashroomyindividual
  • 21
    Pyrosul 18 hr. ago I became a silent partner in a small company (49% shares). Over time the contracts were shifted to another company by the other partner and he closed the company down. I didn't owe anything but I lost my investment.
    via u/Ashroomyindividual
  • 22
    SnooGuavas1985. 18 hr. ago A friend from college has taken out 40-50 k in loans and credit cards to buy bitcoin. (Class of 2018)
    via u/Ashroomyindividual
  • 23
    ovaladvert83 - 18 hr. ago I have a friend like that. They act like a one-day millionaire, splurging on luxury items, thinking the cash flow will never run out. Then, ! It's all gone.
    via u/Ashroomyindividual

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terrible coworkers karens bad decisions FAIL coworkers askreddit financial entitled reddit thread Reddit money entitled people
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