'[He] spent like $20,000 on fidget spinners': 30+ People who let money burn holes in their pockets

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Dec 1, 2024 3:00 PM EST

Having fun with money is the easy part, but saving it and spending it wisely can take a lifetime to learn. 

No matter how much money you make, it may never quite seem like enough. There are so many bills to pay! Gas, electric, water, car payment, mortgage, rent, groceries… the list goes on and on. That's why it's nice to have a little treat every now and then, to take away the sting of giving away your hard-earned paycheck to strangers. Maybe you get a $7 latte or a $60 new outfit. However, some people take it a little further than that. They treat themselves to new cars that come with monthly four-figure price tags. Or instead of buying one new outfit, they treat themself to thousands of dollars worth of designer shirts and pants. No one can tell you how to spend your money except for you, and that's where the problem lies for some folks. Try as they might, some people just can't stop themselves from spending money on all of life's luxuries, only to regret it later on when they realize they're cold, hungry, and totally out of money. You can check out a bunch of stories like this down below from people replying to u/BasalTripod9684's question: "What's the worst financial decision you've seen someone make?"

While we're on the subject of money matters, this spouse is refusing to help out their wife by buying her a plane ticket… because she's digging her way out of debt. 

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  • 01
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    via Alexander Mils For Unsplash+

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    What's the worst financial decision you've seen someone make?
    via u/BasalTripod9684
  • 03
    armbar222 I knew someone who got a loan for their wedding, but decided to blow it all at a casino. Now they have a loan for 20k to pay off and nothing to show for it.
    via u/armbar222
  • 04
    Anin1987 A friend of mine who is very bad with money and his girlfriend bought some sort of water filtration system from a door to door salesman. He has to pay something like $300/month for this filtration system. He was all stoked because it came with a free set of pots and pans.
    via u/Anin1987
  • 05
    Fast forward a year and his girlfriend has broken up with him, moved out of the house, and he's had to sell his home because he can't afford to live there. The water filtration system is now sitting in a storage unit where he still pays $300/month for it because he's on a 2 or 3 year contract (sorry the details are fuzzy).
    via u/Anin1987
  • 06
    We have great water quality in my area.
    via u/Anin1987
  • 07
    [deleted] A guy in my fraternity got 30k for an undisclosed reason, I'm guessing a family death or something and he bet it all on the Yankees winning one game. They lost
    via u/[deleted]
  • 08
    rubysundance A coworker I used to have worked every second of overtime he could for several years to save up for a house. When he applied. for the house loan, he based his mortgage payment on all of the overtime he had been working. I tried to tell him
    via u/rubysundance
  • 09
    that wasn't a good idea but he didn't want to hear it. He ended up divorced a few years later because his wife got tired of him always working.
    via u/rubysundance
  • 10
    Sensitive-Umpir... My maternal grandmother bought an 8-plex to avoid capital gains when she sold her large house. The apartment complex was in the red and needed a lot of repairs. She hired my father to do them and be on-site manager. The place started making money. My mom (divorced from my dad) was mad that my grandma bought it in the first place,
    via u/Sensitive-Umpire2375
  • 11
    then hired my dad, then was proved wrong because it was making money. My grandma was in her 90s and my mom pressured her for years so my grandma finally sold it. That place is in a high market area and is now worth millions. My mom made a poor financial decision based on petty spite.
    via u/Sensitive-Umpire2375
  • 12
    ErraticA09 My supervisor took out a loan against their 401k to pay their rent because "their credit cards were maxed." Two weeks later, they bought a brand new 60k Lincoln with basically nothing down because "her daughter just had a baby and I need a bigger car for that."
    via u/ErraticA09
  • 13
    Solid_Internal_... A dude who owned a small convenience store in our town spent like $20,000 on fidget spinners. He was posting for like a year begging people to buy them as he would lose his business and his marriage was falling apart due to it.
    via u/Solid_Internal_9079
  • 14
    theangryburrito Had a co worker with 5 kids who could all go to USC for free once he has worked there for 15 years (even if he quit). He quit at 14.5 years for a job that barely paid more than he made at USC. Cost all 5 kids a free education at a top school since he couldnt wait 6 more months.
    via u/theangryburrito
  • 15
    Left-Star2240 Ran up credit card debt requiring bankruptcy. Once they were able to build credit again (7 years later) they proceeded to run up a massive amount of debt again, but couldn't go bankrupt again, so they used "debt consolidation." The debt didn't come from sudden expenses. They just needed to buy things to feel better.
    via u/Left-Star2240
  • 16
    tankurd My coworker has 25k in anime figurines. He is in mega debt right now.
    via u/tankurd
  • 17
    chriss1111 My friend bought a used Hellcat Challenger yesterday at 10.5% APR and $380/mo insurance. He lives in my other friend's spare room.
    via u/chriss1111
  • 18
    TeHNyboR My roommate buys doordash almost every day. They'll maybe cook for themselves once or twice a week but other than that they order food in 5-6 times a week. I know how much they make and I have not a clue how they can afford that
    via u/TeHNyboR
  • 19
    Starfox41 My (awful) aunt was the trustee for my grandparents' estate. When they passed, she decided to sell their house to a random realtor who put a leaflet on the door. TO the realtor, not WITH the realtor. It wasn't put on the market, and the aunt rejected a matching offer by me after I argued
    via u/Starfox41
  • 20
    hard to actually list the house and have people bid on it. The realtor slapped a new coat of paint on it and sold it a couple of months later for literally a million dollars more than she bought it for.
    via u/Starfox41
  • 21
    metrology84 Many decisions around new tattoos or dogs when they can't pay rent regularly. My Aunt says the 'rich get richer and the poor get another dog.' I find this to be true for some of my family.
    via u/metrology84
  • 22
    Wichita Falls_T... A guy I dated for a short time had been joining a MLM scheme selling insurances. I listened to his monologue and told him I had no money. He was furios and tried to sell insurance to our waiter at the restaurant. He failed again. I'm still laughing today, he was no good guy.
    via u/Wichita_Falls_Texas
  • 23
    Boogersully18 I bought a hellcat when my old bada paid off challenger was
    via u/Boogersully18
  • 24
    slayez06 My cousin spent 100% of her inheritance and took out a lien on her home to buy a 2nd home in the mountains... thing is it was being pushed over by a mountain...and they thought they could fix it... I went and seen it and every door jam was crooked and the doors wouldn't shut.. They took me down into the basement and they were trying to use I
    via u/slayez06
  • 25
    beams to "stop the mountain from pushing on the home". I was just like "what the h I are you doing, that won't solve anything" fast forward 6 months and they asked me for 50k to help and I declined. Fast forward a year and the home collapsed and now they owe over 300k+ for a home that
    via u/slayez06
  • 26
    doesn't exist and if they don't make the payments they lose their other house too because they used the original home as collateral and could not get insurance on the 2nd home..total money lost upwards of 700k
    via u/slayez06
  • 27
    scarponiyikes My brother and his wife were in massive debt, didn't work high paying jobs and could no longer afford their two bedroom apartment while trying to pay off the debt. They moved back home, into our parents basement. A week before they moved in, they built a computer, and a year after that, they consciously
    via u/scarponiyikes
  • 28
    decided to get try to get pregnant (which they did) while still living in the basement and knowing they haven't improved their financial state whatsoever.
    via u/scarponiyikes
  • 29
    p... EXTRAVAGANT weddings that end in divorce a year later
    via u/prettiestburner
  • 30
    [deleted] They won thousands of dollars and bought a new entertainment system instead of getting current on their mortgage. Foreclosed on later that year. The thing was, the area had recently become the new it area for young families, and housing prices had skyrocketed.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 31
    They easily could have just sold the house, paid cash for a larger house 20 minutes up the road, and still had tens of thousands leftover.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 32
    donotresuscitat... This older lady worked part- time in my kitchen. It was a fine dining, fast paced environment. She would only work about 20 hrs per week doing busy work u.e. peeling vegetables, washing produce, etc. Tasks I knew she could handle and wouldn't get overwhelmed. Unfortunately her husband passed away and she
    via u/donotresuscitateplz
  • 33
    requested a few months off. I totally understood and said take all the time you need. Let me know when you feel comfortable coming back to work, if at all. Take care Barbara. 8 months later she contacted me for a job. I was more than willing to have her back in my kitchen. I nonchalantly asked her how she was coping with her
    via u/donotresuscitateplz
  • 34
    loss. She broke down in tears. She apparently got a $500000 insurance payout from her husband's death. Within those i months she attempted to open a restaurant and sink every dime into the establishment. It went out of business in 6 months. She was now broke as an elderly lady having to go back to work.
    via u/donotresuscitateplz
  • 35
    PupperMartin74 Neighbors. The bread earner di d. Her sister and her daughter were left with the place. They could not afford the payments. They would NOT sell. They let it go to foreclosure even though it had about $120,000 equity in it. New owners came
    via u/PupperMartin74
  • 36
    in....did very little cosmetic work, just a little paint and fixed the fence. They sold it and made a $200k profit in about 6 months..
    via u/PupperMartin74
  • 37
    W... My dad worked for the UN and built up quite a good pension while he worked there. A good 400k. He left the UN in his mid to late 50s. Instead of looking for new work after leaving, he decided to move back to Venezuela, his home country, and just relax for a while.
    via u/WorriedImpress7624
  • 38
    During this sabbatical, his wife and her family talked my dad into putting almost his whole pension into a single stock with her stockbroker nephew. The stock was Venezuelan oil stocks. Maybe you have an idea how volatile the Venezuelan economy is, and how high inflation is there. It's a bad situation.
    via u/WorriedImpress7624
  • 39
    But still, my dad did the thing and at first it was okay. But then it wasn't. Predictably, the nephew lost my dads entire nest egg. The nephew ended up ghosting my dad and his wife.
    via u/WorriedImpress7624
  • 40
    At this point, my dad tried to find new work, but because he was so close to retirement age he couldn't find anything decent. So my dad, a phd graduate who worked at a decently high. level at the UN, ended up having to clean houses for money.
    via u/WorriedImpress7624
  • 41
    Willing-Internal... They got married to someone heavily in-debt. The person kept their financial situation from them until after they were married.
    via u/Willing-Internal9669
  • 42
    SuitablePlankton Retirement age person emptied out their 401(k) to open a pet store
    via u/SuitablePlankton
  • 43
    Nepsevh I knew a guy who was terrible with money. Worked in a warehouse but spent all his money on dr s and things for his controlling girlfriend. Then one day he came to me to show me his brand new car. Probably around $40-50k. He takes me for a ride and starts bragging about how he took his pay stub to like
    via u/Nepsevh
  • 44
    10 of those cash advance places and get $10k worth of loans and, "had been living like a king." It was as if he thought he found some sort of life hack. To this day I'm not sure if he just thought he wouldn't have to pay it back or what.
    via u/Nepsevh
  • 45
    A couple weeks later I learned he wasn't paying attention while driving and rear-ended a bus going way over the speed limit and totalled the car. Trainwreck of a guy.
    via u/Nepsevh
  • 46
    then taxed as profit of the company, then he paid himself again paying income taxes. It took him about ten years to get out of that hole. Then he needed to sell his house because it was too expensive. But the buyer got cold feet on the last day before the sale. Rather than having the buyer pay 10% of the price to get out of the sale he gave him an extension without an end
    via u/Nepsevh
  • 47
    date. The buyer then took 2 years to think about whether he wanted the house. All the while my parents needed to keep paying the mortgage and couldn't sell the house to anyone else because of the contract they had with that guy. Brought them close to bankruptcy. I've personally paid a couple of hundred a month to let them pay for the mortgage during that time.
    via u/Nepsevh
  • 48
    MissMormie My dad had his own company and someone told him it made financial sense that instead of paying himself wages, he should take out a loan from his company. He built up debt for three years, while working full time, rather than paying himself. It had all sorts of bad tax effects. Like he was required to pay interest on this, which was
    via u/MissMormie
  • 49
    XYV_S Someone took a loan to order a pizza.
    via u/XYV_S
  • 50
    n... They took out a small title loan and lost a 15k car in the process.
    via u/never_stirred
  • 51
    mangotangowa... Buying a TV on Black Friday instead of fixing their leaking roof
    via u/mangotangowango1
  • 52
    Lvcivs2311 Buying a pure-bred puppy while on a low-wage job with the end of your contract in sight. While also being a single-parent in a rented apartment. Yeah, within a year she was on food stemps.
    via u/Lvcivs2311
  • 53
    georgeclintonfo... There was that post yesterday on r/justrolledintotheshop where somebody sold an 07 hyundai sonata for scrap and then the next day asked the scrap yard to give him back the $1300 custom floor mats he left in the car. That guy has to be making bad financial decisions left and right
    via u/georgeclintonforprez
  • 54
    Junkstar Getting remarried. He was convinced the first wife was the problem. She was, in part, but so was he. Zero self awareness. He's getting sent to the cleaners yet again.
    via u/Junkstar
  • 55
    S... Friend spent $50k+ on twitch donations because he went through a hard time and was looking for acceptance. Really messed his finances up for a long. time. :( Edit: the money was all on credit cards.
    via u/SlavaUkrainiFTW
  • 56
    TheCrimson Bin... cheated on 7 years of back taxes (got like 20k in returns) then they were surprised they got audited, last I heard they moved away to try and run from it lol
    via u/TheCrimsonBinome
  • 57
    Tayan13 Military dude married a girl 3 months after starting to hook up. He thought she had a good job because she liked expensive things. Turns out it was daddies money and cut her off when she married the dude. Dude went from kinda struggling to 70k in debt overnight. His wife was and massive b and refused to change her spending habits.
    via u/Tayan13
  • 58
    Fragraham Going broke keeping up child support payments to a cheating ex for a child that is likely not his. He saved enough for a DNA test. Bought a new iPhone instead. Will continue payments gor 18 years for a child he has never met, for a woman who never loved him.
    via u/Fragraham
  • 59
    Lonely_Chapter... It's not as bad as some on here, but a girl I work with broke her phone and simply took out a second contract and was paying both simultaneously
    via u/Lonely_Chapter8277
  • 60
    burberburnerr I spent 50k on meme stocks
    via u/burberburnerr
  • 61
    Banditofbingofa... Seen someone sell their house and take out a much bigger mortgage to buy a pub that had failed 4 times in 3 years. It failed and they couldn't sell. It bankrupted then and they lost everything
    via u/Banditofbingofame
  • 62
    SpaceAngel2001 An intern at our local wild animal rescue admitted she racked up $150K in student debt getting a degree that pays well below min wage. Our interns get a $1K/mo stipend, some food, and housing. No medical benefits.
    via u/SpaceAngel2001
  • 63
    From what I understand, they'll have to do that for a couple if years and then they might get a min wage job at a zoo. Mostly they end up getting a masters degree to become teachers.
    via u/SpaceAngel2001
  • 64
    I... Put a lot of money into a house in a state that's running out of water and breaking heat records every year. It was me. I should sell it before more people catch on, and before the inevitable housing market crash... but I know I won't. Second mistake. I'm sure there with be more.
    via u/Iari_Cipher9
  • 65
    GonzoSD Me, walking away from custom home I built for wife and I ( on mountains side facing pacific full unfiltered fulls views of ocean 1 mi away) distressed from the betrayal. Lost my job, lived off savings in depre son.
    via u/GonzoSD
  • 66
    Brett707 I used to run heavy equipment in Virginia. I made $13.50 an hour. A guy on my crew was making $12.50 an hour. He purchased a 5 bedroom 3 bath 2500 sqft home for $425k He was the sole income for the household of 6 people. They talked him. into an interest-only loan. 6 months later the housing market crashed he lost his
    via u/Brett707
  • 67
    job and lost the house. I tried to explain to him that an interest-only loan was a scam and he didn't make enough to afford that house and 4 kids with a wife that didn't work. I felt bad the next time I saw him and he was living in an RV on someone's property.
    via u/Brett707
  • 68
    [deleted] Buy an expensive car on credit and sacrifice their children's education just to look flashy and keep it up. Luckily, the children's other parent came through eventually. But jeez...
    via u/[deleted]
  • 69
    stomping_mom Complains that they are 40k in debt. BuysTesla.
    via u/stomping_mom
  • 70
    prombloodd Former friend of mine decided it was a great idea to invest their college fund into crypto and NFTs We are not friends because I busted out laughing when I was informed of this stupid decision They now have practically nothing to show for it
    via u/prombloodd
  • 71
    Graw1948 Had an unemployed friend inherit a boatload of money when her dad di d. Instead of investing it and getting a job, she took it easy for 10 years. She was homeless living in a van when the money ran out.
    via u/Graw1948
  • 72
    [deleted] Taking out a loan where the interest was like 13%, monthly, with no grace period for paying it back. Basically go to school and watch your loan increase monthly bc you don't have a career yet to pay off the loan. That idiot was my sister and she duped my parents into co-signing.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 73
    They had to refinance the house bc by her sophomore year it was going up by like 2K a month. To boot they can't afford to help pay for any other sibling.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 74
    ChaiMilk Watching an ex friend make 4x more money than me but couldn't pay her cheaper rent because she blew all of her money on designer clothes and perfume
    via u/ChaiMilk
  • 75
    Present-Farmer... Friend on diablo immortal is 50k in debt for an ego stroke
    via u/Present-Farmer-802
  • 76
    S... A couple of years ago, my friend was visiting Vegas for a few weeks and he lent out $170,000 to someone who was essentially a stranger (but my friend thought that he was a very rich stranger).
    via u/SDW137
  • 77
    My friend is not rich by any means, and was just on a hot streak while doing sports betting. He never saw that money again. The guy who he lent money to was actually broke, and does this type of stuff all the time.
    via u/SDW137

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