What have been your worst investments?

Investor · Midwest, USA · Member since 2012 · 204 posts · 33 votes

My worst loss was $100,000 trading foreign exchange. I made $100,000 one year then lost $200,000 the next.

My worst real estate deal I lost about $25,000 on. Paid too much, rented to dirt bag tenant for way too long, cost me a ton to rehab after I got rid of him, and sold it for a lot less than I projected.

1 Reply

41 views

Most Popular Reply

Account Closed

Neptune, NJ · Member since 2014 · 116 posts · 51 votes

12y

My X

5 Reply

See this reply in the discussion

38 Replies

Jump to latestLatest

Sort by

Zaid R.
Investor · Northridge, CA · Member since 2012 · 249 posts · 73 votes
12y
For kicks I bought few thousands worth of Euros when the currency started going down ( I want to see 3.5 years ago or so).

The currency kept going down. Then the collapse of Greek economy hit and it went down even further. I learned the hard way!
0 Reply
Joseph Pytcher
Lender · Plano, TX · Member since 2013 · 312 posts · 71 votes
12y
You lost $200k in the FOREX? Dang man, no offense but you must be really bad at it.
0 Reply
Marcia Maynard
Investor · Vancouver, WA · Member since 2013 · 3k+ posts · 4k+ votes
12y
My husband, without telling me, bought Lucent stock after hearing TV pundits talking about it on those financial shows. He bought it in the morning for $75/share and it dropped to $50/share before nightfall. The stock took a downward spin and never recovered. He held on to it and it is only worth a few bucks a share now. Luckily he wasn't in for very much. We use it as an example now to guard ourselves from buying on impulse.
0 Reply
Rachel H.
San Antonio, TX · Member since 2009 · 3k+ posts · 1k+ votes
12y
Usually, it's when I've bought things in the past solely based on price. Over the years, I've learned cheap is not always the best route to go as it tends to cost more time and money in the long run. Just my experience!
1 Reply
Anthony GaydenPro Member
Rental Property Investor · Omaha, NE · Member since 2014 · 2k+ posts · 3k+ votes
12y
Without a doubt my savings accounts. I keep a large emergency fund in savings, and the interest it has earned in the last 2 years (0.75%) doesn't even keep up with inflation. It is literally losing money as it sits there. On more than one occasion I have contemplated moving all except $1000 into my brokerage account, but I don't do it because I have a fear of needing the cash for an emergency in a short time period.
Podcast Guest on Show #21
0 Reply
Patrick McGowen
Investor · Belgrade, MT · Member since 2013 · 135 posts · 32 votes
12y
My wife and I bought a home balloon business (decorating parties and delivering bouquets) many years ago. It was a lot of fun and easy to do while working full time. I bought a lot of blue sky with it and we sold the business for less than we bought it. We did make money, but after we sold it I estimated that our time into it earned us about 25 cents an hour. It was a great learning experience though.

My college education was a bad investment, I think. It is possible I would have worked some crummy min. wage job and blown all my money if I had not gone to college. But basically I busted my but for seven years to get back to zero. I was an 18 yr old with about 5k saved up, to a 22 yr old with a degree but 25k in debt, to a 25 yr old with debt paid off. If I would have worked as hard and lived as cheap as I did during those year, but worked (even a low paying job) I could have been a 25 yr old with 100k to invest.

@Anthony Gayden It kind of depends on how likely/often you are to access your emergency fund as to best option. I am a strong believer in an emergency reserve that is low risk and liquid. A broker account (assumed invested in stocks/bonds) is not low risk. Two options you might consider: First, precious metals. Local dealers will buy and sell gold/silver directly. You do have a transaction fees, but they can be pretty transparent, ask dealers what they will sell to you over the spot price, and what they will buy from you under spot price. Pay attention to gold/silver ration and if <45 buy gold, if >45 buy silver. You can always sell when you have an emergency and if we have hyper inflation, you will be in great position, you will likely be more able to buy things directly with silver/gold if dollar collapses. Just keep in mind if you plan to access this money a lot, the transaction fees will kill you. Option two, consider infinite banking concept. This uses cash value in a whole life policy This has some heavy up front cost, but if set up properly allows a contractually guaranteed return higher than savings acts with dividends that will likely increase as interest rates increase. You can access money any time with policy loan.
2 Reply
Timothy Riley
Investor · Chicago, IL · Member since 2013 · 451 posts · 96 votes
12y
Books-A-Million Stock investment. Went into the sorte and said "WOW this is going to outdo Border's". Off to Schwuab i went - Hell does Border's still exsist? OUCH! $15,000
0 Reply
Account Closed
Neptune, NJ · Member since 2014 · 116 posts · 51 votes
12y
My X
5 Reply
Bryan L.
Residential Real Estate Agent · Cookeville, TN · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 948 votes
12y
Without a doubt, it's my first (and only) multi-family purchase. Don't anyone ever believe the crap about MFH being "safer". You can lose your donkey just as well, if not better, with MFH.
0 Reply
Anthony GaydenPro Member
Rental Property Investor · Omaha, NE · Member since 2014 · 2k+ posts · 3k+ votes
12y
@Patrick McGowen I consider precious metals the absolutely worst possible investment.
Podcast Guest on Show #21
0 Reply
J ScottPro Member
Moderator
Investor · Sarasota, FL · Member since 2008 · 17k+ posts · 17k+ votes
12y
Originally posted by @Timothy Riley:
Books-A-Million Stock investment. Went into the sorte and said "WOW this is going to outdo Border's". Off to Schwuab i went - Hell does Border's still exsist? OUCH! $15,000

That's funny (ironic funny, not haha funny) -- my BEST investment from a pure ROI standpoint was books-a-million. I purchased it the day after Thanksgiving 1998, got into the shower, got out of the shower, saw that I made $20K and sold it.

For those who under the age of 35 reading this, you probably don't remember the Internet bubble, but (in my opinion) it made the real estate bubble look small. As many people who may have quit their jobs to get into real estate in 2004-2006, ten times as many quit their jobs to become day-traders in the late 90s (and nobody had any idea what they were doing).

As for worst investment, definitely the World Series of Poker Main Event... :-)
Podcast Guest on Show The Truth About Real Estate Investing in 2024 (What Investors NEED to Know)
3 Reply
Nicholas Dagnillo
Real Estate Investor · Providence, RI · Member since 2012 · 20 posts · 5 votes
12y
College
1 Reply
Account Closed
Investor · Singapore · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 3k+ votes
12y
125k invested in a partnership to develop townhomes in the Bay Area in 2003 Did diligence on the numbers but not the partners. 5 years later dirt had not moved. And market had crashed. Limited partners sued the general partners. Got a settlement and just getting final payment back this month. Luckily got all the principal back and most of the legal fees. But, opportunity cost of 125k for 10 years is substantial Contrary to some posts., best investment ever was my education. It was more time invested than money since grad school was fully paid for by scholarships and research grants.
0 Reply
Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
12y
@J Scott

to follow up on your response.. If you remember there were all those day trading companies that had big boiler rooms of computers set up and you paid them to come in and trade with them... And so many lost so much.. If you recall one investor in Atlanta lost 600k in 3 months and then went postal.

I see now that the day traders are back at selling seminars and providing hands on training and setting up boiler rooms again.

Pretty hard to compete with the pro's who do it for a living.

But on topic... Anyone who bought real estate in 07 at the peak and panicked and sold in 09... Just like those that bought the stock market at 15k and sold at 6k...

And it really did not matter were you were at.... Ft. Myers... Atlanta, PHX, Vegas INland empire,, central valley CA... Solano county...

YOu name it if you bought at the peak and sold in the trough Trillions were lost
Podcast Guest on Show #222
JLH Capital Partners51 Review
Website View Page
0 Reply
Franklin Romine
Visalia-Fresno, CA · Member since 2009 · 1k+ posts · 863 votes
12y
investing in an ethanol stock in 2005. The only upside is I have a nice tax write off when I sell.
0 Reply
Ben Bakhshi
Investor · Atlanta, GA · Member since 2012 · 408 posts · 37 votes
12y
Originally posted by @Bryan L.:
Without a doubt, it's my first (and only) multi-family purchase. Don't anyone ever believe the crap about MFH being "safer". You can lose your donkey just as well, if not better, with MFH.

What happened with your deal?
0 Reply
Bryan L.
Residential Real Estate Agent · Cookeville, TN · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 948 votes
12y
@Ben Bakhshi - Too many things to mention. But the result is negative cash-flow. I cringe every time that I see someone here on BP say that MFH is "safer" for whatever idiot kind of reasoning.
1 Reply
Jon Klaus
Developer · Garland, TX · Member since 2008 · 8k+ posts · 4k+ votes
12y
Those who have said college was your worst investment, what did you study? Did you get a degree?
0 Reply
Jon Klaus
Developer · Garland, TX · Member since 2008 · 8k+ posts · 4k+ votes
12y
Originally posted by @J Scott:

Originally posted by @Timothy Riley:
Books-A-Million Stock investment. Went into the sorte and said "WOW this is going to outdo Border's". Off to Schwuab i went - Hell does Border's still exsist? OUCH! $15,000

That's funny (ironic funny, not haha funny) -- my BEST investment from a pure ROI standpoint was books-a-million. I purchased it the day after Thanksgiving 1998, got into the shower, got out of the shower, saw that I made $20K and sold it.

For those who under the age of 35 reading this, you probably don't remember the Internet bubble, but (in my opinion) it made the real estate bubble look small. As many people who may have quit their jobs to get into real estate in 2004-2006, ten times as many quit their jobs to become day-traders in the late 90s (and nobody had any idea what they were doing).

As for worst investment, definitely the World Series of Poker Main Event... :-)

Did you start taking more showers immediately after making trades?

I bought a bunch of CMGI, a company that held a basket of dotcoms in 1999-2001. I rode it up from the $30s to above $150, and then all the way down to pennies. I learned some good lessons.
0 Reply
J ScottPro Member
Moderator
Investor · Sarasota, FL · Member since 2008 · 17k+ posts · 17k+ votes
12y
Originally posted by @Jon Klaus:
I bought a bunch of CMGI, a company that held a basket of dotcoms in 1999-2001. I rode it up from the $30s to above $150, and then all the way down to pennies. I learned some good lessons.

I learned some good lessons during that time as well. The biggest being -- I shouldn't be trading stocks...
Podcast Guest on Show The Truth About Real Estate Investing in 2024 (What Investors NEED to Know)
0 Reply
CK Hwang
Capistrano Beach, CA · Member since 2013 · 283 posts · 169 votes
12y
My worst so far is some stupid luxury apartment that is negative cash flow and I can't get rid of it and it has tied up tons and tons of my money. But it did make me a wiser buyer.
0 Reply
Rolanda Eldridge
Investor/Realtor · Hoover, AL · Member since 2010 · 1k+ posts · 459 votes
12y
Out of state purchase in 2005(no money down/new). ouch....still not cash flowing, but bread and butter deals looking good!!!..
0 Reply
George C.
Involved In Real Estate · My City, NJ · Member since 2013 · 181 posts · 81 votes
12y
Worst investment was in 1998 starting a restaurant from scratch, a whole lot of blood sweat & tears went into it. I figured that I could afford to gamble about 30K and that it was a gamble...what I didn't figure was that it would end up costing ALOT more by the time the dust settled. We were borrowing money just to keep running so I pulled the plug. To clear the debts I sold a two family that I had for eleven years. I sold it in 2000 for $260K, in 2005 it sold again for $550K....all because I thought that I could afford to gamble $30K...
0 Reply
Brian P.
Wholesaler · Salt Lake City, UT · Member since 2009 · 1k+ posts · 401 votes
12y
You never know. Worst investment I made was one in which I made a nice profit. Put $30 k in, but at the same time I was offered another investment for the same amount of money and took the safe route. Ten years later the investment I did make was worth $150 k The one I didn't make was worth $300 million. Definitely bet on the wrong horse, but that was all the cash I had at the time and decided to play it safe. My gut was telling me to gamble and risk everything and go with choice number two but with what I had been through the previous 5 years I went with the sure thing., and so as far as I'm concerned it was my worst investment.
0 Reply
Bill Gulley
Investor, Entrepreneur, Educator · Springfield, MO · Member since 2009 · 21k+ posts · 12k+ votes
12y
Originally posted by @Patrick McGowen:

My college education was a bad investment, I think. It is possible I would have worked some crummy min. wage job and blown all my money if I had not gone to college. But basically I busted my but for seven years to get back to zero. I was an 18 yr old with about 5k saved up, to a 22 yr old with a degree but 25k in debt, to a 25 yr old with debt paid off. If I would have worked as hard and lived as cheap as I did during those year, but worked (even a low paying job) I could have been a 25 yr old with 100k to invest.

That may be true in some respects, depends on what you selected as a major.

I'd suggest you may not be aware of the effects of your education in aspects of your life, your business dealings, your ability to research information and communicate with others. You may not have allowed enough time too in order to understand how your education plays on other aspects of you life.

You could also have lost the investment and turned out less educated!

If you want evidence of the impressions you make on others you deal with, you only have to read the title of this thread, poor Larry.

"What have been your worst investment" seems like someone lost out on an educational opportunity a long time ago. LOL :)
1 Reply

Join the conversationCreate a free account to reply, vote on answers and follow this thread.