Our Most Embarrassing Money Mistakes, And What We Can Learn From Them
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The year was 2011. My now-wife and I were looking for a new apartment in a popular neighborhood where vacancies were snapped up in days or less, and our current lease was only weeks from expiring. As we were turned down or outbid on one rental after another, we became increasingly desperate.
Finally, we found an apartment that fit the bill—it was less than a block from the train station in a perfect area. The building was a bit old and the unit wasn’t in great condition, but it was good enough.
After having lost out on so many rentals, we weren’t going to lose this one. We told the realtor we wanted to apply, and asked that she stop showing the unit for a day while we submitted an application. Sure, she said, if we’d put down a “small” deposit. Of course, we hadn’t brought our checkbook and we generally don’t carry much cash.
As we walked with the realtor to the nearest ATM, part of me realized I was acting rashly, but that was more than drowned out by our fear of losing yet another apartment. At this point you can anticipate the rest of the story—I withdrew $500 and handed it to the realtor with an agreement to talk the next day about signing a lease. Later that evening, after reflecting on the unit’s flaws and reading scathing reviews of the building, we immediately regretted our decision and backed out. But, of course, our nonrefundable $500 deposit was gone.
A few days later, we found a better apartment in a nearby building, but every year or two I thought about my mistake, and I never shared it with anyone (until now).
This was an embarrassing money mistake, and like most big money mistakes, it had three key causes.
First, the stakes were high—we needed a place to live.
Next, we felt like we needed to act immediately—our lease was expiring soon.
Finally, it seemed like we had found a quick solution, something that could fix all our problems.
While the apartment and realtor we dealt with were (as far as we know) legitimate, these three characteristics are core to many of the recent scams that have become unfortunately commonplace, with the recent scam chronicled in The Day I Put $50,000 in a Shoe Box and Handed It to a Stranger an extreme example.
What can we learn from experiences like these? If you’re in a situation in which things are moving very quickly to force you to make a decision or take some action, try to slow things down to give yourself a chance to think, or to ask a trusted friend or relative for advice. If the person on the other side resists that or provides some reason that you need to do something now or that you can’t tell anyone else about it, there’s a very good chance they don’t have your best interests at heart.
Readers, do you have any stories of embarrassing money mistakes and what you learned from them? I’d love to hear from you via email and potentially share some useful stories and tips in the future (anonymously, of course).
And now, Andrew’s pick(s) of the week:
Martin Greenfield, Tailor to Sinatra, Obama, Trump and Shaq, Dies at 95
How Much More Ranch Can America Take? Hidden Valley Seeks Total Domination
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