[USER]

What are some tips to not dwell on past financial mistakes and keep moving forward? A couple of years ago I lost $40k when the crypto market crashed.

I’m not a high earner and that money amount is significant to me. It took me a few months to get over it and move on.

I’m now doing some renovations around the house and I have to remove a lot of things I want to do because of budget constraints, which is making me beat myself up again about the lost money.

I know it’s not healthy and doesn’t do me any good, but I just can’t help it.

[Brian]

You have no idea how much more money I have lost buying things I believed were good like EL

Remember that as long as you are a good saver. You will come ahead of 80% of the rest

I felt I wasted my 20s and early 30s but then realized I still managed to pay off my mortgage by 36 so Remember all your remarkable accomplishments

[Kenneth]

In the recent downturn my accounts dropped 300K in the stock market. Mostly index funds in retirement accounts.

I went backpacking. You have to have confidence that the market will come back.

Never sell a bottom.

[Young]

I know how you feel and its hard. You don’t dwell on the mistakes but you have to learn from it or else it’s for nothing.

[Robert]

Do you think you are the only person who has ever cocked something up financially? I sold my Apple stock back in 2008.

How do you think I feel? (even though I’m a guy and we don’t do “feelings”) trust me on this one…. there’s absolutely nothing to be gained by looking back in your past and beating yourself up over past issues.

Focus on the future because that’s where the rest of your life is.

Learn the appropriate lessons (and be thankful for what you have) and move on.

At least you have the presence of mind to realize that you made a mistake; many people do not.

[Marleen]

Just really realize: Yes, it sucks, but mourning over it won’t help you in ANY way at all.

Just try to distract some lessons learned, and get back to the Now

[Philip]

Just don’t make the same mistakes twice. Years ago I bought a BMW M5 and got hit with some big repair bills.

Ended up trading the car and not holding for very long resulting in a loss.

[Solange]

Just lost 20K over 2023 and 2024 with a bearish advisor.
Everybody has to learn their lesson. Consider it a blessing: now you know.

Read the simple path to wealth and “convert your religion”: set a standing order, invest in etf, dca all the way through your 60s.

That ll be ample time to make up for the crypto disaster.

If you haven’t sold, don’t.

[Jennifer]

The way I look at it, if I knew X years ago what I know now, I’d do a lot of things differently.

Most of us would. I was sold an annuity in my 20s that was worth around $100K by my early 50s.

If I’d invested that money in a low-cost S&P 500 index fund instead, it would have been worth close to half a million.

When I realized this, I kicked myself pretty hard for about a week. Then I moved the annuity to Fidelity and moved on.

I’ll never make up what I lost, but I can do better going forward. (Also: don’t buy annuities.)

If we could see the future, we’d all be billionaires. You wish you could go back in time and sell your crypto, but everybody wishes they could go back in time and buy more Apple stock or whatever.

I’d love to go back in time and pick the winning lottery numbers. But that’s not how it works.

You learned a lot from your mistake. Make different mistakes next time.

(Index funds or ETFs with low fees, slow and steady is my advice.)

[Tom]

Don’t sell at a loss. Period. While individual stocks may go to zero, no index has ever done that; in fact, it always recovers and heads higher.

History is on your side.

And you should only buy crypto with money you can 100% afford to live without. No exceptions.

[Colin]

My father always told me, “education costs”. That’s how I look at these type of situations, I paid for the education.

[Lori]

Same scenario. Different ruse. I racked up $40K in credit card debt. It caused all kinds of havoc to my personal and married life.

Pick yourself up and regroup. Risk is risk. It can pay off big or have devastating consequences.

The key is to keep your eyes open and be okay with error. This situation was totally out of your control.

One thing I did was acknowledge the loss, make amends and move forward. That money is gone.

It’s not coming back. Be okay with that. Acknowledge the risk and rebuild. Don’t forget.

Have no regrets and don’t allow yourself to “what if”.

[Aaron]

It may sound silly, but some people benefit from making an event out of putting it in the past. Example, write down losing 40k in crypto on a piece of paper.

Say that you forgive yourself, what you’ve learned from it and how you’ll avoid repeating the mistake. Burn the piece of paper, and move on.

Or increase your income and make that money become inconsequential now.

[Michael]

I used to have a degenerate day trading crypto addiction. There’s a crypto rehab in the UK.

Had I lived there, I would’ve definitely become a patient.
I lost at least 50k to 100k

Had I not touched a thing, it would’ve been millions now.

I let that sink in every day I want to touch something in my much bigger stock portfolio.

I churned myself into the ground.

I came out more disciplined and better for it
Nowadays, I focus mainly on equities and my crypto exposure is minimum.

More importantly, I watch my behavior and I’m disciplined about whatever I buy.

[Smith]

stop speculating and use a stockbroker to guide you. People think they save money when they invest on their own but in reality they make so many poor decisions that they lose more money than they save on commissions

[Sam]

Figure out how where you messed up in selecting that as an investment, otherwise it was a complete waste (I guess aside from the tax write off).

Crypto is inherently more risky because most of it has no inherent value, and is price driven almost entirely by speculators, there’s no fundamentals to analyze.

Maybe it exceeded your risk profile?

Maybe you don’t know your risk profile? Maybe you were just gambling? Maybe it wasn’t understood and FOMO drove the buy?

Learn about risk and draw down, figure out what you can stomach, and choose an investment profile that fits.

[Nicole]

Been there done that. I posted a few months ago about having regrets over taking an early withdrawal from my 401k to buy a house and investing too conservatively in my IRA and missing out on the bull market.

I could probably be the example of what not to do but what’s important is your still earning and saving and it sounds like you own your home versus renting as you shared you are making renovations and your sticking to a budget, that’s no easy feat.

I think we have to continue to focus on our goals, appreciate where we’ve been and where we are today and as many shared with me give yourself some grace and look how far you’ve come and what you’re continuing to do.

[Author]

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