My worst purchase: individual stocks.

Stick to ETFs, index funds and mutual funds.

I find it interesting how so many fail with MLM's and regret there decisions. Problem is nobody treats it like a business and are consistant with their efforts.

Venturion said:Enlighten and regale us with stories of your MLM success, oh wise one. As for me, I did treat it as a business, which is why I flushed it along with any sunk costs as quickly as I could once I realized the amazingly low, if not negative, return on invested time and capital, not to mention the reputation impact.

Instylex said:I find it interesting how so many fail with MLM's and regret there decisions. Problem is nobody treats it like a business and are consistant with their efforts.

I think it's crucial to pick a company that has a solid product and the money is not based on recruiting. By that I mean the money should be based on the residue and not initial sign ups. When you have people that will stand behind a product even if the business opportunity is taken away then you usually have a good company. I promise you MLM's do work providing you find a good company.

Venturion said:... I realized the amazingly low, if not negative, return on invested time and capital, not to mention the reputation impact.

Truer words about MLM's are rarely spoken. I know someone who got into one MLM after another. His reputation seemed forever tarnished. I haven't spoken with him for years, but I am certain that his family doesn't let him forget it.

If he had opened up a restaurant and served rotten food it would have been forgotten. The stench of the knock-off perfumes, etc never seems to fade.

If the same person put that energy into an education or vocational school, the time would have been much better spent.

~miser

Do you sleep any better?

I always wondered if watching television impacted how we sleep, just watching it for an hour or two before bed. I've heard it said that our brain is more active watching a white wall than it is watching a television program, which makes me think watching television could be the equivalent of being in a coma thereby reducing the brain's ability to sleep well once the coma-inducing activity stops for the night.

Back about 2000 I was really "into" movies. Like a fool bought DVD instead of renting them. I have close to 300 DVDs and I have over $5000 in them.

The worst part is all of the space they take up and I doubt that I have actually watched half of them. Now when I want to watch a movie I just go the local movie place and rent it for $4.

DavidScubadiver said:clyde_frog said:DavidScubadiver said:Lifetime subscription to REPLAYTV.
I LOVE the unit and the ability to fade out when commercial break starts and fade in at the end of the commercials. BAM! No commercials.

But, after a year of enjoying this fantastic service, I decided to quit T.V. So, after canceling cable, I only get snow on my set. One day, maybe I'll rejoin the world of television and have a use for this baby!

quit tv? interesting. how's that going for you? it's almost impossible for me to imagine not having some kind of tv access...I thought it would be next to impossible to do. But, I can definitely recommend it for several reasons.

1) I sleep more.
2) I rarely am bombarded by bad news.
3) I have more time to do everything else.
4) We have more fun in bed because we have to entertain ourselves somehow.
5) Then we sleep better as a result.

Still watch the occasional DVD though!I only watch COPS and Discovery HD these days... and the occasional good series on HBO HD. However, I am a NetFlix maniac and watch about 3-7 movies a week... all kinds of weird shit from around the world... well worth the $38 a month!

oopsz said:I have a money pit of a passat that my dad gave me after college (I paid him the scrap value- and I think I overpaid). This past year I put almost $2200 in repairs into it. The problem is, until I finish grad school, it's easier to repair it and keep it running than it is to get financing for a new car-- even if my payments would be about the same. It's frustrating, to say the least.

How about buying a cheap reliable used car. You can get one for $ 5,000 - $ 10,000.

Car stereo from this local dealer, bought it, went home and read reviews: junk.
Did not install it(or open it) but they refused to take returns, so I had to trade in for something else at far better resale value. Ended up keeping it and the product works fine, but I was ripped off pretty much - also lost 5 hours of my life dealing with it.

So General rules are:
Research FIRST!
Buy online (avoid tax), make sure it is what you want, exactly what you want.
On some items, buy local (tv/monitor/large items) and make sure the return policy is good for you.

Don't listen to salesmen, they know nothing. Sometimes I am turned by them on smaller items like this stereo.

Individual stocks, I regret a few stocks I bought, but mostly just experiments that failed and I lost a small amount on. Stocks are a learning process which takes time. It is best to have a mutual fund as the base while you learn the ropes.

I'm sure there are other things I regret but when I follow my plan things end up being wonderful.

This thread is great about the whole car thing. I have been looking at many 30-35k sedans and I came to the conclusion last week that I'll just keep my current Jeep. Often the best strat is just to do nothing. This thread re-enforces this idea.

I got nostalgic one day after accidentally bumping into an old high school friend and the following week I laid out $700 for a high-end clarinet, thinking that I'd be able to just pick it up and play it like I did back in school and that it would help relieve stress or something like that.

Needless to say I sound like a tortured goose when I play (squeak) on it; my husband refuses to be in the house when I'm "producing those sounds"; my cats run for cover and I don't see them for hours afterward; my kids give me funny looks when I take it out of the case and then have the nerve to tell me they want to "go play outside"; and I had to come to terms with the fact that whatever talent I might have had twenty-five years ago has up-and-died.

I think the clarinet is worth approximately $100 now and I can't even pass it on to my kids because they don't want to have anything to do with "that thing."