16 Painful Money Mistakes People Have Made Without Even Realizing It (2024)

For many people, financial wellness is a learning experience. We learn what works and we keep doing those things...and we also learn what doesn't work so we can avoid those mistakes. However, it's not always obvious that we're making a mistake. We often learn down the line that we should've done things differently.

So we recently asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to share the money mistakes they didn't realize they were making and they graciously delivered so we could all learn from their experiences. Here's what they shared:

1. "I got 'free' credit cards while in college but had no job or other way to pay them off."

2. "Temporarily decreasing my 401(k) contribution."

"I make a decent salary and I'm pretty frugal so I have been contributing 10% to my 401(k). Last year, I decided to start training for a new career so I reduced my contribution to 1% to help pay for school. This was only meant to be temporary until I get my certifications. Long story short, the government saw this as an increase in income and because I did not adjust my W-4 accordingly, I ended up owing $8k to the fed and $1k to the state this year. I really wish I had thought this through."

—pseudosapien

3. "Only saving money but not investing it. I think when you grow up poor, the mentality is to save and keep saving until something bad happens."

4. "Thinking that getting a job in STEM was guaranteed financial security."

—thatsquidsquad

5. "I worked a whole lot of overtime and wasn’t able to get free time for that. So they paid me the hours, which I had to pay more taxes for."

6. "I had two credit cards with around $1,500 balances on each. When I got my tax return for $1,200, I paid $600 on each card. I should have paid off one of the cards in full by adding the extra $300 from my own account."

"I ended up getting behind on my payments and after late fees and interest, it was like I never made those payments. If I’d paid off the first card, I would only have been making one payment a month, not two."

—ashleys86

7. "I’m mad I didn’t start investing in a Roth IRA sooner. My company is great in that I’ve had a 401(k) since right out of college and have had employee match (I know that’s not always an option for everyone), but just having that honestly doesn’t seem enough nowadays, either."

8. "Payday loans... I was desperate and needed to pay rent and utilities. I took three of those scam-ish loans. It took me five years to pay them off due to the interest. My credit got destroyed in the process."

"Eight years later and a lot of hard work and budgeting, all of my bills are on auto-pay. And if you've ever struggled financially, you know how damn good it feels to not have to worry about money anymore."

—megano31

9. "When I got my first real job, I decided to get all the streaming services and subscriptions without counting how much I was spending monthly. I was spending so much fricking money."

10. "I've never taken out any loans or gotten a credit card. It sounds good in theory because I've never spent money I didn't have and I don't have any debts. But it also means I don't have a credit score, which makes things like renting an apartment slightly more challenging."

"I'm also not easily able to do things like rent a car or get a hotel room. A decision that has given me some financial freedom has actually limited me in a lot of ways, too."

—ld61812

11. "I wish I'd gotten a credit card sooner. I used to do everything in cash or on debit."

12. "Instead of doing one big shop for the whole week, I would just nip into a shop and buy a few items here and there for the next few days. Each time, I’d get distracted and end up picking up way more than I needed, spending £20 every couple of days."

"When I started planning my meals and doing a weekly food shop, I realized I could feed myself off a £30 planned food shop instead of the impulsive shops I was doing, which were mounting up to about £60 a week."

—chels_88

13. "Buying cheap cars doesn't really pay off. As much as I love my old car, which was already 16 years old when I bought it, there's always something that needs replacing or fixing and that costs a lot in the long run. I should have taken out a loan to buy a younger, not-so-worn-down car."

14. "I have seen so many friends spend excess money just because they didn’t take the extra 20 seconds to see their options. You can always search with prices sorted from low to high!!"

"With a few exceptions (like tech), BRANDS DO NOT MATTER. Always see if a generic store brand version exists; it will almost always be significantly cheaper for the same product."

—telencephalon

15. "Taking out the maximum amount of student loans for grad school. In hindsight (and watching a friend who is smarter with money), I could have saved up more before enrolling in grad school and then made sure I was working enough while in school to cover my living expenses."

16. And, "I ignored and buried my head in the sand when it came to my debts for a few years. I should have gotten advice on my finances."

"I had CCJs (county court judgments) and mounting debts because of interest on payday loans, which I had to take out when a relationship broke down, and they massively impacted my credit score and well-being. The past couple of years, I've been able to set up payment plans on credit cards and loans. So don't be scared to speak to creditors when you're having financial difficulties. You can always get help if needed."

—bluedecor

On the flip side, what's a financial achievement you had in the last year? Let us know in the comments below!

And if this sounds like music to your ears (and bank account), check out more of our personal finance posts.

Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.