"What's the most expensive mistake you've ever made?" –– This was today's burning question from Redditor basementdweller123, and we're sorry in advance if it brings up memories of something utterly terrible that you'd rather forget.
But Reddit is a safe space, so if anyone had any reservations, they quickly got over it. All we can do is read, take note, and cringe. (Emphasis on cringe.)
"I had been..."
I had been in a high-tech company for about a year, when I made an avoidable error in the software checking mask designs for a new chip. I found the error, but they had already made the mask (but not the chip yet, than god). That was a $10,000 mistake. I was lucky that they didn't fire me.
"I was in a hotel."
I was in a hotel. Took some sleeping pills right before taking a shower. Turned the water on to let it warm up.
I wake up several hours later and the floor is soaked.
I was on the 7th floor.
Estimate was around $30K in damage, that doesn't include all the room changes for everyone below me.
"You spend a little here..."
Wasting my $11,000 inheritance on god knows what, I don't even remember. You spend a little here and a little there and next thing you know you're broke and homeless and could really do with a safety net but you were careless and it's now gone with nothing to show for it.
"Selling..."
Selling my free-to-me stock options for $500 when leaving a tiny company that was later acquired by an international monster. I refuse to calculate their current market value.
"It fell apart in a year."
$1,000 couch from a furniture store that was "going out of business." It fell apart in a year.
"Came in the next morning..."
Not expensive for me, but for the state. I used to work for the division of forestry dispatching firefighters to wildfires. Two roads on opposite end of the county had extremely similar names. Took a call from a guy reporting a fire on White Pine Road. We were already on site for a fire on White Pine Lane. I said "White Pine? We have a crew on the scene already, sir!"
Came in the next morning and saw that there was a new fire on the map. White Pine Road. 700 acres. Whoops.
"I was on a country road..."
12 years ago I fell asleep at the wheel while working my job ~8:00 am after having been working already for 4 hours.
I was on a country road, went into the ditch and hit a culvert that flipped me 5 times as I went back across the road the other way.
Truck was totaled obviously, and I destroyed a row of hedges on someone's property. I'm not sure the total damage but the company's insurance covered it all. Definitely over $30g's though.
I came out with no injuries. No other vehicles or people involved (beyond the owner of the hedges, who came out and helped me call 911). Super lucky, and now I would never drive that tired ever again.
"I did a beer run..."
I did a beer run for 25 people in my first year at uni. Everyone gave me cash, so I had like 400 bucks in my wallet. I didn't have my own cash however so I paid for the lot on card. Lost my wallet before I even got home. I was fairly upset.
"I didn't get health insurance..."
I didn't get health insurance at work because it was too expensive and then I got 3 different cancers in 1 year. Oops.
"Allowing my ex..."
Allowing my ex to convince me to get rid of my great-running vehicle, in favor of a newer one to build credit so we could get a house together. That was June 2015. I paid nearly $400/month, hardly any $$ for fun until June 2019. We got the house, then she cheated and left, and now it could get foreclosed, lol.
