“It’s Been Over A Decade, And I’m Still Trying To Pay Off The Interest”: 19 People Share Their Biggest Financial Mistakes That Still Haunt Them To This Day

18.

“Gambling. You can’t outgamble your losses.”

“Losing is not the problem with gambling; if you lost every time, you wouldn’t gamble anymore. Winning is the real problem.

The more you win, the more you increase your stakes. You win some, you lose some — no big deal. I went to a casino once with $2 and came out with over $500; the next day, I went in with $150 and ended up over $300 in debt.

It’s a brutal cycle where the money you make will not be enough to make long-term changes in your life, and you’ll lose it in the next round anyway.

Meanwhile, your brain gets so hooked on it that you start making illogical financial decisions in your daily life — even when the decisions are unrelated to gambling. You’ll start buying expensive stuff for your partner because you either feel bad about losing the same amount of money last night or because you feel confident that you can make more money if you win tonight.”

—u/No-Compote-2127