I just remembered our biggest money mistake. Eh, give me time and maybe I will remember more. I Admit I am really good at pushing negative things out of my mind so I forget.

But I Was up with the baby at 3am and watching Suze Orman when her show reminded me.

Now I have to preface this with it wasn't "my" mistake - it was my hubby's. but well, we're a team and I could have told him hell no I guess - so I bear some responsibility.

Just out of college and saving a lot he decided to invest in the stock market. Well, he told me one day, "Don't worry - there is NO risk." I remember laughing in his face. We were both business majors in college - what is this no risk crap? - he should know better. My hubby is a very smart man, but don't ask me where his brain went in this idea.

So we invested maybe $10k. We watched it plummet to $5k pretty quickly and just left it in there in the hopes someday we would get some return. To our benefit we were in it for the long haul, not that day trading stuff. BUT even so, when stock plummets to nothing, most likely it will not bounce back in the least. IT was a BIG mistake.

On the plus side we lost it when we had more money than we knew what to do with and so I don't think I had too many sleepless nights over it. All the same it sucks to lose $5k like that. Today we could really use it! We had pretty much forgotten about it until recently and put the remainder towards a new car. IT was like found money so in the end I guess it worked out. IT was there when we needed it.

We still have $1200 in pepsi. IT was the only one that had done well, so we keep it for the long run. I buy enough pepsi I figure I need to own stock in it - LOL.

Overall I Think it was a good lesson to learn young.

I feel extremely blessed to have not made many money mistakes in my young life. No large ones to speak of. A little money education and a LOT of luck I guess???

BUT today I am feeling extra bummed about my big money mistake. If you have seen my posts today, it got me thinking. When I was 12 or 13 or I don't know I got a checking account and at 16 a credit card, with a credit union. My parents taught me that credit unions were free and that was the way to go. Now they did great in the whole don't use debt to buy what you can't afford, etc., etc. and they taught me well. They taught me about savings. I Couldn't have really asked for more. But they really dropped the ball on investing. I guess I Am on my own to figure that one out.

I opened an IRA when I Was 16 and put in $2k. It has been sitting making 0.4% at most for about 14 years. ?????? We have kept all of our savings in our credit unions money markets for the last 7 years. For at least 4 years we had a 30k balance. We made squat on our money!!!

So I Recently started watching Suze Orman and she kind of smacked me out of it. I decided to rollover our IRAs to ROTHs, get rid of my rinkydink 0.5% c.d., and put it in mutual funds. I am still young so I Don't think this will really hurt me that much. But it is still kind of sad to look back and see how much money you could have made the last few years if you were a little smarter. To see how far ahead you would be.

Anyway, so I put our savings in Virtual Bank to the tune of 4.60% APR and I Was feeling a lot better just to have the wind blown from my sales today. *sigh*

I am still figuring this all out...

I have just been shifting from the major mind shift in investing to go as cheap as you can go, to you get what you pay for. Sometimes all the talk of getting the highest interest rate possible and less fees possible, in many instances there is a trade-off. I am still trying to balance all that out in the investment world. I am also not sure if I want to open a new account every time some bank offers a higher yield, as they seem to change with the wind. On the other hand, I need to admit that I do need to review our accounts annually at the very LEAST (if not more often) and reinvest as things do change.

In a similar vein, as a CPA I can crack the tax code and all of it's intricacies, but it is maddening to try to figure out mutual funds and how the fees work, etc. It is so over my head, though I know if I just took the time to figure it out it would benefit me greatly. What I need is a mutual fund book for DUMMIES. Seriously - I am putting it on my christmas wish list. : )

& so I Am in transition trying to decide what changes to make and what my new investing strategies should be. I think by far & #1 I have learned is to reevaluate your options often. Investing is a big job, you just don't do it once and sit back and not think of it again...

Anyway, that is my money mistake with cash. I Am gonna get my dummies book, pay close attention to this site, and reevaluate all of our mutual fund holdings. I will probably find I have made some mistakes with our mutual funds too, I just haven't noticed yet, but I am ready to make some changes. So wish me luck!

Oh yeah, and do not go to your CPA for investment advice. Please please please. Investment is like so greek to me sometimes, it is just so different from accounting. I often come across that mistaken assumption that accounting = finance. It is like apples and oranges. Taxes and budgets we are okay with, but investing, blech. LOL. Not by nature anyway.