Share your story: What's the most expensive thing you've ever purchased?
By glblguy
As part of a new series I’m starting, I asked you last week to share your story about your dumbest purchase. There were lots of great replies about cars, clothes, food, and even falling for scams. I found everyone’s replies really interesting to read and my hope is that everyone’s stories are not only fun to read but beneficial to others by helping them make smart decisions.
This week the Share Your Story question is: What is the most expensive thing you’ve ever purchased?
My most expensive thing
Mine, like many other’s answers I would suspect is our home. What makes mine interesting though as it wasn’t only the most expensive thing I’ve ever purchased, but also one of our more “dumb” one’s as well. We paid about $20,000 too much for our house! While I could easily blame this on our real estate agent as she pretty much lied to us, I blame myself for not doing my own homework. I was far too trusting of her and won’t make that mistake again. We didn’t find out how in the hole we were until we looked at possibly selling our home a few years later.
We just put a contract on another home, and not only did I get the competetive market analysis from our buyer’s agent, I also did research myself using sites like zillow.com. Fortunately this time around our agent was thorough and honest. His analysis was accurate and very well done.
How about you? What is the most expensive thing you’ve ever purchased? Would you purchase it again? Was it worth what you spent?
Photo by: Mulling it Over
September 11th, 2008 at 6:37 am
Same thing, my house. Its mortgage is the next thing that eats major pie of our salary. :(
September 11th, 2008 at 7:35 am
If I was being technical about it, the most expensive things I’ve purchased are my college education and my car (though the car is still owned by the bank).
But those are boring answers.
The most expensive thing I bought would probably be my honeymoon cruise to Alaska. The trip was just a little bit under $2k and worth every penny!
September 11th, 2008 at 7:52 am
My top three expensive items:
1. House (of course)
2. Education
3. Car
After that, I think it would have to be the $1,400 we spent on an LCD two years ago. We’ve used it quite a lot, and enjoy it. Of course, it’s a 32-inch Sony TV, and now we could get a bigger screen for less…
September 11th, 2008 at 8:08 am
My 2000 VW Jetta has cost me more than any other car. I went to a dealership and while I got some discounts, I didn’t get the best deal. My problem is hat I felt rushed, I should’ve just sucked up my pride and asked friends to help me until I got a car (would’ve been cheaper to pay them).
I got slammed with a 13.75% loan!
September 11th, 2008 at 8:24 am
Even though we are suffering from paying loaned money with the interest regularly purchasing expensive thing.
I think it’s more better than saving money unconditionally
(i mean someone buy nothing enduring beyond their strength
for uncertain future. =))
it’s so called opportunity cost..
no pains, no gains.
September 11th, 2008 at 8:36 am
Tops would be the house. I wish we hadn’t bought it, not because we overpaid, but because it quickly failed to meet our needs as a family.
Beyond that, I would have to say the most expensive thing has been my kids private school education. Averaging between $12,000 and $15,000 per year. That’s paid with AFTER tax dollars.
It’s like buying a new car every year and never getting to drive it…
September 11th, 2008 at 9:40 am
Most expensive – the house. Most enjoyed – the house. It was the best purchase we ever made!
On that note, we’re making double principle payments to pay it off in 15 years or less. No sense paying more interest than we have to!
September 11th, 2008 at 10:48 am
house.
so, i’m in a similar situation. what should i do? i bought a house a year ago, and now zillow shows that it has lost 12% in value!!! I am paying an interest only loan for 7 years (6 years left), and I don’t know what to do. Should I start putting money toward the principal so that when i want to sell, i will be able to break even? or should i continue to put $$ toward other debt and savings? this is not just a decision for me, my wife does not want to be stuck here for too many more years, in case we need to move into a bigger place if we start a family.
cheers.
September 11th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Ours is house as well.
September 11th, 2008 at 11:15 am
1st most expensive – our home; we moved in w/equity and it has increased $20k in value. It has been totally worth it! Although when we have another child we might have to look into moving or add on a room.
2nd most expensive – “matching” $600 Christmas gifts: for my husband a 14 ft jon boat that he uses often; for me a mountain bike that I haven’t ridden in 2 yrs (since the little one arrived).
Thanks for having a picture of my FAVORITE car since I was 14 – a Lamborghini.
September 11th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Our house was the most expensive purchase we ever made. It was a great deal though – my husband works for a construction company and they gave us a discount on the home they built for us. We feel very blessed to have been able to build a house that we were able to somewhat customize. (Of course most changes were extra money, which helped us make decisions easily – if it wasn’t in the budget, we couldn’t do it.)
September 12th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
First would be my education (the out-of-pocket cost of which was relatively low until I went back to school last year – now it’s not going to be so low).
Second would be my car.
Third would be my husband’s car.
We’d buy them all again. We needed the cars when we got them and paid good prices for them.
Those aside, I think the most expensive thing we’ve bought was, hmmmm, probably our laptop computer. Probably wasn’t the smartest use of our money, but we’re happy we bought it. We’d do it again. It nice to take to the coffee shop so I can access my online classes while studying there. It’s quite nice to take with when we travel, too (though certainly not a necessity).
September 13th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
I would probably say
house
wifes car
my car
school
It’s not so much the big ticket items, but the 4 times a day visit to a coffee shop that add up. We spend more on little things a month then the payments on the big things…
September 14th, 2008 at 8:37 am
Thanks for sharing everyone. Very interesting to read your answers (and stories).
September 15th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
For us it is surely our home. We bought a house on 100% financing and it has lost 90,000 worth of its value since then. But the ARM is very high, and adjusts every 6 months.
It is the debt that keeps on giving…
September 27th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Hmmm…. While on the surface a house is obviously the most expensive thing most of us are likely to buy, I wonder… In real terms, IS it? Let’s assume you live in the house for the duration of a fixed 15- to 30-year mortgage.
By the time you’re nearing the end of the payoff period, inflation has driven the relative cost of the mortgage payment down. It’s now fairly low, compared to, say, a car payment, the kids’ college education, insurance, or even the cost of food. Meanwhile, the house’s resale value has risen. Thus if you downsize to a smaller house now that the kids have gone off to work or school, you collect some cash to enrich yourself in retirement.
I wonder if a car is actually more expensive…especially if you buy it new and pay on time. It instantly depreciates by some unholy amount, and it continues to lose value all the time you own it. The payments, however, do not track the value of the car, nor are they affected significantly by inflation, because the duration of the loan is only about five years (maybe less, if you prepay or get a shorter loan). By the time you’ve finished paying for the car, the vehicle is worth LOTS less than you’ve paid for it. Meanwhile, you have to pay taxes, registration, and insurance on it, plus gasoline (a cost that never will go down), oil, and maintenance. True, you pay for tax, insurance, energy, and maintenace on a house…but in my part of the world car insurance costs more than homeowner’s insurance and during some months gasoline costs more than the electric bill. If you drive the car for 10 to 15 years, its resale value is practically nil.
Seems to me that in a sense the car costs you more than the house, because you pay a lot for something that ends up being worthless, whereas the house’s value increases. In theory. We hope.
September 28th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Don’t know if it counts as a thing, but I paid about $60,000 to go to college.
October 23rd, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Dumbest (& expensive) thing purchased: – house. The same mistake. no proper research or homework done on my part. That is leading to major repair works currently.
Super dumbest (& expensive) thing purchased: – brand new cars for both me and my wife. especially regretted my wife’s. 6 months after we booked the car, the distributors, decided to slash almost 15% of the price. Now the 2nd hand value of the car seems to be so low. Dropped drastically within the last 3 years.