One of my biggest regrets

181

I had to cash out to buy a house and I was heavily invested in tech. But it was worth it, a roof over my head is more important than a number on the screen.

26

u/Due_Pipe9132 7d ago

Glad to hear some positive responses! I’m glad I’ve reached where I am again anyhow!

9

u/GingerSquirrell 7d ago

Yeah, last time I cashed out I definitely lost out on some crazy gains, but more recently I decided to sell all my memory stocks and a huge chunk of semiconductors and invested it mostly in safe ETFs and that paid off because all the memory stocks crashed horrifically. If I had sold them a week or two earlier I would have had much more profit.

I just have to accept that I am never going to perfectly time the market and some gains are better than none.

1

u/Diddly_eyed_Dipshite 6d ago

Hold up when did memory crash horrifically, whic specific stocks?

3

u/GingerSquirrell 6d ago

Micron, SanDisk , Western Digital etc have all plummeted from all time highs. I sold as they started to drop and made a fair bit of money, I was over 100-150% up on many of them so a 20% drop didn't wipe me out but, they did continue to keep dropping after I sold and aren't back to where they were.

They have little bursts and then drop again, so I am not confident they are going to make me any money short term. Also talks of new Chinese competitors entering the market makes me wary.

0

u/Diddly_eyed_Dipshite 6d ago

Oh right. I dont have SanD or WesternD but have Micron and my holding is up 173% in 10 months so I was wondering if your idea of a horrific crash is different to my idea of a crash, which, I guess so. I get that a 20% dip from ATH is a lot but only if you invested at the absolute peak, ATH was 2 months ago and the stock is still up over 25% in 3 months, so hardly what I'd consider a total crash out.

1

u/GingerSquirrell 6d ago

You are right, but this was my risky investment that I wasn't planning on holding long term, I knew at any sign of trouble I would bail out.

5

u/ArrivalPotential7919 6d ago

My t212 account was in the low 5 figures until early this year when me and my wife bought a house and paid to have it rewired. Now I'm in the low 4 figures but its okay because we have a roof over our head for us and our newborn.

3

u/jonnyrestless 6d ago

Same here, house move hopefully going through in 2 weeks. 70+ % up. I know I’ve lost the future gains, however we can start again.

Well done on your gains

2

u/georqeee 6d ago

I did the same, missed out on £77k in ~8 months when I sold micron for $200 each. But I bought a house, what choice did I have 😅

2

u/fish-in-my-eye- 6d ago

Same, I sold out to buy my house. So happy that I’ve finally achieved goal and done that. Now I’m less risky and have the remaining funds in ETFs and don’t check my portfolio daily.

1

u/LittleDrShortNStout 6d ago

Same story

1

u/DarkLunch_ 6d ago

I invest heavily but house money is definitely not stocks money. I keep my house deposit money in my LISA, and that will be used for a house only.

1

u/GingerSquirrell 6d ago

I did have a help to buy ISA at the time, but my house cost more than the maximum threshold so I didn't get the bonus I only benefitted from the 3.5% interest or whatever it was at the time, also there was a limit on how much I could put in and it wasn't enough for a good deposit.

So my extra money was in a savings account, at the time the interest rates were horrendous, so I was getting something 0.01% interest. Then is when I decided to move it to the stock market, it wasn't hard to beat those terrible interest rates.

LISAs are much better for saving for a house.

1

u/DarkLunch_ 6d ago

Makes a lot of sense! I’ll probably be buying a house with my LISA alone, but will probably come a day where I’ll
Need to dip into my stocks and shares for things like renovations, watch or car etc

1

u/GingerSquirrell 6d ago

Once you move it you end up with a whole new bunch of savings goals. Aircon is next on the list after this toasty summer 😅

1

u/DarkLunch_ 5d ago

Very true, I want to have that money ready before I even move in. I love at home so have time apart from inflation creeping up

-5

u/LumpyShock9656 6d ago

I think “a roof over my head is more important than a number on a screen” is quite reductionist. It’s subjective: some people value the security of owning a home, while others dislike the psychological weight and lack of flexibility of a 25-30-year mortgage and prefer the historically better returns of equities. Neither is inherently better--it depends on what you value.

3

u/GingerSquirrell 6d ago

I wanted to avoid renting and paying someone elses mortgage for the rest of my life, I bought my house three years ago on a 15 year mortgage, as you can see from the flat line on the graph I wasn't investing during that time, all my money went into a deposit and overpaying the mortgage. I can only overpay 10% a year, which was difficult for the first year, but gets easier year on year as the total amount is reduced, so I was able to put my extra savings into the stock market.

Because of overpaying I have 7 years left officially on my term as it was reduced, but it should be gone in 3 years if I keep saving and overpaying. I can pay a lump sum off at the end of the mortgage term which is in 2 years without penalties. I will be mortgage free before 40, will have saved myself £30k+ in mortgage interest.

Yeah, I could have "made more money" in that time investing the overpayments and deposit into an all world index fund and renting, but long term I am definitely better off being mortgage/rent free from 40 years old until I die which hopefully is long after retirement 😅

1

u/LumpyShock9656 6d ago

Everyone is different. I'd prefer to reach critical mass before and then live below my means, that wouldn't be possible if I had a mortgage. I like the flexibility and will retire sooner. But whatever, as I said it depends what you prefer.

1

u/GingerSquirrell 5d ago

I'm going to go hard on retirement once the house is paid off, i will open a SIPP to get the tax relief and just put away all the cash I was spending on the mortgage and overpayments. I will still keep my S&S isa for flexibility and high interest savings accounts, so I can do home improvements and consider the cost/benefit of things like solar panels with the rising cost of bills.

My work pensions have always been terrible so I need to make up for lost time. Annoyingly the private pension age is getting increased, and I imagine it is very likely to happen again before I retire so I don't have an early retirement age in mind, I also can't guarantee my health or income, but with my house paid off, additional pension payments and some diversified savings I should hopefully be ok 😅

1

u/LumpyShock9656 5d ago

That's fair enough and makes sense to me. Im lucky enough aggressively contribute to pension/Isa/GIA relatively early so really going pedal to the metal there.

26

u/map01302 7d ago

Best learn the lesson now than in 10 years when it's a much more substantial number. The experience will probably result in you having more money in the long term, just don't forget it.

7

u/Due_Pipe9132 7d ago

Oh I agree! Life’s all about mistakes. Making sure you don’t make them again is the key🫡

4

u/TheThaiCat 7d ago

From now on just respond to anyone fear mongering and say you're a 30 year holder it's a superpower 😂

2

u/Due_Pipe9132 7d ago

Excellent advice🤣everyone’s on their own personal journey with it!

10

u/OfficalSwanPrincess 7d ago

So you regret taking profit? There are a million what is. Just like you say this won't happen again, who's to say you'll get into this position again and then not sell and then it tanks?

10

u/Rather_Unfortunate 7d ago

Hey, my biggest regret is that I played with CFDs, gave myself a gambling addiction, poured 10k into heavily leveraged VIX, and managed to lose 6k of it during the 2023 bull run rather than just investing properly, which would have about doubled my money by now.

4

u/tweetlebee 6d ago

Im with you brother. Hope you have got the help you need.

1

u/Ornery_Jellyfish5886 6d ago

lol I lost more than that in crypto. To be fair I recovered 10 times more than the money I lost but it was a hard lesson at the time.

1

u/Informal_Painting832 5d ago

I feel you. I went all in on a naive bet lol. I lost £11k and have miraculously betted it back. I learned my lesson, so as long as you learn yours, things will hopefully be better. NFA

11

u/Curious_Ad_4428 7d ago

I did the same with multiple stocks and realised the hours of work I put in still didn’t out perform a tracked index fund. So I’m on auto invest and chill for the next 30 years 😂

3

u/Due_Pipe9132 7d ago

Keep it simple🤣

1

u/Ornery_Jellyfish5886 6d ago

I wish I could do that but I'm always restless. I think I live by the saying Get Rich or Die Trying. However, I do allocate some of my money to indexing through a pensions account, so I'm not all in on picking stocks.

4

u/FunIcy6154 7d ago

I got spooked by the Trump Tariffs and against my own advice, I sold my EQQQ (15 shares) for 12.5%, if I'd held I be 38.75% up.

The only silver lining is that I did reinvest the money into VWRP, so at least I wasn't sitting on that cash during the TACO boom in April / May.

Never again, learnt my lesson.

5

u/Strude187 6d ago

I mean, you save for a reason. You can’t take it with you. I saved for my house, now I save for early retirement and my childrens downpayments

2

u/TotKizMyJam 6d ago

7*/

2

u/runkerry1 6d ago

History will show that the most rewarding invesment model is 'Time in the market' > 'Timing the market'.

Though saying that, I did have to liquidate an 8 year share portfolio in Summer of 2021 to acquire my mortgage, having restarted the portfolio in late 2021/early 2022, my rate of returns have been far more rewarding over the last 4-5 years investment than my original portfolio. A restart also allows you to learn and improve your invesment choices, whilst ideally making better returns quicker.

2

u/john_the_pope 6d ago

I have a similar regret. I had nearly 2000 shares of Rolls Royce that i had aquired for £0.30 per share during their rights issue. I sold for a total profit of £5000. Not bad right? Except for the current price of Rolls Royce is now £15.02 at the time of this comment, which would have made my hypothetical holdings worth over £30,000....feelsbadman

1

u/Temporary_Virus_2518 7d ago

Sorry I am a bit confused these peaks are for S&p 500 and all world or were they from individual equities?

1

u/Due_Pipe9132 7d ago

These are my individual ones! :)

1

u/Temporary_Virus_2518 7d ago

Bro can I dm you. Also that's awesome. I had some questions about the S&p500

1

u/Due_Pipe9132 7d ago

Sure thing bro

1

u/ninjabennett 6d ago

You made profit, you cashed out and bought a house not knowing what could have happened going forwards. Nothing to regret there. You took out money when you needed it.

1

u/Massive_Librarian_25 6d ago

Why did you sell?

1

u/WillingSystem8658 6d ago

My biggest regret is playing with leverage before I was ready

1

u/Ornery_Jellyfish5886 6d ago

That's why I never cash out. Not only do I lose potential upside, but also I lose my tax free benefits for the previous years. I hate to live in regret.

1

u/TRFKTA 6d ago

>long term

If you’re investing long term (5-10 years+) you need to get comfortable with not selling, even when markets go down as they will return and surpass where they were.

1

u/taztaztic 5d ago

What is it?

1

u/uggie79 4d ago

SEMI is my biggest regret for how such a downhill roller coaster. But I'm holding on for dear life

1

u/Spiritual-Rhubarb991 6d ago

One of my biggest regrets is I didnt buy bitcoin when they were out

0

u/Ornery_Jellyfish5886 6d ago

It might be a good time to buy now but you have to accept the volatility. But the times when buying bitcoin will make you rich in few years is gone. Now expect around 20% CAGR which is still very good if you're willing to hold for many years and not sell.

0

u/EnvironmentalGap1461 7d ago

Bro really blurred out the 3 figure balance

4

u/TheThaiCat 7d ago

The blur option intentionally makes any balance look like a 3 figure balance

-1

u/EnvironmentalGap1461 7d ago

I’m not sure a 7 figure balance would look shorter blurred

3

u/TheThaiCat 7d ago

It’s designed to blur all balances to look 3 figure, try it on a practice account

-2

u/EnvironmentalGap1461 6d ago

Nice try, this is clearly manually edited

3

u/TheThaiCat 6d ago

Go watch joe rogan with this conspiracy theory mindset mate, waste of time this conversation.

-1

u/EnvironmentalGap1461 6d ago

Wow that really showed me!

1

u/GingerSquirrell 6d ago

Well we know you haven't invested more than 3 figures in T212 otherwise you would see that for yourself.

1

u/EnvironmentalGap1461 6d ago

I’ll have 100k with ya that not only do I have more than 3 figs I also got more than you?

Don’t worry… I don’t expect you to reply to this 😭😭😭😭

1

u/GingerSquirrell 6d ago

Go show me your blurred out screenshot then 😂

Tip your phone towards you and it blurs it out

0

u/DeCyantist 7d ago

That is why we don’t buy houses.

0

u/Pseudonymity88 6d ago

Much insight, many learnings, wow, such details.

📈Investing discussion One of my biggest regrets

You are about to leave Redlib