Mine was ~$212k in 2025, last year. I was already in FIRE mode, not working. (I am now, but not because of this loss, but rather to maintain a visa in a foreign country. It's really not worth it, I realize.)
I was basically VOO and 25% or so in NVDA, and sold at the near bottom in February / March. I ended up recovering most of what I lost (ended the year like $40k down), but the opportunity cost if I had just held is about $212k. To me, that's not a trivial amount.
I'm still fine to not work, but it stings. And it stings even more because I had cash to last me well into 2026. I should have thought of it as a hedge against market volatility, but I didn't. At the time, I thought of it as a way to avoid realizing gains on stocks I didn't want to pay tax on yet. Dumb me.
Lesson: cash buffer has a use: ride out volatility.
Also, my significant other. Had about $30k parked in some abandoned 401k 12 years ago. Could have been 138k by now if they'd just reallocated it. I'm not sure what the allocation was then but there was basically zero growth.
Anyway, how much was your "tuition?"
Hard lessons in investing: how much was your "tuition?"
byu/Altruistic-Mammoth inStockMarket
Posted by Altruistic-Mammoth
14 Comments
I gained a ton with the April drop. Saw that coming a mile away with all the inflation panic. Problem was it came back so fast I didn’t get out in time, ended up holding shorts for a lot of the year that costed me a hell of a lot more than I would have gained. Kept waiting for a good exit and none ever came up.
It’s humbling to gain and lose an entire years salary on trades
Too many to list , last year ones were selling silver ,palladium etf (30 percent of my portfolio) in October after holding for few years and I was fed up holding them for so long while the tech stocks were rocketing.
18k went down to 6k went up to 160k got greedy never cashed out now im under 5k. Also i got scammed worth 70k at that time. fuk me life
Makes no sense to talk about “opportunity cost” that way. Even the best trader of last year would have “lost” then.
I made around 20x on American airlines when they were going through bankruptcy ages ago. Spent half of it on my first out of college used car for around $20k, still driving it, but wish I had left it all in AMD.
Edit: also should have kept my school loans longer, the rate back then was nothing.
170k on QBTS.. held it for months on 0.80 cost basis, decides to rotate a week before it finally started shooting up non stop.
i sold it to swing trade on another stock and buy it back… i also lost money on the other play
5% of my portfolio
$75k in my TFSA. It’s ok though, we can rebuild.
I started investing a few months after I turned 18, in september 2007. I learned a lot about the stock market and investing-emotions.
It cost me around $2000, money well spent
lmfao 75% allocation into VOO, something you’re supposed to hold, and one of the safest blue chip stocks and you PAPER HANDED? ON ASSETS YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO HOLD. Imagine trying to actually trade or invest into higher volatility shit that doesn’t “only go up”. It wasn’t leveraged. You literally had/have TIME ON YOUR SIDE.
This isn’t a tuition cost. You are literally regarded. Probably why your post has no upvotes lmao. You deserved to lose that money.
EDIT: Let me reinforce how dumb OP is. Not only did he paper hand at the bottom into one of the safest investment choices, but he sold at the bottom and didn’t even try to re buy lower. Even basic TA showed a plausible level to re buy at. Sold at the bottom and couldn’t even capture the shavings. Could have easily re bought at his exit price.
Classic case of RICH mfs making POOR decisions. Here’s the lesson OP: Give that money to someone where their brain isn’t in their ass.
You’d have to have a room temp IQ to panic sell an index fund…
$100K. I had company stocks and kept sitting on it instead of selling. Well, lo and behold it dropped massively and my potential earnings fell by $100K. Luckily it wasn’t exactly my personal savings I put in but still… take the small gains people!
8k on Chinese Stock. Never buy it again.
My tuition was free, years ago listening to a video of a Berkshire annual
Meeting with Munger and Buffett, where they basically said the big money was made by doing nothing, except letting money sit forever in good companies that were purchased at a fair price. More money is made by doing nothing than is made trading