Over at Debt Kid, there was a contest running.  The winner won Debt Kid’s dumbest purchase ever - a Nintendo DS.  Lucky for him, that’s only a $130 or so purchase.  Though the contest is over ( not sure who won? ), I decided I should write about my dumbest purchase ever as well.  When I do things, I do them big, apparently.  My dumbest purchase ever was a 2005 Lincoln Navigator, Ultimate Edition.  MSRP on my big shiny new SUV was a whopping $55,000.  Flush with cash from a recent promotion, I “deserved” a really nice vehicle, so my wife and I signed up on a lease.  To make matters worse, we rolled in quite a bit of negative equity into the purchase.  It all added up to a huge payment - $816 per month for a 39 month lease.  Add in the huge gas prices, and you can imagine how bad it hurt.

Finally, after nearly two and a half years of enjoying that wonderful vehicle.  ( And don’t get me wrong, that is one fantastic truck ), we finally traded it in for a Civic Hybrid.  Our payment was cut in half, and our gas bill was cut by two thirds.  More negative equity rolled over, but the cash flow improvement made up for it this time.  I shudder to think about how many thousands of dollars we wasted on the Navigator.  My net worth would look so much nicer today if I had resisted the urge to buy such an extravagant vehicle.  Fortunately, I’ve learned my lesson, and have no plans to make such a huge mistake again.

Popularity: 23% [?]