B 4

1. Your best and worst financial decision
2. What was different about your thought process for these two decisions
3. How these differences lead to such different results
4. What lessons you’ve learned that you will apply to financial decisions

Class mate:

It would not take too long or me to recount my worst financial decision that I've ever made which was buying a condo in Maryland in early 2008.  At the time, it seemed like a good idea as this particular area seemed like it was on the upside for investors.  However, later on that year, the housing market would crash and instantly destroyed the value of my new condo by 30%.  I knew at that time that the Washington Nationals were coming to DC and that my condo would only be a 5 minute walk to the train which would allow myself to travel to DC by train in less than 15 minutes. I saw this as the ideal location for me and for an investment as I could save tons of money in traveling expense as well as having the Nation's Capitol so easily accessible.  In 2012 I found out that I would son have a son and my current condo was less than ideal as far as space to raise a family as I only had 600 square feet and 1 bedroom.  I would then put my condo up for rent, and move into my parents house while we searched for a house more suitable to our needs.  After hiring a real estate agent, we search through numerous houses that we've decided was within our budget and had the best opportunity for resale value in the future if we decided to sale.  It lead us to Charles County (a bit further from DC) in which we settled in on a 5 bedroom house with ample space.  We needed the room because we knew that more children were in the plans for our future.  Throughout both processes, I've learn to stay patience and do absolute due diligence when making so a huge financial commitment.  I've learn to assess the risk of multiple scenarios such as potential job loss, commuter time, community, school district as oppose to just current value.

Class mates:

My best financial decision is taking this class, I say that because I was worried about not having the money to go back to school to brighten my future. I would have to say my worst financial decision was getting a credit card. I got a credit card to try to build my credit but it only lead to me putting things on the card that I did not need, putting myself in debt. My thought process with taking this class was I wanted to brighten my future so I know this was the first step. My thought process with the credit card was I thought about how I needed credit to get ahead in life. These decisions lead to different results from me knowing that this class will bring more success to my future, the credit card did nothing but give me a temporary feeling of buying what I want to pay off later. I have learned that you have to research your financial decisions better before making them, if I knew the damage my credit card was going to do when I applied I would have waited to mature.