It happens to the best of us — parents, kids, college students, tenured professors, CEOs — and it happens to us all the time. Just because you have a successful career or a natural talent to achieve anything you want in life, it doesn’t mean you’re perfect. Because no one is immune to making mistakes. No one can avoid the occasional slip-ups. And no one is safe from messing up in life. It’s a guarantee that cannot be escaped no matter how hard we try.
That’s just the universe teaching us lessons over and over and over again until we finally listen. But in some unfortunate cases, they do tend to come in heavy and heartbreaking ways. “What’s the biggest mistake you’ve watched someone make in their personal life?” Redditor Ordinary-Ad5763 asked, and thousands of responses immediately started rolling in.
Below, we at Bored Panda have gathered some of the most honest, real, and painful stories from the thread, and they show that sometimes, the price for our errors is too high. Just to warn you, this thread may not be for the faintest of hearts. But turning a blind eye to these authentic accounts won’t make life any brighter. So continue scrolling, upvote as you go, and if you’re up for it, share your own experiences with us in the comments. Keep reading to also find our interview with psychologist Joshua Klapow, Ph.D., where we discuss how to best handle these situations on an emotional level.
#1
My wife just had a c-section, and was complaining about a pain in her leg but never got it checked out. Two weeks later; Blood Clot.
October 13th will mark my third year without her.
Image source: baka2k10, Miguel Ausejo
#2
A good friend of mine threw away 15 years of military service because he didn’t want to take the COVID vaccine. 5 years from retirement and incredible healthcare for his wife and children all gone. He joined a religion recently and decided he wanted to get a religious exemption which was denied so he opted for an administrative discharge. The fool…
#3
Have kids under the hope they’ll fix their marriage.
Children are not accessories
Image source: KaiJonez, Nathan Dumlao
#4
One of my best friends walked out on his wife and two kids because a girl at the gym and him were having a relationship.
As it actually turned out, she was just being friendly and chatting to him. No relationship, no mutual decision to be together, nothing. He misunderstood polite friendliness for flirting, and destroyed his own family for it.
Image source: Enough-Ad3818
#5
One of my students was offered a 95% scholarship to Juilliard. They turned it down because they felt a 95% scholarship was a slap to the face, and instead decided not to go to school. Last I heard they weren’t playing, and were working minimum wage, but talking about how good they used to be.
Image source: VanishXZone, Zhanhui Li
#6
Single mother of 3 living in poverty. Gave her parents her $6000 tax refund to hold onto because she didn’t want her abusive ex to convince her to split it with him.
Parents spent it all in weeks.
Image source: vchaz, Bethany Beck
#7
Let go of a girl close to their wedding because of his idea of what a wife should be like. Lives in deep regret now as she married his friend & they’re really happy whilst he has never found anyone else.
Image source: pinkleaf8, Olivia Bauso
#8
Having a 3rd kid, when you can barely afford the first two in order to “save” the marriage.
Image source: itzahckrhet, Markus Spiske
#9
Cheating with someone in your company who’s about to get married despite having two kids and a wife of your own **cough Ned**
Image source: gzmz, nine koepfer
#10
My uncle got himself a mistress. Lent her $10,000 he never got back and lost his job defending her at work. Wife served him divorce papers short afterwards. He gave up his house to his wife. So he ended up jobless and homeless, sleeping on our couch at the ripe age of 60.
Image source: threekingsmisery, Priscilla Du Preez
#11
My high school philosophy teacher cheated on his wife with my classmate. His daughter was in the year below us. She transferred schools out of embarrassment when her dad finally left the family to pursue a relationship with the 18-year old. Yuck.
Image source: HelmutMelmoth, Taylor Flowe
#12
Grandma eventually losing several hundred thousand on the stock market based on astrology. This was in 2007…
Image source: cellocaster, Josh Rangel
#13
Friend retired with a full pension 15 years ago.
At the time he kept bragging about how he was starting a business with some random guy he knew. He legit said, “He’s the idea guy. I have the savings and the good credit score.”
Took out a huge loan, bought a bunch of expensive equipment.
Shocker: business folded within 6 months, “partner” vanished with all the equipment.
And now this guy, who should be enjoying his golden years, will be working retail until he drops.
Image source: AgathaWoosmoss, Towfiqu barbhuiya
#14
Must be my disabled brother who fell for an internet scam. He met a woman online, she lived in a different continent but he was certain she was the love of his life. Spent over a year chatting and e-mailing her, and helping her with money from time to time. Very fishy stuff, but he refused to listen to my scepticism. It ended when he had saved up enough money to go visit her. He went, came back 2 days later and refused to ever admit what had happened. Went to his grave without ever talking about it.
Second place goes to my father who cheered him on. He wasn’t sure wether it was a scam or not, but he thought it was nice that my brother had hopes and dreams.
Image source: jomarthecat, Jonas Leupe
#15
Dump all of their savings ($30k or so) into random crypto at the height of the market. They were trying to get more money to put towards a house but lost a majority of it when things crashed. When their significant other found out they left.
Image source: Jasper_Beardly_, Alesia Kozik
#16
My friend chose to have a child with a man who had cheated on her multiple times, while still in high school.
Image source: krypton_krysa, Marisa Howenstine
#17
I don’t know what changed him exactly, but he started calling himself an alpha male, and questioning any activity, clothing choice, type of car, career path, drink, etc as alpha or not. He bulked up and got large muscles but also still carries a beer gut. He tries to have his shirt off whenever possible, but it doesn’t work for his body type.
The constant seeking for assurances that something is alpha or not got tiring, or being told something someone was doing is beta behavior when I didn’t have any interest or care made me stop hanging out.
Of course, he now calls me a beta for not being alpha enough to hang out with him.
Image source: SteamDecked
#18
I watched my friend throw an engineering career with Boeing away because he decided to smoke a bowl to celebrate getting the job. It was a military contract.
Image source: Peakomegaflare
#19
Used to work security at a concert venue. Big enough place to require a couple cops outside the front door for insurance purposes. Had to ask someone to leave for drinking underage. He got mouthy on the way out and started to fight me. Was near the front door and the cops jumped in to help. He punched the cop and his nose bled. Went from a “hey man, don’t drink underage in here next time you come back” to a Felony.
Image source: vtfb79
#20
Falling into the Qanon hole and isolating themselves from everyone they loved.
Image source: Argy_Bar
#21
Watching them become less themselves because of the person they are with.
Image source: Amandarmoo, Andrik Langfield
#22
A guy in his mid 50s always worked under the table. Never filed a tax return. Didn’t understand that he wouldn’t qualify for social security. When I showed him the requirements on the [ssa.gov](https://ssa.gov) website, I thought he was going to cry.
Image source: mrmitchs, Romain Dancre
#23
Buy an apartment with a person they dated for less than 6 months.
Image source: meekapix, René Ranisch
#24
I have two:
1. Took a loan out to go on a European vacation.
2. Took a loan out to pay for rent. Now this one is bad because it wasn’t because they needed a place to live, it’s that they wanted a really nice place to live and they have a so called “ certain standard of living”. They could have afforded a nice small house here to rent but instead she wanted a gigantic house in a wealthier neighborhood to rent.
It’s the same person.
Image source: BETAMIC
#25
My brother ran for public office without having an agenda. He had no leadership qualifications, background in position, or support from anyone in the community. His took out a 10K personal loan to finance his political run and held one fundraiser where most of the attendees were family and couldn’t vote for him. He lost badly, coming in last behind four other candidates. It took him years to pay back the loan and refill his savings, which he completely drained to pay for signage and flyers. Saddest of all, the printer misspelled his name on both items, so any remnant is a harsh reminder of how badly things went.
Image source: TheBarenJark, Hansjörg Keller
#26
Waste their entire inheritance on drugs.
Image source: Exciting_Ad_3510, Alexander Grey
#27
Family friend quit their government job after 23 years, 2 years before qualifying for a pension. They did it just because they wanted a change.
They withdrew their pension contributions and bought a investment property at the absolute worst time.
Now they are jobless and struggling to keep up with the overhead. Everyone advised against it and they still did it.
Image source: Briickhouse
#28
My sister owned a home with her husband and first child.
Her father-in-law convinced them that if they sold their house and became live-in caretakers for some old relative of his that he would leave his supposedly nice house in Austin to them. They’d get to live rent free at this house, it would be theirs outright when he dies, and they’d be set.
So they sell their house, move to Austin where they don’t have jobs and move in with this guy. And it’s absolute chaos. Guy is constantly watching porn on the living room tv with their toddler around, doing inappropriate old guy stuff, telling them what they can and cannot do in the house and when they can come and go. It’s a freaking nightmare.
They end up leaving the house, and getting their own place. They also eventually moved to another state for a few years and came back. They’ve never been able to buy another house since housing prices have gone way up and they didn’t have enough equity on their other house that they sold, so they’ve been bouncing from [bad] apartment to [bad] apartment ever since.
Image source: SweetCosmicPope, todd kent
#29
Being passive and just letting everything happen to him.
He wasn’t sure if he wanted kids or not, but his girlfriend did, so they had sex without condoms. She got pregnant, with **twins**. He looks absolutely miserable.
Similar things happened to him involving housing. His family convinced him to put the parent’s mortgage in his name. Things got messy.
Don’t just let things happen to you.
Image source: aintnufincleverhere, Christian Erfurt
#30
A buddy that live with me for a while got a car he couldn’t afford because he was obsessed with image. Stopped making payments, tried to part out the car and report as stolen since he had the bright idea that would bring more money than just giving it back to the bank. Then got into check fraud, which landed him in jail. Been in and out of the system ever since, from stories I hear.
Image source: UserUsingUsed, Sven D
#31
Taking out unfathomable loans for their business on top of taking out unfathomable loans out for a wedding.
Image source: marshall_chaka, Andrea Piacquadio
#32
My friend failed psych evals to join the Army, once he got around that exception he was kicked out within a year. He robbed the corner store less than a mile from his house. He was in full SWAT gear with a tactical mask. Everyone knew exactly who it was, there were 8 calls to Crime Stoppers identifying him. He was arrested within 3 hours of the crime with the still loaded pistol in his car. If he had used a fake gun, or an unloaded pistol he would have gotten 1/2 or 1/4 the prison sentence. He went from being in the ARMY to prison in less than a month.
Image source: stratospaly, Larry Farr
#33
I have a cheapskate uncle that spent his life saving into a junk bond, compounding the interest, putting all his income in and living like an absolute beggar, even as he became a millionaire. You might be thinking to yourself “nothing wrong with frugality”. No it is more than that, he used to come to my parent’s house, spend the entire day eating our food, and not leaving before my mother packed him more food for the week for free(my mom’s fault for not setting harder boundaries too).
Anyway after all that, the sum hit 1.2 mill or so and then the junk bond went bust, and he lost all his money at 70 years of age. The man was making around 10k a month at the height of it, and spending at most 300$ a month.
Remember to invest in your relationships and your goodwill folks!
Image source: mr_j936
#34
Friend worked hard to gain the credentials to advance his career to his goals. It took four months for him to get busted having an affair with a subordinate and he lost all he worked for and ended up losing his license.
Image source: kukukele, Jakob Owens
#35
My brother was getting scouted by Northeastern colleges to play football after playing remarkably well in high school….
He dropped out of high school 6 months before he graduated….
Image source: MyS0ul4AGoat, Muyuan Ma
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