Below are my top five common financial regrets:

1.I regret my failure to pose financial questions before I got married. Such questions include, who will pay our childrens’ financial expenses, what are your plans for future investment, how were financial issues dealt with in your family and have you ever been bankrupt or have a business become insolvent. My failure to ask some these questions is what led to the demise of my relationship and subsequently gave birth to my business. Asking these crucial financial questions helps to gauge the financial behaviour of what I was about to marry.
2.I regret taking a credit card with such a high credit limit. I fell into the trap of blowing the entire limit on my card in one shopping spree. I wasn’t mature enough to understand the ramifications of such a behaviour.
3.I regret not taking out more from the student loans that was available. I could have invested some of the money in real estate which would be worth a substantial amount today.
4.I regret opening a joint bank account with my ex. It was stupid move because I had failed to read the small print in the documentation. It cost me dearly as I was left with a debt to pay. I couldn’t singlehandedly request for the joint account to be closed down. I had to clear all the overdrawn overdraft which I did not know had been taken out before I could finally have the account put into my sole name. Even then, the bank converted the joint account into a basic account with NO additional facilities.
5.I regret all of the wasteful spending on throwing lavish birthday parties for our kids when they were really young. Our kids did not know the difference between a small or big party. To make matters worse, these parties were thrown at the expense of paying our mortgage – which ultimately led to the mortgager taking us to court for non-payment and a close shave with being evicted from our home