Back around 1977, I passed on an opportunity to acquire a gold day/date president Rolex. Back then gold was probably $32.00 oz. I had recently acquired my Seamaster XVI so I thought "why another one." I had the cash in my pocket, those with me were telling it was a good price and authentic. It even had the box and probably the papers. I passed at $1,300.00. Recently I looked up the value. It hurts to sit now since I have been kicking myself. What is your story

 

Getting out of Apple stock in the early to mid '80s at $12 per share and getting out of Berkshire Hathaway stock several years ago and passing on a pristine gold early NCG 1675 and passing on a few correct 6542s and one PN Daytona 10 years ago. And that '72 Ferrari Dino at $85k. And a few more.

It's all a lot easier with the benefit of hindsight.

 

Woulda', shoulda', coulda'

 

Sorry, I cannot participate in this thread.

It is just too painful.

 

Back at the beginning of the financial crisis I had the opportunity to buy the apartment I had been renting in London - my girlfriend at the time ( now wife ) wanted us to pull the trigger, but I thought I knew better .... ... That place is now worth literally four times what I could have paid

 

The great recession. Ford was down to around $1.40 a share. Just could not pull the trigger. Kick, kick, kick,

 

CAPM - you get paid for being ballsy

 

Yeah, it went $1.40 to $16.00 a few months later. Who needs another $146,000. Just would have had to pay taxes on the gain.

 

I used to think that I regretted letting things go, but they're just things. They make me happy or they don't. I got my WatchCo Seamster 300, I got my Speedmaster that I earned working overtime, and the rest is just stuff to get rid of. NIce stuff to get rid of, mind you, but still. Two FABULOUS Omega wristwatches and my great-grandfather's 1883 pocket watch and I'm good.

Ask me about the rifle I bought after I sold a National Match M1.

Tom

 

I know this is off topic but on Sept 11, 2001, my 8 month pregnant wife wanted to walk to her last day @ work before maternity leave instead of me driving her as I normally did. Walking to work took around half an hour. It was a beautiful day and she insisted!

So, rather than being upstairs in her 1 World Trade office @ 8:46am, she was in the WTC Concourse purchasing a Spider-Man costume for our 2 1/2 year old son (my son is the wrestler giving another kid a vicious spiral ride - mat return in my avatar ).

I believe there's a bright side to each coin of regret

 

I never look back at life now. You can always do things better in the future. Time is too precious to waste dwelling on the past. If history has taught me anything it is to just keep making better decisions going forward.

 

Resentment causes gall bladder problems.

 

I have a small collection of red line Hot Wheels that I acquired as a wee lad in the late 1960's and early 1970's...I raced 'em hard and put 'em up wet. Anyway, our youngest (he's 14 now) and myself dreamed up this crazy ongoing fantasy that he and I would go back in time (via a time machine that we would build) to about 1968 and buy boat loads of red line Hot Wheels (and leave them in their blister packs)...come back to present day and sell them (still in blister packs) for boat loads of money and buy a Dunkin' Donuts/Hooters franchise. We're currently having problems building the time machine.

 

I try to live my life without regrets, and live with my actions. It's the best. Live and learn.

 

Don't you mean buy boat loads of Speedmasters and keep them in their original boxes with papers?

 

Agree with the sentiments - I always look forward, because there's nothing I can do about the past; only use what I've learned to guide me in the future!

 

Some you win, some you lose.
I almost took a £6k loan out in 1977 to buy a mint 246 Dino but couldn't afford the insurance so I passed on it.

 

Yes, I've learned many a lesson.

Hopefully, my philosophy is something like this, from the 12-Step program of Watch-A-holics Anonymous :

"We will not regret the past, nor wish to shut the door on it"

But since the 'driver's door' is still open, I will share one mistake I made about 6 years ago: I sold my 1995 Porsche Carrera .



Values on these have doubled, and even before that, I missed it terribly; especially after I learned that only 2 weeks after the new owner bought it from me, an inattentive driver ran a stop, and 'totalled' the car ! Luckily, there were no personal physical injuries, only the psychological kind...

...learned a lot from this one, though. One of them:

Listen to the heart, not the wallet....

 

Past memories are called experience so we can go forward with a little more confidence and forethought. In other words I can make a darn long list of woulda coulda shouda