Describe a risk you took that you do not regret.

I’m not great with money, but I’m not BAD with money either, I’ve just chosen priorities that don’t allow me to live an excruciatingly frugal and bland life. I like to have fun and enjoy my (occasionally expensive) hobbies. Sometimes, though, life throws something at you that you can’t pass up.

Aside from the odd lottery ticket here or there when the jackpots are enormous, I don’t typically gamble. No video lottery or keno, no bingo, no casinos, etc. The risks involved in gambling just aren’t worth it. I have my retirement savings through work that are technically stocks/funds, but I consider the stock market to be gambling. Unless you have a shit ton of money to spread around and still live a comfortable life, it’s not a viable source of income because there is too great a chance of losing it all. So, for a long time now I’ve never really put much time or money into the stock market. Until the GameStop craze happened a few years ago.

I missed the window in January of 2021 to get in cheap right before the huge spike in the stock price for GameStop and some of the others that were in the same boat, but I kept watch and found an opportunity to jump in somewhere in the middle. Initially I was going to just be a spectator, but then I got my income tax refund.

Now, I didn’t jump all in with my refund money. I used some of it to chip at some debts and only used a relatively small amount toward the stocks. I invested enough that, should I catch another spike, I could see a decent gain and sell. Then I waited. June rolled around and the spike hit well enough that I decided to not gamble any further and sell. I made enough money in that short term gain to basically equal one of my paychecks at the time. I knew enough about capital gains to know that I would have to declare this on my taxes the following year, and rather than have to worry about it later I just made a payment directly to the IRS for what I believed to be the tax on short term capital gains on the small amount I had “won” from this gamble, and then I was truly done.

It wasn’t a huge risk because I could still financially survive and not worry about incurring losses, but I obviously don’t regret it because I made a little extra money. Not life changing money, but money I didn’t have before. That’s all that mattered.