25 People Confess Their Worst Life Decisions, And How It Changed Everything

We all have regrets, but some decisions haunt people more than others. When a Redditor asked, “What are the top three worst decisions you made in your life?”, the responses ranged from heartbreaking to downright shocking. Here are some of the most eye-opening answers people shared.

#1

Image source: decorama, Andres Siimon

1. Smoking. Resulted in cancer (I’m better now).
2. Spending of frivolous things when I should have been saving.
3. Marrying my ex-wife. There were plenty of red flags I ignored.

#2

1. Not getting grief counseling in the 80s when I lost my parents.
2. Doing too many d***s in the late 70s and early 80s and not focusing on my schooling.
3. Letting myself become a controlling a*****e when I became the boss.

Image source: Stunning-End-3487

#3

Image source: no_talent_ass_clown, Josh Hild

1. Quit my job, bought a van, drove around the US, spent all my retirement money ($33K). I did the math. It would be about $450K by now.

2. Got married in Vegas to a guy I’d known for about 2 months. (Divorced 2 years later!)

3. Sold my first condo. Bought for $80K, would be worth $400K now, and paid off.

4. Bonus: Quit my good government job to go back to school for a new career, which I quit after 4 years. I’d have a 20-year pension by now, or a ton in the bank, had I stuck it out either place.

#4

Image source: Abbiethedog, Joe Lavigne

Not quitting alcohol is #1. I feel that if I could have quit drinking earlier in my life, there would have been no 2 or 3. To anyone who fights that beast. I wish you strength and love if you struggle.

#5

Image source: WineOnThePatio, MD Duran

Dropping out of college because of my parents’ marital problems.

Putting loyalty to a boss above other career considerations.

Not saving enough money.

#6

Image source: JanetInSpain, Getty Images

I would say, marrying my first husband and marrying my second husband should be the top two, but if I hadn’t married them, I wouldn’t have ended up in CA where I met my now-husband. We’ve been happily married almost 40 years. The truth is that the bad choices often put us on a path that will lead to the best choices.

#7

Image source: Lady-Gagax0x0, freepik

Looking back, some of the worst decisions I made were staying in toxic relationships for too long, ignoring my mental health until it became overwhelming, and not taking risks when I had the chance to pursue my passions. Each of those choices shifted my path in ways I regret, but they also taught me valuable lessons about self-respect and growth.

#8

Image source: RemoteIll5236, freepik

1. Not leaving an emotionally [controlling] partner before we had children.

2. Not having at least one more child (I wanted 3-4, but only had two).

3. Not recognizing how beautiful I was when I was young, but instead allowing my self-consciousness to intimidate me internally.

#9

Image source: electric_shocks, Viacheslav Bublyk

Not learning about managing money at an early age

Not getting a second opinion about medical diagnoses

Assuming people have the best intentions and common sense.

#10

Image source: RemonterLeTemps, Getty Images

1. Choosing the wrong university (should’ve gone to a state school)

2. Not ‘reading the signs’ that my ex-fiance was cheating from day one

3. Listening to the doctors who told me I couldn’t get my tubes tied at 20, because I’d ‘change my mind’ (I’d known since I was five that I **never** wanted kids).

OhCheeseNFingRice replied:
“Number three pisses me off so much. I hate that even today, women so often aren’t allowed to advocate for themselves in opting for child-free lives. Of course, once a woman has a child, they’ll most often say, ‘I’m so glad my doctor didn’t let me choose that,’ because we’re not monsters and can fully love, adore, and raise children that we didn’t want in the first place. But that doesn’t mean that our lives would’ve been any less happy had we gotten what we asked for and didn’t have kids.”

#11

Image source: WillingnessFit8317, Irwan

Worst is when i couldn’t get my husband to go to the ER with covid. I asked and asked, but he said he would be fine. I should have just called an ambulance. He died early that next morning. I found him, and it broke my heart. Cried for 2 years.

The best is not listening to my family tell me I shouldn’t marry someone much younger than I am. My grown kids are not happy. I sold my house and I’m ready to do something for myself. They will come around when they see how happy we are. The bonus for them is they won’t be responsible for me when I’m old.

#12

Image source: Interesting_Air_1844, Ron Lach

1. Trying to win my father’s approval
2. Breaking Beth McConnell’s heart at summer camp
3. That first line of crystal m**h.

PeterandKelsey replied:
“Can we find Beth McConnell somewhere? Let’s have a reconciliation!”

Interesting_Air_1844 replied:
“There’s nothing I’d like more than to apologize to her for being so cruel. I was just a kid, though (this was around 1977 or 1978), and the thing that’s incredibly stupid is that I really liked her. I found some old letters from my fellow campers, in which scolded me for ruining the poor girl’s entire summer. All these years later, I still can’t forgive myself. I’ve Googled her name a few times over the years, but never found her…”

#13

Image source: aginginvienna, freepik

1. In November 1989 I was with the West German press corps in Warsaw and they all tore off to Berlin and said the Berlin Wall was gonna fall. I laughed and stayed put. A few hours later I watched it all on TV in a s****y Warsaw bar and drank half a bottle of vodka while crying and laughing at the same time. Needless to say my US newspaper fired me.

2. Buying an apartment in Berlin in 1990 sure that prices would skyrocket. They didn’t. Left Germany for Austria in 1996. Put the apt on the market and it sat empty with no callers for 2 years. Sold it at 30% less than what I paid for it in 1999. Today it’s worth 4 times what I paid.

3. Way back in 1968 when I was 18 I started uni in the US and was told by my English prof I should be a writer. My family told me that was stupid and should go into advertising. Which I did for 18 years and hated it. Finally started writing what I wanted to at 36. Bernard Malamud wrote in The Natural: ‘each of us has two lives. There’s the life we learn with and the life we live with after that.’.

#14

Image source: SuddenlySimple, Mykyta Martynenko

Taking loans out of my 401k #1
Having kids before being financially stable #2
Believing what others said I was incapable of #3

#3 hurts the most the others I was able to overcome or live with.

I wanted to be a Lawyer. I was one of the kids in my school that was filmed smoking pot on the side of a school we were all forced to counseling.

When I told my Guidance Counselor I wanted to be a Lawyer when it was time to sign up for college She told me I wasn’t smart enough. I left defeated. Didn’t have parents to talk to so I believed her.

In years since I have won law cases for myself and my sister and one friend…with zero training.

Always believe in YOU and go for what you want in life no MATTER what!

#15

Image source: TraditionalRemove716, Marcelo Leal

1. Refusing to visit a dying friend in the hospital (because I was afraid I wouldn’t have anything to say or I would say the wrong thing).
2. Moving to, and living in, Hawaii for 14 years.
3. Relapsing after 44 years of sobriety (although I’m sober again).

#16

Image source: AotKT, Pixabay

Nothing really ended up for the worse but the worst decisions I’ve made:

1. Stopped caring about school in high school. I was on the Stanford/MIT track. Ended up with a great career anyway but I was just planning for more, that’s all. Due to circumstances I ended up putting myself through community college while working full time and then finishing out at a great state school after I already had what is still my career decades later.
2. Giving up a dream job in a dream city because I’d have to live an hour away from my boyfriend and I knew that would end the relationship. In retrospect, if an hour commute was a dealbreaker the relationship sucked.
3. Rob, and everything about him.

#17

Image source: Suitable-Lawyer-9397, Getty Images

My first and only marriage at 18
Staying married for 25 years
Working full-time to put husband thru law school – moving many times for this and changing jobs.

#18

Image source: SoftHungry9110, freepik

1. marrying my first husband

2. prioritizing work over more important things

3. allowing toxic people to stay in my life far too long.

#19

Just one for me…. waiting years and years to get treatment for depression.

I feel so much better now. I’m lucky to have survived.

Image source: harmlessgrey

#20

Image source: Visible-Proposal-690, SJ Objio

Encouraging my husband to have the surgery that killed him.

Various stupid financial decisions when we were young that left me broke with small kids when I needed financial security including not having enough life insurance.

Waiting until my weight dropped to 90 lbs before getting a feeding tube during cancer treatment. Malnutrition made my recovery much worse.

#21

Image source: Adrift715, JSB Co.

Listening to Dentists who wanted to “save the tooth.” Spent far too much money and wrecked my health with cracked infected teeth that just ended up being pulled regardless of what measures they tried.

Needed to put my children’s well being above being a dutiful daughter. My narcissistic parents weren’t any better at being responsible grandparents.

Letting anxiety take over, needed to just chill out and not make an already difficult situation worse.

#22

Image source: MermaidReader, Getty Images

1) Quit a community college job to raise my first child. Wish I would have continued and took advantage of tuition discount to get a medical degree.
2) Believing I was fat and ugly at 18. I was size 8, went to the gym regularly and had a head of beautiful, long curls-but I wasn’t the skinny “blond next door” model.
3) Allowed family to “borrow” funds that were not returned. I should have at least invested it in bank CD’s.

#23

Image source: vaspost, Ethan Garvey

My only real regret is not doing whatever was necessary to keep my college sweetheart.

I still miss her… 20+ years later.

#24

Image source: Interesting-Potato66, Getty Images

1) staying as a bedside nurse for 19 years and not leaving for the pharma industry sooner
2) pulling up a patient and herniating a disc in my back
3) not living with the confidence of a 50 yr old ( why so timid when I was younger ).

#25

Image source: CapotevsSwans, Artem Labunsky

1. Being more concerned with what other people thought than what I wanted.

2. Not questioning being diagnosed with anxiety and heavily medicated for years. I didn’t get my actual diagnosis until my 50s.

3. My first marriage. At least I ended it quickly.