My Dumbest Investment

My dumbest investment is one I didn’t make. I could have bought shares of a bankrupt company that I know well for 2 cents per share. It went up 1,100 percent in three months this year. I know people who bought $10,000 worth, and I heard one person even bought $100,000 worth. It was just too risky for me. My next dumbest investment was a $500 push-button-start, self-propelled lawnmower that I could never get to start. I sold it for $100 at a garage sale years later. I have a $200 electric one now that needs almost no maintenance.

— J.C.E., West Lafayette, Ind.

The Fool Responds: Avoiding that bankrupt penny stock was actually a smart non-investment, not a dumb one. Bankrupt companies often leave investors with absolutely nothing. And penny stocks, even those tied to seemingly operational companies, are generally very risky, too. Being rather easily manipulated, they can often soar and crash within a few days or hours. That $100,000 might have turned into not a million dollars, but just enough to pay for a lawnmower. 

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