It can’t go down any further.
It’s always cheaper to fix it rather than buy new.
But if I quit, I lose all of my vacation.
I’m full, but I spent good money on this meal.
I’ve already got 3 years into this degree.
Quitters never win.
I worked at Lucent Technologies during its heyday.
As an employee, I benefitted through an employee stock purchase program which allowed me to purchase shares at a 15% discount.
This was great because the stock just kept going up and up and up. So I kept buying and watched the value of my account go up and up and up right along with the stock price. I did this for several years.
And then the news came out — Lucent was cooking the books.
Crash. Overnight, the stock price and the value of my account cut in half.
I remember when that happened, my colleagues and I said to each other, “Should we sell today? It can’t go down any further, right? We should just sit tight.”
But it did go down. And down and down and down. I rode it right into the ground. By the time I sold it, I had lost $27000 real dollars. Not a paper loss, or a missed gain. I had spent $27000 that no longer existed.
Why? Emotions. Sunk cost emotions.
Sometimes the smartest ones simply know when to quit.
