I told you so! People share stories when they gave someone good advice-- but it was never followed. The results? Awful. Stories have been edited for clarity.
Well, That Was Expensive
“I tried to tell my brother that he should not get married to someone he met only a few months ago, barely knew, never lived with, and that I personally found very shady.
He got mad at me and got married anyway.
The marriage lasted one month. Two years later my brother is in a very eventful divorce, buried in debt, lost many friends, quit his job, is back at our parents house and has depression.
This is the short version, the full one could be a whole soap opera 25th season.”
You’re Not My Mother
“I told my college housemate that she needed to slow down her drinking because she was making horrible decisions and putting herself in dangerous situations. She threw a tantrum, screamed at me that I was a know-it-all and ‘not her mother’ and she moved out and in with another friend. The next week she was driving while inebriated and wrapped her car around a tree on campus, wasn’t wearing a seat belt. She broke a lot of bones in her face and looked like a monster for months. Luckily everything healed and she ended up getting the help she needed.”
An Apartment For Ants
“Dude was buying an apartment off-plan (meaning you pay a % before the build even starts) and he sends me the plans online. I’m into architectural design so I quickly spotted it was off; all the furniture on his floor plan was shrunk dramatically to make the space appear much bigger than it actually was underlined with:
*for illustrative purposes only
I drew up a rough quick 3d model to scale with the furniture as it was on the plan and put some real size humans in the space and sent it to him as a warning. He got angry with me and suggested that I ‘insulted his intelligence’.
It wasn’t just a little bit off, it was dramatic. The full size bath would have to be a sit up bath or a shower. The furniture was shrunk by almost 50%.
He’s now the proud of owner of a micro apartment.”
Don’t… Do THAT!
“My 6 year old brother at the time was standing on the kitchen table with his socks on and it looked like he was about to jump off. I kid you not, before he jumped I literally said ‘don’t jump off the table with socks on or you’ll slip and break your arm.’ 5 seconds later he jumped off the table, his feet slipped out from under him, and he landed directly on his arm… breaking it.”
Get Over Yourself
“A friend of mine wanted to buy a house. She had no real degree, and was working 60+ hours a week. Pulling down maybe 50k a year. Not bad, but really not sustainable.
So she decides to buy a house, and I simply offered that just because the bank and real estate guys say you can afford it doesn’t mean you can. You probably want to under buy. Certainly don’t go for the max ‘you can afford’.
She doesn’t listen. Only looks at houses in the $230k-260k range.
She finds a house, begins negotiations. Gets her 240k house down to 218k. Not bad, credit her.
As she is approaching the finalization of the loan, I warn her about ARM loans, and how she REALLY needs a fixed rate loan that won’t change.
She goes with the ARM loan because its cheaper (technically).
So at this point she’s paying around 2.2k a month in insurances, principal, and interest. Remember she is pulling around 3k after taxes a month.
Barely making ends meet, she slowly loses it with her job and rage quits instead of getting fired, costing her unemployment. She begins to miss payments, and as a stop gap to prevent paying even more as the rates will go up, her parents start paying her mortgage.
They demand she rent out her room, which she tries to charge $800 a month for. Which is way too high for the area and what she’s offering.
She ends up renting to a parade of crazy people. Crazy dog lady, who snuck the dog in and let it pee everywhere. A couple different lowlife dealers.
The one that made me the angriest was her boyfriend. She rented to him while they dated. She decided she didn’t love him anymore, but strung him along to keep the rent flowing for 8 months. This was after they had broken up once before. She begged to have him back, only to treat him like that?
So much drama, pain, and lunacy because she wanted a house she couldn’t afford.”
Scarred For Life
“I told my friend not to go downstairs because her parents were making love in the open. She scoffed and went downstairs to catch them making love. Came back crying and scarred for life. I tried to tell her.”
Buckle Up
“Told my friend to wear his seatbelt. We were both in the back seat. Minutes later we hit a light pole. He flew from the back seat and made a 12in hole in the wind shield. He ended up with 32 stitches on the top of his head.”
Pain In The Rear
“Guy in high school wanted to prank his best friend by taking his chair out from underneath him when he was standing. I told him repeatedly not to, lest he went mad and told the teacher. That didn’t happen, of course, instead, something worse did.
The guy’s backbone was severely injured as he’d landed straight on it, and had to be sent to hospital. Now his back is bent, he cannot sit without acute pain… all because of someone who wouldn’t listen to me.”
She’s Toxic
“One of my soldiers was dating a chick who had already been engaged to a guy in our company. We knew her backstory and warned him that she was bad news and to stay away.
Three weeks later he came back from Christmas leave married to her.
She cheated on him for a long time, encouraged him to attempt suicide (he lived), got pregnant from some other guy, the embryo was outside the uterus so she stays married to him for the tri-care but lived with the other guy, she had a miscarriage, and finally she convinced him to go AWOL for four days instead of training.
He got moved out of my platoon and kicked out of the army. No idea how he is.”
But They’re Your Paaaaaarrrreeeennnnnnnttttsss
“DON’T contact my parents.
I told this person I went no contact with them and I showed them the legal documents saying that my parents are legally not allowed to contact me but they were still like ‘but they’re your paaaaarrrreeeennnnnnts’ and got into contact with them.
After about 4 weeks that person called to tell me that my parents won’t stop harassing and threatening them for information about me and I need to help them, I told them tough luck and the only way to get them to stop is get the cops involved and since its just threats, you have to wait until they come to your house and start damaging you or your property for the cops to actually do anything.
I stopped talking to that person for obvious reasons but from what I hear my parents are still threatening and harassing them a year and a half later.”
Mr. Max’s Mistake
“I’m a vet-tech so my job is a lot of not telling people I told you so. ‘Spay your dog otherwise they’ll get pyometra. Keep the cone on or they’ll lick the sutures open. Don’t feed your dog McDonald’s or they’ll get pancreatitis.’
The most recent one was for a client by with a little Yorkie I’ll call Max. He came in for the core dog vaccines of Da2pp and Rabies.. however my area has had a rash of Leptospirosis cases, a spirochete that lives in the urine and feces particularly of wild animals like raccoons and skunks. It causes acute kidney failure within two weeks of picking it up. Three diagnosed and three deaths in one month makes me offer it to everyone getting vaccines.
I offered Mr Max the lepto and explained why. Mr Max was a great owner, loved Max with all his heart as did his family. He said he’d have to ask his mum, was super busy, come back and get it later.
Fine, no worries. He was a well loved little dog.
Two months later Max comes in for lethargy and what do you know, Leptospirosis. Mr Max looked like he’d been punched in the guts. I’d never seen so much regret. He apologized to me for some reason as if he could take it back. The entire family is in the clinic weeping and begging what we can do for him. Do they do kidney transplants in dog? What if we pay you $25000? Make Max better, please, whatever it takes
Good news was that with three weeks of fluid therapy and he came pretty good but wow, a $6000 bill vs a $20 vaccine.”
No One Listens To Me
“I once told some guy at the horse track that a horse was going to get away from him while he was leading it around. He had him on a super long lead, treating him like a puppy. Sure, you can do that with some there, but this horse wasn’t one of them. The horse spooked, kicked him in the gut, took off and ran into a cement barrier, flipping over the top of it. He was banged up some, but he was alright, thankfully. I tried not to laugh at the guy.
Told a different person to not go back on the motocross track when their front tire would randomly lock up (I mean, duh). He did anyway. During the race, it locked up in the air over a decent sized tabletop and he ended up with a broken collarbone, bruised lung, and concussion.
Told my ex that we should strap down the hay. He didn’t feel like it, said it would be fine. We get onto the freeway, and sure enough, there goes the hay. Cars are hitting it, running it over, plus losing the cost of it alone was a big enough sting.”
Bogus Benz
“My mother-in-law is a really lovely woman. Her husband died due to cancer many years ago. After 2 or 3 boyfriends in the past 10-15 years she met a guy on a dating site. She was really happy and all and ask us to meet him over dinner and bowling. So we went with the family and it was a nice evening. But the more minutes I spend talking to him, the more I realize this man is lying about everything. His story is that he was wealthy, owned multiple houses and expensive cars. Somehow he shows up in a really terrible old car because his ‘Mercedes Benz was at the dealer’ (I bring my newish car I always get a better car for loan, so did not buy it from him).
I told my mom in law to get rid of this guy. Me and my mrs were the only one not trusting this guy. Long story short, after she lost €30k to him and he started showing up in a Mercedes Benz instead, she explained to me she loaned him money because he could not get his money somehow… after research from my end (can’t really share details) I show her that this guy was in debt and had no money at all and was obviously lying to her.
Luckily she dumped his as and ask for her money back. Not needed to tell she got nothing back.
She got scammed 8 years ago and I personally still feel bad about it, even though I did warn her..”
Just Don’t Hire B
“I was up for a promotion at work. They were also considering two other people, let’s call them A and B. A was/is a great person who I consider a friend. They would do a great job if given the promotion.
B is… not. They seem nice on the surface, but talked down to and belittled others, and their working philosophy was totally different to that of everyone else on the team.
When my boss asked me what I thought about the other two candidates, I was honest. I said that A would be a great fit for the role and I’d be happy to work under them. I also said that B was not really liked or respected by anyone, and that their style would clash with the way everyone else was accustomed to working. I figured that this might hurt my chances of getting the role, but would at least help A’s chances. I’d rather sacrifice my own chances at the promotion than have to work under B.
Well, the role was given to B. Everyone pretty much freaked out – some directly to the boss, others just in private. B was, as predicted, and absolute disaster.
Some people were able to transfer to other teams internally, while some others left all together. I looked for a new job but couldn’t find one so I stuck around for about a year before leaving. After I left, I learned that B had been demoted back to their old role, and A was given the position after all.”
Hot Young Thing
“My best friend had been dating a girl for 4-5 years who loved him beyond comprehension and would never even think of leaving him (both mid-20s at the time). She thought they were going the distance and everyone else did too. I think even he did as well but he had some reservations because he felt insecure that she was making almost 6 figures while he was struggling to find his way. He had jobs and made money, but overall he wasn’t happy. He also felt uneasy because her parents weren’t thrilled that he wasn’t some university educated guy on the fast track to the top of his chosen profession. She was a great girl and everyone agreed. Can’t find anyone to say anything negative about her. On top of it all she treated him wonderfully and never made him feel inadequate. I figured it was only a matter of time until he found a career and the two of them lived happily ever after. They were happy together, but he was insecure because she was crushing life and he wasn’t.
Then in walks B – a 20 year old Instagram hottie with a rocket of a body who knocked him on his rear end from day 1. He’d never cheated on his girlfriend before, but his self-hatred and habit of self sabotage lead him to carry on an affair with her for months wherein he invested all of himself into her. She treated him like a king in the beginning, and they made love like jackrabbits, but quickly transitioned into being nothing but drama. She was new and hot, and he was excited. She eventually gives him an ultimatum – leave his girlfriend for her, or they’re finished. He’s conflicted.
Eventually he comes to me for advice. I tell him to drop B and stick with his girlfriend. I give him a million reasons why and it feels like I’m really getting through to him which I’m thrilled about. That’s the path to the future he’d always envisioned. They’d have kids, a house, happiness, the whole 9 yards. I told him there’s no future with this other girl and I felt like I stuck the landing on that really well.
Despite asking my advice and me seemingly getting through to him, he brushes it off and asks the advice of another close friend of his – a typical chad-like guy who tells him to keep the thot and dump his average looking girlfriend.
He keeps the thot and breaks up with his perfect girlfriend. For the next few months B is still nothing but drama, and plays with his head constantly – posting Instagram pics with other guys, trying to make him jealous, having angry phone calls at all hours of the night, questioning if he really likes her and getting him all messed up over stupid little things, etc. Typical instagram thot.
That fizzles out after maybe 6 tumultuous angry dramatic months and he’s left with nothing. Now a few years later he hasn’t found a girl who even comes close to the one he gave up, and I doubt he ever will. He gave up an amazing future with an amazing girl over idiotic reasons and has only himself to blame.
I’ve never given him the ‘I told you so’ speech, but he absolutely knows I did. I 100% told him so.”
You’re Not Tony Hawk
“Way back in the summer of 2001 I and my best friend were hanging out at another friend’s house. Her house was on the state line of Connecticut and New York. Literally could walk to NY by walking to the end of the block.
We just finished eating Dominos and watched The Beach and the Japanese version of Shall We Dance (good from what I remembered)
Two movies were too long to be sitting in a house on a beautiful summer day, so we ventured outside. I was a skater back then and devoted my last 3 summers to skating every day until the sun went down, my other friends pick it up as a hobby and had much less experience than I.
Anyways we walk to the end of our friend’s driveway which is at the top of a hill, seeing how steep it is, I decide to go down on my board coffin style as it is way to narrow to carve and simply to steep. I make it down a quart of the hill until I lose control and slam into a mailbox. I walk away with no injury but don’t dare try again.
My best friend grabs the board out of my hands and claims ‘ I’ll do it standing up!’ I step in front of him and tell him no, that it’s way too intense and he snaps the board back into his hands and agrees.
As soon as I step away from front of him, he drops the board and goes down the hill, this behavior was unlike him. I and our other friend stand there watching and I say to her that he is gonna fall bad. Well I was right he ended up getting the wobbles as he didn’t even attempt to carve and was bombing the hill. When he fell he landed directly on his temple. I ran down while my friend grabbed her dad. When I got to him he was out cold and bleeding out the ear.
Now us being up at the state line and the severity of the situation an ambulance was gonna take to long,so we jumped in our friend’s father’s car and drove him to the hospital. Long story short he cracked his skull and from just seeing him recently he told me that the doctors claimed if he didn’t bleed out his ear he would probably suffer brain damage.”
Where Are The Windows?
“Basically, our friends were gifted a home by the wife’s parents. It was one floor, and they decided to build a second floor. A mutual friend of ours is an architect (and a respected one in our town, too), and he gave them some initial advice about how to go about it. Honestly, we figured it was a given that he’d be doing the project.
But his fees (even at a friends and family rate) were too expensive for them, apparently. And so they decided to go with this other acquaintance they knew from college who wasn’t even a licensed architect and, from what my husband says, took an inordinate amount of time to even finish his degree. I think we all tried to warn them not to go that route and to think of our friend’s costs as a huge investment on a home they didn’t even buy or spend money on. But they couldn’t be convinced.
Long story short, the layout of the house is a nightmare, makes no sense, and ended up costing them way more than initially estimated.
Highlights include: a staircase that runs oddly through the middle of the kitchen, no laundry room, no windows in the master bedroom, a hallway window placed in such a way that their son’s bedroom was forced to be open-plan, and, oh yeah, their bedroom is open-plan too. They thought it was great— their son is 4 now, so they can keep an ear out for him at night.
But I cringe whenever I think about him being a teen in 10 years and essentially sleeping right next to his mommy and daddy with no door. Like…did you not think about when your son isn’t 4?!
To clarify, those were my impressions of how awful the building turned out. Our architect friend had so much more to say about it. Those were just the obvious things.”
That’s A Bad Idea
“Friend poured out some petrol in his garden to light on fire, I told him it was a bad idea. He did it anyway and was surprised (for some reason) at how big a fire a small amount of petrol made. He started panicking and I told him to just wait and it would die down by itself, but he decided to try stomp on it, splashing the petrol and causing a bigger fire which is now close to wooden deck. I tell him to relax, he has a fire-extinguisher in his garage. He tells me he doesn’t and I tell him that I know he does and to not do anything else until I get it. When I come back out I discover he tried to put out the petrol fire with the garden hose which just spread the fire even more. So now the garden and the deck is on fire and he decides to try stomping on it again (because he seems to have forgotten what happened just a few seconds ago) which just sets fire to his shoe. He’s running around with his shoe on fire and I tell him to drop and roll as I quickly extinguish the fires on the grass and decking. Of course he doesn’t drop and roll and in his panicked state ran into the house with his shoe on fire. I ran in after him trying to spay his shoe with the extinguisher, but of course he is jumping around and the foam keeps missing his foot. He then slips on the foam and smacks his head off the counter, but at least he was still enough for me to extinguish his shoe. This whole incident took less than a minute to play out.”
I Wish He Listened
“I told me ex he was drinking himself to death and begged him to stop. I tried everything to get him to stop. It was eventually too much pain for me to watch him destroy his life and I broke up with him ten months ago. I tried to move on and minimize contact. It will be the one month anniversary of his death tomorrow. I will never forgive myself for not responding to him when he reached out two days before he died.”