Next week is the fun and scary Halloween festive day. For those that are new to Halloween, it’s a special day that occurs on October 31st of every year. Kids dress up in scary costumes and go around houses in their neighbourhood to ask for treats (mostly candies). For families that celebrate Halloween, they’ll put up scary decorations around their homes and display scary jack-o-lanterns carved out of pumpkins. They’ll light up the jack-o-lanterns on Halloween night to invite kids to come to their homes to obtain treats.
 

As a kid, I loved Halloween as I could go around the neighbourhood trick-or-treating to get bags and bags of candies that I could never finish. As an adult, I love carving themed jack-o-lanterns and giving out candies to neighbourhood kids to celebrate. As a personal finance blogger, I am going to be treating and scaring my readers silly with a list of personal finance horror stories this Halloween. Be warned, these stories are scary so hold on to your seat. For some people in these stories, they may never recover from these horrific experiences.

The Monstrous Data Roaming Charges

Imagine that you are on a family vacation in another country at a beautiful five-star beachside all-inclusive resort. You’re relaxing on a beach chair sipping your iced cold Pina Colada, listening to the soothing sound of the waves and feeling the breezy ocean winds. Your kids are bored and wanted to borrow your phone to play some online games to kill some time while you relax.
 

You thought that your kids were using the resort’s free WiFi so you continue to relax. However, unbeknownst to you, your kids were actually using your roaming data instead of the free WiFi. Every day, your kids were slowly racking up the data roaming usage, Megabyte by Megabyte. After a week, you return home from vacation to discover a monstrous data roaming charge of $22,000 on your phone bill. If you want to avoid being scared silly by a monstrous phone bill after returning from vacation, read the full story here.

The Soul Stealing Identity Fraud

A few years ago, Dave was living a very comfortable life. He had a six-figure job working as a contractor for the federal government, thousands in his bank account and driving a Corvette. His credit score was a pristine 780. Life was smooth sailing.
 

Over a period of a couple of years, Dave’s bank account was completely drained. He got laid off from his six-figure job and couldn’t find another job in the same sector or with the same salary range. He had to sell most of his valuable possessions, including his beloved Corvette. At one point in time, he was contemplating suicide. Now, he’s eating macaroni and cheese just to save a few bucks. This was not a nightmare, it’s the result of being a victim of the soul stealing identity fraud. If you want to protect your identity (and your soul), read the full story here.

The Sneaky Financial Advisor

At 17, Bryan was a top hockey prospect and a future star in the making. At 19, he was the first overall pick in the NHL draft. In his rookie year, he earned an awesome $850,000 in salary and was the rookie of the year in the NHL. With such an awesome annual salary and a huge future earning potential, Bryan had a financial advisor that took care of his money so he can concentrate on his hockey career. Everything was smooth sailing.
 

A few years later, Bryan’s financial advisor left his current employer to form his own investment firm. Bryan’s financial advisor convinced him to move his money to the new investment firm and invest in real estate. After moving the money, Bryan’s financial advisor sneakily wire transfer Bryan’s money to personal accounts and use it for personal benefits. What was supposed to be a trusted financial advisor who was supposed to help Bryan manage his money, turned out to be a financial nightmare. If you want to protect yourself from sneaky financial advisors, read the full story here.

The Chainsaw Tax Preparer

Do you want to slash your tax bill and cut down your taxable income? Why not? Who wants to pay more taxes when you can employ a knowledgeable tax preparer who can find tax deductions that almost no one can? Mr. K found his accountant through a friend, who’s also a client to help him reduced his employment income from $45,623 to $20,611. As a result, he paid almost next to nothing in income taxes for a few years.
 

Mr. K’s accountant was so great that he helped Mr. K deduct traffic ticket costs, the cost of mutual fund purchases, almost $4,700 for non-existent expenses, and on and on to slash his tax bills. Until one day, the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) audited him. All of his tax deductions were disallowed. He was required to pay all the back taxes and with interest on top of that. If you want to protect your finance from being cut down by a chainsaw tax preparer from hell, read the full story here.

My Two Cents

Scary creatures can come out on Halloween night from anywhere and scared us silly when we are caught by surprise. The same thing can happen to our personal finances and we’ll get more than just a frightful reaction here and there. Don’t get caught off guard, be aware of dark places and stay vigilance of personal finance pitfalls. Try to spot them before they get to you. Happy Halloween! Muhahahahah, (proof.)
 

So readers, have you experienced any personal financial horror stories that more than scared you silly?