Early Retirement Extreme Forums

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/26/busin ... f=homepage

I read the article this morning and I must admit I felt a bit of schadenfreude. I must also admit that I admire his spunk in not giving up and doing what it takes to survive---but the stupidity of his "investments" is amazing.
djc

A fool and his money.

Money flows where it's treated best. This is certainly not the first example of someone who made a lot of money (for whatever reason, windfall, sports, acting, ...) and quickly lost it again.

Nothing like believing you are richer than you truly are. $10 million in liquid assets poured into $7+ million of non-liquid assets does not leave enough to live on if you need $200k/yr after taxes for expenses.

In reading that story, I can't help but wonder when the alarm went off in that guy's mind. I'd think it would happen when he realized half of the money that was supposed to last a lifetime was gone in under 10 years. Clearly not.
I also can't help but wonder if the guy is/was devastated inside by the realization that he had wasted so much. Perhaps he isn't as devastated as some of us might be since the importance of that amount of money didn't seem to register with him. Perhaps another perspective is that squandering $10mil is one tragedy-- ruining the rest of your life in self-loathing is another, best to pick up the pieces and move on.

I have to admit, I didn't feel schadenfreude so much as a strong desire to be there when he was making those "investment" decisions and slap him upside the head while screaming: "What do you think you're doing?!?!?!"
What an unbelievable waste...

At least one positive thing will come of this craphat and his senseless wife losing all their money. Their children are still healthy and cared for and are being given a firsthand lesson in personal economics that I doubt they'll ever forget.

...one other thing mentioned in the article in the nytimes, he drank.