When I was 5 years old my grandfather gave me 3 silver dollars. I carefully put them in a little pink coin purse for safe-keeping. I was SO proud of these and had absolutely no intention of ever spending them. I kept them perfectly safe for about 2 weeks (you can see this coming, can't you). . . then lost them (and the pink purse) somewhere deep in the bowels of the Sears' Bargain Basement. I must have set the purse down while trying on some shoes and, of course, forgot all about it and walked away. When I realized that I no longer had the purse in my hand, it was too late. Someone else had decided that they really wanted my pink purse and silver dollars too, and they were lost forever.
It's been more than 40 years since that dark day, but I still remember and regret being so forgetful and foolish! Maybe you have a similar story from your youth. Or possibly you squandered a decent sum of money on something foolish that brings you sorrow even today. Yes?
Well, never fear. There are those out in the world that make just about any money mistake you've ever made seem paltry by comparison. As you can guess, most of these famous/infamous folks, in the following list, lost all of their money and had to file bankruptcy, due to mis-management of their huge fortunes. The most common themes in these bankruptcies are: drugs, iffy investments, and uncontrolled spending.
Donald Trump
Dorothy Hamill
MC Hammer
Gary Coleman
Toni Braxton
Burt Reynolds
Mickey Rooney
Sheryl Swoopes
Kim Basinger
LaToya Jackson
Zsa Zsa Gabor
Mick Fleetwood
Walt Disney
Leif Garrett
Willie Nelson
Ted Nugent
Larry King
Mike Tyson
Isaac Hayes
Tammy Wynette
Wayne Newton
Don Johnson
Margot Kidder
Meatloaf
Many, many big lottery winners
The take-home message here seems to be that you have to be careful with your money, no matter how many millions you've got. Seems pretty obvious, but maybe not.
1 comment:
I remember those silver dollars!! I kept mine in my jewelry box for several year then asked Mom to deposit them in the bank for me so I wouldn't lose them. I thought they would carefully keep those exact silver dollars for me and I could get them back whenever I wanted them - I was very upset when I learned that wasn't the case (now I know about safety deposit boxes!) Speaking about foolish spending, ask me about the membership fee to Direct Buy that Dave just had to get!
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