Millionaire Widow Now Cleans Homes
What does a 60 year old with no children do with her millions? Invests of course!
Maureen Ebel, a 60 year old widow, is now cleaning homes for a living after losing all her millions to Madoff’s Ponzi Scheme. Story Here
Was it greed or stupidity? Probably a combination of the two. I for one, do not feel bad for this woman at all. She basically invested every penny she had, all 450 million of them, and lost it all.
According to the average life expectancy, she has a good 18-20 years left. That works out to about $225,000 per year had she just threw her money in the bank with a 0% apr. Not too shabby. That would be about $90,000 per year for me at age 29. I’d be happy with that.
Is a modest 2-3% rate in a money market account not good enough for some people? Sure it is slightly lower than the current rate of inflation, but we are talking about 4.5 MILLION DOLLARS. Most people will not make that much money in their lifetime, let alone have a lump sum at your disposal.
Well lady, you got greedy and you lost it. You should have just went to Vegas and blew your money on blackjack and booze.
I agree
I mean hasn’t she ever heard the saying, “Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket?”
I disagree. (sorry Billy).
Although your advice of putting your eggs in one basket is sound, we can’t really blame this woman.
Here’s why.
- She is not an expert and acted on a recommendation of a family member!
So, think of it this way. You know people that are not as computer savvy as you. I’m sure people ask you all the time for advice on buying a computer. You recommend a Dell based on your experience. Your family member trusts your judgment and they buy a Dell. Next… they get the computer and Dell goes out of business. The computer dies and cannot be repaired. Bad motherboard or whatever….
So tell me. Is your family member to blame? Are YOU to blame? No.
Perhaps you, as a savvy computer person should have researched the fact that the components in Dell were cheap and could fail. But hey it worked for you and you had no reason to doubt it.
My analogy is this. Smart people got screwed. So why should we be surprised that people who are not as familiar with money got screwed too.