I LOVE getting scared. Scary movies? Yes, please. Haunted houses? Screechy giggles all the way through.
The only scary things I DON’T enjoy are Money Monsters.
Those are the scary things I’ve witnessed as a financial planner over the last 15 years.
Here are just a few such frightful tales. (All based on true stories.)
There once was a salesman named Fred.
Who perpetually lived in the red.
He made a cool mill.
But couldn’t keep chill.
And now he will work till he’s dead.
(I knew a tech salesperson who earned over $1.5M per year. But he only flew first class, “needed” an $10k/mo 5br house for just him and his girlfriend and enjoyed the finest things. At age 55 his net worth was $200,000.)
There was a sweet lady from Concord.
Who thought she would never be poor.
But she ran through her savings
Never said “no” to her cravings
And now her $3 mill is no more.
(One of my former baby boomer clients retired with $3M. I watched in terror as she ripped through over just 10 years. I begged and pleaded and tried every trick in the book to stop her, but to no avail. She’s now living on just her Social Security benefits.)
There once was a genius named Wolf.
Who thought that his trading was foolproof.
Off his earnings he’d live
So retire he did.
But in ’08, his money went ‘poof’.
(A friend’s dad who is one of the smartest people on the planet had a high-risk trading system that made him a TON of money in the early 2000’s. He thought he couldn’t get hurt, so he decided to retire early. When 2008 hit, he got almost completely wiped out and had to go back to work after being retired for 5 years.)
Happy Halloween everyone!
