Author Topic: Squandered 200,000  (Read 8350 times)

littleone

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 10
Squandered 200,000
« on: March 28, 2014, 05:06:17 PM »
Hello! Had to tell this face-punch story that I heard from a co-worker at my previous job.

Back story: Guy was in horrible car accident, long story short he received around 200,000 from the settlement.

A few years later he was broke. FACE-PUNCH!
He told me one day that he saw a friend that avoids him now since he "loaned" him 5,000 a while back, and "I guess I won't get that back" said passively.
Bought unlivable land (swamp land) for taking his new 4 wheelers out on, but they were having problems running after a couple years.
Bought new gas sucking truck, which is falling into disrepair.
Same guy stops at gas station every day for breakfast and lunch, his receipt fell out of the bag, 20 dollars(Crap food and soda).
The only smart thing he may have done with his money was to buy a rental property. Except he rents it out to "friends" of him who take advantage of this by not paying him on time.

This workplace was full of great conversations of what not to do with your money.

SpeedReader

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 192
  • Age: 58
  • Location: Vancouver, WA
Re: Squandered 200,000
« Reply #1 on: March 28, 2014, 10:20:28 PM »
Reminds me of a co-worker at a former job who won $60,000 in the lottery.  They used some of it as down payment on a duplex and to pay off credit cards, which was good -- but then they blew the rest of it AND ran the cards back up by going to the casino every weekend. 

FIREman2036

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 31
Re: Squandered 200,000
« Reply #2 on: March 31, 2014, 09:01:39 AM »
I have a friend who owes me a quite disgusting amount of money. To be honest i don't think ill ever get it back and since i have accepted that i am much happier about the situation. He is a really good and loyal friend but didn't have much luck in his life. At one point i noticed he was avoiding me out of embarrassment and i told him i value his friendship more than the money so please don't avoid me.

I guess you could call it passive but its much healthier for me in-terms of maintaining my longest friendship and not dwelling on the past. i treat it as a lesson learned and don't lend anymore. He is actually fairly enterprising in a boom and bust sort of way and if he ever hits it big ill be paid back with super interest, not holding my breath though.


Half-Borg

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 271
Re: Squandered 200,000
« Reply #3 on: March 31, 2014, 09:19:06 AM »
These people are jsut not ready to deal with money. They never had more than one paycheck. It's just not real, so they do stuff that is jut not real.

GuitarStv

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 23128
  • Age: 42
  • Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Re: Squandered 200,000
« Reply #4 on: March 31, 2014, 09:26:24 AM »
Winning the lottery positively reinforces foolish decision making (playing the lottery).  It's not surprising when the people who do win end up blowing it all.  They're just following the same decision making process that led them to play in the first place.

GoldenStache

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 236
  • Location: Washington, DC
Re: Squandered 200,000
« Reply #5 on: March 31, 2014, 11:39:55 AM »
I knew a guy that won $400,000 at the casino.  Spent it the first year on a nice RV, jet skies, new truck and a tanning booth.  Two years later his son got really sick and they had to sell it all for a 1/4 of the price to pay the bill.  He didn't want to waste the money on insurance.     

randymarsh

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1369
  • Location: Denver
Re: Squandered 200,000
« Reply #6 on: March 31, 2014, 02:09:00 PM »
It's kind of amazing to me that these people who win "low" lottery amounts - 60K, 100K, 200K fall into the same trap that mega millions winners fall into.

I can kind of see how they might think it's just impossibleto run out of money when they have 100 million. But 100K? OK, that's enough to pay off most of the debt they're probably in and go on a nice trip, but not nearly enough to adopt a high spending lifestyle.

MgoSam

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3684
  • Location: Minnesota
Re: Squandered 200,000
« Reply #7 on: March 31, 2014, 05:00:19 PM »
I have a friend who owes me a quite disgusting amount of money. To be honest i don't think ill ever get it back and since i have accepted that i am much happier about the situation. He is a really good and loyal friend but didn't have much luck in his life. At one point i noticed he was avoiding me out of embarrassment and i told him i value his friendship more than the money so please don't avoid me.

I guess you could call it passive but its much healthier for me in-terms of maintaining my longest friendship and not dwelling on the past. i treat it as a lesson learned and don't lend anymore. He is actually fairly enterprising in a boom and bust sort of way and if he ever hits it big ill be paid back with super interest, not holding my breath though.

Yeah, I've heard a quote along the lines of 'If you loan a friend $20 and don't see them again, it was a bargain.'

Mag

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 1
Re: Squandered 200,000
« Reply #8 on: April 26, 2014, 02:15:39 PM »

Forcus

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 714
  • Location: Central Illinois
Re: Squandered 200,000
« Reply #9 on: April 30, 2014, 11:24:32 AM »
My in-laws have never learned how to deal with money. They got a 6 figure settlement from being rammed by a semi several years ago but its already gone and they ask us for table scraps / leftovers. Kind of sad.

LucyBIT

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 99
Re: Squandered 200,000
« Reply #10 on: April 30, 2014, 11:35:40 AM »
I can kind of see how they might think it's just impossibleto run out of money when they have 100 million. But 100K? OK, that's enough to pay off most of the debt they're probably in and go on a nice trip, but not nearly enough to adopt a high spending lifestyle.

Seriously. And it's funny (for certain values of "funny") how 100K/year income is "just scraping by" yet 100K one-time lump sum is WHEEEEE JACKPOT!!!

Shor

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 478
  • Location: Orange County, CA, USA
Re: Squandered 200,000
« Reply #11 on: May 01, 2014, 09:32:50 AM »
My in-laws have never learned how to deal with money. They got a 6 figure settlement from being rammed by a semi several years ago but its already gone and they ask us for table scraps / leftovers. Kind of sad.
Or... or... maybe they're just incredibly frugal and see You as wasteful spendy pants? Naah! Kinda sad..

My gf won $50k on a scratcher. Used it to clear her (high interest) school loans and get back to balance $0. Technically "broke", but it makes me... so proud! *sniff*

Bigote

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 277
Re: Squandered 200,000
« Reply #12 on: May 03, 2014, 05:21:18 AM »
My gf won $50k on a scratcher. Used it to clear her (high interest) school loans and get back to balance $0. Technically "broke", but it makes me... so proud! *sniff*


Marry that woman!