Couple pisses away $10 million, now whines 'we are basically broke'

[Newsjock]

Source: New York Times

WAMEGO, Kan. — Grateful to have found work in this tough economy, Nick Martin teaches grape growing and winemaking each Saturday to a class of seven students in a simple metal building here at a satellite campus of Highland Community College.

Then he drives 14 miles in an 11-year-old Ford Explorer to a sparsely furnished tract house that he rents for $900 a month on a dead-end street in McFarland, a smaller town. Just across the backyard is a shed that a neighbor uses to make cartridges for shooting the prairie dogs that infest the adjacent fields.

It is a far cry from the life that Mr. Martin and his family enjoyed until recently at their Adirondacks waterfront camp at Tupper Lake, N.Y. Their garage held three stylish cars, including a yellow Aston Martin; they owned three horses, one that cost $173,000; and Mr. Martin treated his wife, Kate, to a birthday weekend at the Waldorf-Astoria, with dinner at the “21” Club and a $7,000 mink coat.

That luxurious world was fueled by a check Mr. Martin received in 1998 for $14 million, his share of the $600 million sale of Martin Media, an outdoor advertising business begun by his father in California in the 1950s. After taxes, he kept about $10 million.

But as so often happens to those lucky enough to realize the American dream of sudden riches, the money slipped through the Martins’ fingers faster than they ever imagined.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/26/business/26fall.html?pagewanted=all

[hobbit709]

1. Another prime example of more money than brains.

If I had $10 mill after taxes, everything I wanted wouldn't cost me more than 1. I would use another mill to help out some people. the rest would generate enough money to keep me comfortable for the rest of my life.

[MineralMan]

2. If I suddenly had $10 million after taxes:

I'd do these things:

1. Invest enough in a secure investment to provide me and my wife about $50,000/yr. income after taxes.
2. Pay off all the non-mortgage debt for everyone in my family.
3. Make a very large donation to the local homeless charity to help them expand their facilities.
4. Buy off the next local NPR fund-raising drive to keep from hearing the constant fundraising ads.
5. Use the remaining funds to make donations to other charities that I carefully researched.
6. Go fishing.

N.B.: I'm 65 years old and have no children.

[madinmaryland]

9. All but #4 and #6. And you forgot making a donation to DU to keep

from seeing the constant fundraising ads!!

Prudently planned, the money will last for a long time and provide a comfortable life style.

[MineralMan]

10. Nope. DU needs to have member donations. They're an indication

of where people want it to go. User-supported organizations need to stay user-supported. My NPR thing is really humor. I've always dreamed of doing that...every time it's fund-raising time.

[devilgrrl]

22. What? No Lambourghini or yacht?

:sarcasm:

[DavidDvorkin]

3. Stunning. Even if they had lived on the capital without investing it

they would have had $100,000 tax free for 100 years!

[realisticphish]

4. Man, people are stupid with this stuff

suddenly getting 10 million dollars means that you will live very comfortably, even luxuriously, for the rest of your life. But you won't be Bill Gates.

[B Calm]

5. Paris Hilton would be proud. . .

[Gormy Cuss]

6. He's providing a public service by making this public.

I've known two lottery millionaires who followed a similar path. Coming into lots of money all of a sudden doesn't make one a financial wizard and the temptation to spend lavishly is fairly common.

What I find interesting about Martin's story is that the majority stockholders took >100M each while handing off only 10M to the other stockholders, all FAMILY. Nice family dynamic there.

[CrispyQ]

13. I also knew a lotto millionaire who burned through his 1.5 million in about 3 years.

When I met him, it was about 6 years after his winning. He & his family lived in an apartment building, he was working an $8 an hour job & all he had left was a hot car. He admitted that he & his wife put most of it up their nose. Everyday he lived with the fact that he had squandered an incredible opportunity. He was one of the saddest men I've ever met.

"Wealth is passed down from generation to generation, you can't get rid of wealth. Rich is some shit you can loose with a crazy summer and a drug habit." ~Chris Rock

[Overseas]

7. 25 million people unemployed, but let's do a story on a guy who wasted his ten million.

See, people are poor because they are stupid, I guess. They just can't handle money.

Please repeat: "But as so often happens to those lucky enough to realize the American dream of sudden riches, the money slipped through the Martins’ fingers faster than they ever imagined."

So maybe it's okay that the Top 2% own so much of our nation's wealth now. Regular folk just don't know how to handle such wealth.


:grr:

[Warpy]

8. New money usually does die broke

and I'm surprised this idiot isn't being haunted by his father.

If you're trying to compete with movie stars, you can burn through ten million in a single year and have nothing to show for it but a lot of debt and some beautiful memories.

If that's your thing, then by all means go for it. Just don't whine to the rest of us when it's over and the bills come due.

[unblock]

11. and this is why EVERYBODY needs social security

anyone can piss away any fortune. even bill gates could one day decide to give away his empire and leave himself with nothing, if only out of dementia.

[Toucano]

14. +1...Thank you! n/t

[Skink]

12. and now his taxes on his income might go up.

[mainer]

15. If he'd made it himself, he'd know how to manage it

No sympathy for stupidity.

[bbgrunt]

16. well if all the millionaires spent their money this way, maybe

our economy would be in better shape.

[Angry Dragon]

17. Winner

[Xenotime]

18. Proof that the rich don't need their money

[blueamy66]

19. Tough shit.

that's all I got

[NNN0LHI]

20. They ain't bullshitting me. They hid a good chunk of that money somewhere

Probably in cash some place.

I know I would have. And I am not all that smart. Bet they got tired of the relatives bugging them for their money.

And I bet they seen the movie The Jerk.

Don

[sendero]

21. I read somewhere..

... that most big lotto winners burn through their winnings within a few years to broke-hood.

Hard to feel sorry for them or for this jackass. Real hard.

[MadMaddie]

23. New Money people like this never link the facts that the old

money saves and invests their money. They live off of the dividends and other sources of money while their stock etc grows. (I am sure there is more to it)

New Money people believe to really be in the big time you have to have 5 houses and 20 cars, jewlry etc. By not saving and continually investing they become broke. They also forget that there are taxes associated with all of those things they buy.

Why is it the New Money people don't pay off their homes or cars? They get payment plans and then end up losing everything because they don't own the property? Always wondered that..

Is it lack of education or ignorance? I don't know.

[pipi_k]

24. Idiots. I don't feel sorry for them...

When my MIL died five years ago she left each of her 3 kids a healthy sum of money.

Mr P and I added a sun room to our home, then put the rest into a CD. When we wanted to have the house sided, we used the money in the CD as a loan that we paid off.

First rule of coming into lots of money...put at least half of it away and DON'T TOUCH IT!!! Live modestly with maybe just a few small luxuries.

[Canuckistanian]

25. Horses aren't assets

They're money eating machines. They literally turn money into shit.

[NNN0LHI]

27. Happiest day of my life was when I got a pony

Second happiest day of my life was when I gave that fucker away to some guy.

He said he loved the pony. I said great. Goodbye.

Don

[hfojvt]

26. and they are working in Wamego now?

Amazing, but $900 seems like a lot to pay for rent, especially in McFarland.

I do feel bad for them. That is more regret than most people have to live with. As others have pointed out, even a 3% investment would provide $300,000 a year in income which is plenty of money for somebody to live off. Especially paying no FICA taxes on it.