Posted on 04/26/2009 10:39:58 AM PDT by AJKauf
Anyone looking at my blueprint for a happy life composed at 27 would think I was the wisest young woman in England. Indeed, when I was an executive with Anglia Television Drama at that relatively youthful age, colleagues would come to me for advice on long-term investment. I knew that behind my back they were making cracks about “Jews are always the best with money” but it did not faze me. I seemed to have planned for a prosperous future. Just before she died, when I was 35, my mother said, “I’m not worried about you. One day you are going to be a very wealthy woman.”
Well, I should have been. I am 55 and penniless. Without the generosity of friends I would be on the street.
What happened? In light of the daily stories on American news programs about tent cities and rampant foreclosures, I thought I would share my story. Here is the sorry scenario...
(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...
Reads like a non stop progression of very poor decisions. Starting with an interest only mortgage followed by and equity loan against the same property.
Primary ingredients in a recipe for financial disaster.
I am making a generalization here, but people that make such obviously foolish decisions usually don’t stop at a couple. In her case it appears to be a pattern of good money after bad.
“She quit several jobs that would have given her more income and security. I don’t blame her for getting mad about the insult to her secretary, but I don’t know that it required her to quit her job. And I don’t know why she quit her other job.”
Who knows, maybe she got huffy over something someone said about her.
There’s way too much expectation by many that their feelings will be protected in the workplace when the main goal is to make money and build.
Some people are incapable of cutting back on their lifestyle when things start going belly up.
Sad but, commonplace tale of "smart people" who make stupid decisions due to their not having been properly educated! It is not her fault (?) that she did not receive a basic education in diversifying her assets (not putting all eggs in a few baskets...)
I know a number of individuals who are in the same shape today. Over the years however, they have lived "HIGH ON THE HOG" for many years, freely providing their views of how to "GET RICH AND PROSPER" to their friends!
Aesop's fable of the Ant and the Grasshopper (expanded to include asset diversification) is as valid today as it was eons ago!
Well I haven’t been stolen broke YET....but it is amazing when you invest in the most conservative HOPEFULLY safe ways that someone can still take you off at the knees. I admit I saw it coming for years, but I really expected it in about the year 2020, not now.
One of the governments real problems now as I see it, Is people like me that have always lived WAY below their means aren’t dumb enough to bust their butts only to be cheated again. So now in effect the government has made many of the true boot strappers doubt even more if trying will pay off in the long term.
I didn’t use to think small business HAD to cheat to make money, Now after looking around I believe most do.
A person would have to be half crazy to start one now...
How we have squandered the American Dream...
Yes! Or as I tell my daughters, "Loot attracts looters."
This writer claims to have been an astute investor, but really only was a gullible person who did not investigate where she put her money. She gave lots of it away, and quit lucrative jobs because of perceived “racism”.
Don’t expect to be wealthy just because other people tell you how foolproof their investment schemes are.
Meanwhile...
Obama Wants $100B For Global Poverty
Geithner says crisis threatens work on poverty
By Harry Dunphy, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON – The global economic crisis threatens to reverse gains in fighting poverty, so banks that provide aid to poor nations must embrace changes in their operations, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Sunday.
Those development banks are at the forefront of efforts to eradicate poverty and promote sustainable growth, he said the World Bank’s policy-setting board.
“We cannot afford to lose time or lose ground,” Geithner said.
At the same time, he said it was important for the banks to conduct their aid business in the open.
They must face reviews to ensure they have enough money and are promoting fundamental changes, Geithner said. He added that their resources must be used to “achieve the maximum impact on long-term development objectives, including addressing the needs of the poorest.” …
Officials agreed on an immediate increase of $250 billion for IMF lending. A further $250 billion would be added later to an “expanded and more flexible” line of credit.
President Barack Obama is seeking congressional approval for up to $100 billion for that effort, matching commitments for the same amount made by Japan and the European Union…
via: http://sweetness-light.com/archive/obama-wants-another-100b-for-global-poverty
Original: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090426/ap_on_bi_ge/us_world_economy
Really?
Typical boomer like me at 51 is caring for a large family and extended elderly relatives (10 dependents) and managing businesses or dealing with a serious management level or professional degree job. And paying for possibly private school and college too. I have one in private school and one in state college and one in private college.
And i'm never late with my mortgages and manage most of my own capital
Young folks who are considerably more liberal (Next to blacks..Obama's biggest vote), make the mistake of thinking that all boomers were college radicals or Ward Churchill types.
That was a minority of boomers ...a tiny minority outside of the Ivy League and some radical hotbeds like Madison and Berkeley
Most of us are fairly conservative and vote that way...just check the stats. And many of us fought in Vietnam, not me I was too young.
I'm not sure what sort of generational issues you have but one thing we most boomers except the radicals have never done is to blame all who came before us for all their ills.
I was raised to venerate my kinfolks who came before me.
Compare tacky hippies, led zepplin, lynyrd skynyrd and dazed and confused era kids with todays' youth culture from hip hop to ink and body mutilation, girls acting like sluts, no daddies, sissy boy meterosexuals being the dominant educated white boys theme and get back to me which is more offensive really....and who is far more liberal
My daughter goes to David Lipscomb...a Christian college...besides her and her teachers...most kids are brainwashed PC race and environment obsessed ninnies. Thanks.
Let’s see:
1. Bought an annuity product with high fees and no guarantees.
2. Bought a house in the U.S. that she wasn’t using.
3. Bought another annuity product with high fees and no guaranteess.
4. Put her retirement into a pension run by someone else.
5. No savings.
6. Interest only loan.
7. Freelance means didn’t really work for several years.
8. Took a second mortgage on her home.
9. Foresook secure steady jobs for the high life, high risk mover and shaker world.
10. Gave her money away.
11. Was forced through her behavior to make tough decisions in down markets.
12. Parents seem to be divorced so she had no family safety net to validate taking such big risks.
All in, she doesn’t sound that prudent to me. If you don’t have folks to fall back on, you need to be more prudent and careful with your career decisions, financial purchases and investment programming.
When I bought my house all the mortgage people thought I was crazy for getting a 15 year mortgage. Well, I put 23 percent down and will have it paid off five years early. I still have plenty of equity in the place even today and after 10 years I’ll have a 10 year old house that’s fully paid for. Who’s crazy now?
She’s a nitwit thinking to earn by writing about it.
Sorry, take that back, it’s the age of Obama. Follow the leader.
Sometimes one can out-’smart’ oneself.
Apparently she's an exception...
Not to worry Joe6P... Pennies aren't worth much anyway... ; )
“Had anyone looked at my life at 30 they would have said I was the most prudent young woman around...”
Not me. This woman bought a home on an interest-only mortgage, additionally paid into two separate “endowment funds” (investments meant specifically to pay of her mortgage on the theory that they would make more than the interest rate on the loan,) and now, after 25 years, she still does not own the house?
Her plan sounds like utter insanity which has worked out exactly the way a prudent person would have anticipated.
Call me politically incorrect but I do not feel her pain. I am wondering if we got a chance to examine her fiscal life what we would find. Two home, one in the States and one in London? Interest only mortgages? All her investing eggs in one basket? That is bad enough but what we don’t know is how she spent the rest of her money. Did she purchase a new car every year, new clothes every season and make reservations for dinner every night?
The woman appears to have had an education and talent. And I am supposed to feel sorry for her because she squandered her treasure? To me she is yet one more whinny Baby Boomer who has gone through life expecting rather than learning. I do not feel sorry for her. I pity her.
There’s a line in my new book about fighting for lost causes that is going to resonate with you.
When you read it, you will know exactly the line I mean.
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