Quickest way you've seen someone lose it all?

vitreouss · 10-04-2021 12:17pm #1

Had a friend in his late 20s who was a millionaire after getting into an engineering degree and working for a famous multi-national company in the U.S.

Work was good but stressful. One day he got into a car accident and was prescribed strong painkillers (hydrocodone) for his leg. Got dependent and within a year and a half he lost his job, sold his house/car, and ended up homeless for a while. Called a family member who got him off the streets and into rehab. Doing better now.

Any stories like these?

corner of hells · 10-04-2021 12:32pm

When i got married.

The Mighty Quinn · 10-04-2021 12:33pm

vitreouss wrote: »

Had a friend in his late 20s who was a millionaire after getting into an engineering degree and working for a famous multi-national company in the U.S.

Work was good but stressful. One day he got into a car accident and was prescribed strong painkillers (hydrocodone) for his leg. Got dependent and within a year and a half he lost his job, sold his house/car, and ended up homeless for a while. Called a family member who got him off the streets and into rehab. Doing better now.

Any stories like these?

What mind of engineering degree can make you a millionaire in your 20s (or 60s for that matter!). I want in!

vriesmays · 10-04-2021 1:54pm

There's a well-known theatre director in the South East who was highly respected for winning awards for his stage work. Now he's an alcoholic, diabetic with an amputated leg.

vriesmays · 10-04-2021 2:01pm

I'd post it on the Waterford City forum only I got banned.

banie01 · 10-04-2021 2:05pm

There's a fairly well known investor who has been running a "family office" due to previous run ins with the SEC.

Investment fund is Archegos Capital, man's name is Bill Hwang.
In the coming weeks and months the sheer volume and immediacy of his losses and the possible contagion effect it will have on other investment funds and banks will become far better known, unless the GME saga really does screw Melvin, Citadel and Robinhood.

Anyway, the bould Bill through trading derivatives via leverage...
Has been margin called and losses of $20billion in 2 days are the current best guess.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-04-08/how-bill-hwang-of-archegos-capital-lost-20-billion-in-two-days

Makes our own Sean Quinn's fall from grace seem a stumble.

PopePalpatine · 10-04-2021 7:17pm

The Mighty Quinn wrote: »

What mind of engineering degree can make you a millionaire in your 20s (or 60s for that matter!). I want in!

My guess is he had stock options and struck it lucky when his employer got bought out.

wally1990 · 10-04-2021 7:20pm

Op- if your interested in these type of stories, I read this book and it was absolutely fantastic , true story and might be of interest to you

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Buy-Side-Street-Traders-Spectacular/dp/0770437176

dreamers75 · 11-04-2021 1:57am

Buddy of mine in a good job did E one night and lost it, homeless in Amsterdam afaik.

Timberrrrrrrr · 11-04-2021 2:11am

Shane McGowan

ILoveYourVibes · 11-04-2021 2:19am

It doesn't matter how fast you lose it ...its how you come back.

BorneTobyWilde · 11-04-2021 2:34am

Hard work doesn't make you a millionaire, if it did every nurse in the country would be one. It's just something millionaire bosses say, to keep people in their dead end job ''' work hard and this time next year I'll be able to afford a new house''

Strumms · 11-04-2021 2:57am

BorneTobyWilde wrote: »

Hard work doesn't make you a millionaire, if it did every nurse in the country would be one. It's just something millionaire bosses say, to keep people in their dead end job ''' work hard and this time next year I'll be able to afford a new house''

Hard work, forget it... every fûcking graveyard in this country is stacked high full of ‘hard workers’... busting their hole and putting in extra for companies that don’t appreciate it, don’t recognize it and don’t reward it...

Work smart as opposed to hard.

Nurses and carers are two of the hardest working professions in this country..

A nurse fresh out of training is on less than 31,000

https://www.inmo.ie/salary_information

Average pay for a reasonably experienced carer is 30,000

ILoveYourVibes · 11-04-2021 3:34am

In my experience it only looks quick from the outside. From the inside people were letting things go in the wrong direction for a long time.

Unless its an unusual case like an accident etc.

Your Face · 11-04-2021 3:44am

There were few fellas the auld lad knows, mostly tradies.
They got stung pretty bad on the back of the recession.
One fella went from your average plumber to living in a McMansion to back to his old house in about 3 years.
The banks threw money at him and he made some bad loan deals with them.
Sound enough fella and all but he got carried away with it tbf.

ILoveYourVibes · 11-04-2021 4:12am

Your Face wrote: »

There were few fellas the auld lad knows, mostly tradies.
They got stung pretty bad on the back of the recession.
One fella went from your average plumber to living in a McMansion to back to his old house in about 3 years.
The banks threw money at him and he made some bad loan deals with them.
Sound enough fella and all but he got carried away with it tbf.

Ah he'll get back there. Its doable.:)

Oranage2 · 11-04-2021 4:18am

BorneTobyWilde wrote: »

Hard work doesn't make you a millionaire, if it did every nurse in the country would be one. It's just something millionaire bosses say, to keep people in their dead end job ''' work hard and this time next year I'll be able to afford a new house''

If you keeping working hard like that you'll be able to buy a new house for the boss.

barneygumble99 · 11-04-2021 5:15am

Mate of mine is a stonemason, excellent at his job, good decent guy, hard worker, never outta work in 22 years , self employed and very comfortable. Always complained about the cold wet weather and the effect it had on him, has since been diagnosed with severe arthritis and cannot work. Now he is still financially secure because he didn’t squander his money but he has lost his positivity, his independence and his drive in life. Worse than any financial loss and happened in a short space of time.

11-04-2021 5:37am

banie01 wrote: »

There's a fairly well known investor who has been running a "family office" due to previous run ins with the SEC.

Investment fund is Archegos Capital, man's name is Bill Hwang.
In the coming weeks and months the sheer volume and immediacy of his losses and the possible contagion effect it will have on other investment funds and banks will become far better known, unless the GME saga really does screw Melvin, Citadel and Robinhood.

Anyway, the bould Bill through trading derivatives via leverage...
Has been margin called and losses of $20billion in 2 days are the current best guess.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-04-08/how-bill-hwang-of-archegos-capital-lost-20-billion-in-two-days

Makes our own Sean Quinn's fall from grace seem a stumble.

It's a fascinating story and worthy of a movie with the fallout and how Goldman and Morgan Stanley broke ranks and sold off before the other prime brokers.

Think I read he started with 200m and got up to 20bn, and then with margin, had like 100bn of positions in the market. And then nothing. Mad bastard.

pgj2015 · 11-04-2021 8:10am

barneygumble99 wrote: »

Mate of mine is a stonemason, excellent at his job, good decent guy, hard worker, never outta work in 22 years , self employed and very comfortable. Always complained about the cold wet weather and the effect it had on him, has since been diagnosed with severe arthritis and cannot work. Now he is still financially secure because he didn’t squander his money but he has lost his positivity, his independence and his drive in life. Worse than any financial loss and happened in a short space of time.

I remember when I was around 22, I was finishing up working on the building sites to go to college, met an 18 year old stone mason apprentice, his boss was an ignorant pig. I advised the young lad to go to college and forget about working on sites, I hope he did.

Motivator · 11-04-2021 8:30am

pgj2015 wrote: »

I remember when I was around 22, I was finishing up working on the building sites to go to college, met an 18 year old stone mason apprentice, his boss was an ignorant pig. I advised the young lad to go to college and forget about working on sites, I hope he did.

I hope he didn’t listen to you. Good Stone Masons are like hen’s teeth and can make a fortune if their work is good. Big local businessmen got the front entrance to his house redone last year, all beautiful stone work along the walls outside and leading up the driveway. The job cost him well over €100k. His justification for paying that money was the job was an art form. If he stuck at it and is good at his job he’s making huge money.

Wanderer78 · 11-04-2021 8:37am

Motivator wrote:

I hope he didnâ€™t listen to you. Good Stone Masons are like henâ€™s teeth and can make a fortune if their work is good. Big local businessmen got the front entrance to his house redone last year, all beautiful stone work along the walls outside and leading up the driveway. The job cost him well over â‚¬100k. His justification for paying that money was the job was an art form. If he stuck at it and is good at his job heâ€™s making huge money.

....or stuck at it, and was driven insane by the boss! Sometimes lifes just too short to stick at something just for the money

Motivator · 11-04-2021 8:38am

Loads of stories from the Celtic Tiger era that locally were happening on an almost weekly basis post 2008 crash.

One builder that was a friend of the family years ago had two or three new estates in the works when the crash came. At one point he could put his hand on €10m cash but in the space of a couple of years everything was gone. Business up in smoke, helicopter gone, house taken By NAMA - the whole lot. To be fair to him, most of the cash he had stashed was used to pay the smaller lads who also went under. That was something that I won’t forget. He settled up with any local plumber, carpenter and electrician that were employed and had gotten through some work for him on the new estates. Other lads in his position hit the road and left everyone high and dry. His projects were absolutely flying and honestly it felt like it was overnight that things just disappeared for him. His wife was too used to the highlife and bolted on him, kids gone the whole lot.

He moved away from the area at the start of the last decade. I saw him around two years ago in a petrol station up the country driving a DPD van.

Wanderer78 · 11-04-2021 8:42am

Motivator wrote:

He moved away from the area at the start of the last decade. I saw him around two years ago in a petrol station up the country driving a DPD van.

Must be a sole destroying experience, wealth built on air, we 're slowly moving back towards this again

11-04-2021 8:43am

Motivator wrote: »

Loads of stories from the Celtic Tiger era that locally were happening on an almost weekly basis post 2008 crash.

One builder that was a friend of the family years ago had two or three new estates in the works when the crash came. At one point he could put his hand on €10m cash but in the space of a couple of years everything was gone. Business up in smoke, helicopter gone, house taken By NAMA - the whole lot. To be fair to him, most of the cash he had stashed was used to pay the smaller lads who also went under. That was something that I won’t forget. He settled up with any local plumber, carpenter and electrician that were employed and had gotten through some work for him on the new estates. His projects were absolutely flying and honestly it felt like it was overnight that things just disappeared for him. His wife was too used to the highlife and bolted on him, kids gone the whole lot.

He moved away from the area at the start of the last decade. I saw him around two years ago in a petrol station up the country driving a DPD van.

Afaik thats why mick wallace is held in such huge esteem in wexford,he fended off banks and taxman long enough to pay off the small independant contractors before going under himself

enricoh · 11-04-2021 8:50am

Same as above, a lad I know got massive hiring machinery in the Celtic tiger, his own chopper etc.
When the tiger calved he got stung with massive debts as none of the builders paid him.
100 phone calls a day from banks , suppliers etc looking for money n his brain just went.
He recently got jailed for 7 year for holding a judge hostage at a custody hearing for his kids.

Wanderer78 · 11-04-2021 8:53am

enricoh wrote:

Same as above, a lad I know got massive hiring machinery in the Celtic tiger, his own chopper etc. When the tiger calved he got stung with massive debts as none of the builders paid him. 100 phone calls a day from banks , suppliers etc looking for money n his brain just went. He recently got jailed for 7 year for holding a judge hostage at a custody hearing for his kids.

Yup prison, the place to send the psychologically unwell, resolves everything, doesn't it!

Wanderer78 · 11-04-2021 8:59am

kildare lad wrote:

It happened my own father , lost all his investments in the crash . Ulster bank took him off the tracker mortgages , raised the interest rates. They passed on his loans to a vulture fund for next to nothing, the banks overcharged him 70,000 in interest , they paid it back but the vulture funds kept it. It's with the ombudsman now , he also paid tens of thousands into his pension fund over the years . He applied for a few weeks ago and there's only 600 quid in his account. He's back working now at 65. The vulture funds and banks are absolute scum

Yup, and we 're destined for this to happen again, nothing has changed in that game, the whole davys situation is telling, I'm sorry to hear your story

Stihl waters · 11-04-2021 9:13am

An uncle of mine went under as well owing 3.5 million or something like that, 12 years later and they're still after him, his house is secure as he built it under a sons name 20 years ago, pepper bought all his loans and are hounding him for payment which they'll never get, he doesn't even respond to them anymore as he knows there's nothing they can do, hes 70 now and still does small jobs for cash and spends his time gardening and cycling, hes never been happier and more power to him

Pussyhands · 11-04-2021 10:07am

BorneTobyWilde wrote: »

Hard work doesn't make you a millionaire, if it did every nurse in the country would be one. It's just something millionaire bosses say, to keep people in their dead end job ''' work hard and this time next year I'll be able to afford a new house''

I was walking out of work a couple years back with my boss. We ended up in the carpark and I saw he was getting into a brand new BMW. He said to me "if you work just that little bid hard, that little bit longer....I'll be able to buy a new one again next year."

Pussyhands · 11-04-2021 10:16am

BorneTobyWilde wrote: »

Hard work doesn't make you a millionaire, if it did every nurse in the country would be one. It's just something millionaire bosses say, to keep people in their dead end job ''' work hard and this time next year I'll be able to afford a new house''

Hard work alone won't, but the difference between putting in hard work and not putting it in can be big.

If you have a gift of a nak for something, you can get away without working that hard but if you are not that skillful at your job, hard work can pay dividends.

Quickest way you've seen someone lose it all?

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