Home Money Consciousness Former Millionaires Share Sad Stories Of How They Lost It All

Former Millionaires Share Sad Stories Of How They Lost It All

TristaApril 26, 2021

14. Nearly Six Million Lost

Wishnana told the story of close friends and a recognizable company. “Not me, but a close friend’s parents worked at a well-renowned American company in Houston in the early 2000s. They were high up in the management chain and enjoyed a lot of the perks that came with their position, after sticking through thick and thin, especially during the dot-com bubble. Said friend’s parents were also very good at managing their money, living very frugally, and investing for their future nest egg. Unfortunately, therein lied the rub… All that investment (401Ks, extra cash, etc.) was on a single pot.

“I believed, with all their allocation (back in the 2000s or so), they have had invested close to $5-6M and were due to pull it out so they could finally retire. But a company scandal brought all that to a collapse. The company? Enron. All their money evaporated.” Losing that much had to be devastating. It makes you realize there’s always a chance that something could happen. It’s important to save money when you have a big amount just in case. Even though they were good at money management, they couldn’t change what happened.

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13. Natural Disasters Can Ruin Millionaires

Sushitrash69 told their story. “Not me, but my parents. Both smart people went to the best universities, graduated with BAs and Masters in Architecture. Went on to design very high-end apartments and homes all over Queensland (Australia) – saved up enough to open a Michelin-style restaurant on the water. It was a hit, they became incredibly wealthy, and this is where the money started to take a toll on them. They went all out. Bought two penthouses in the same building and combined them into one. Owned and managed multiple high-end apartments all over the city. Bought multiple sports cars and even a yacht.

“They took my sister and I traveling all around the world. My life growing up was a model’s Instagram page. But then one day a flood came, the restaurant went completely underwater and destroyed close to a million dollars worth of wine and not to mention the write-off on the kitchen. They were ruined. They had to sell everything just to cover the cost of the restaurant. Now, they live in a small apartment and are both still working over 70 to pay off all the loans they still owe. Word of warning, if you come into possession of a large sum of money, don’t be stupid.”

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12. A Sneaky Wife

Nstav13 shared a nefarious yarn of millions lost. ” Not me but my great grandfather. He started a candy company that serviced most of the Wyoming Valley in PA. My grandfather (his son) sold the company for upwards of 100 million. My mother and I are unsure of the full amount. He used the money to buy some land down in Florida, franchised a few radio shacks, and bought a lot of cars. During this time he divorced my grandmother and married another woman with Children. Towards the end of his life, he reconnected with my mother and met me, but then developed brain cancer. He decided to cut his wife out of his will and give all of his money (still around 10 million) to my mother and her brother.

“Because he was bedridden, he had to have his lawyer email and print out the new will, which he would sign and mail out to the lawyer. But he asked his wife (that he was screwing over) to mail the new will, but for some reason, it got “lost”. He died a few days later with my mother unaware the will change hadn’t gone through. She paid for the funeral only to learn afterward from her lawyer that the will was never changed. So, she went to confront her stepmother only to find out that she and her sons had already flown to Florida, taken the money, and moved. She tried for a few years to sue, but due to state laws and lack of written evidence couldn’t get the suit off the ground. And that’s how my mother lost a multi-million dollar inheritance and got stuck with a $50,000 funeral bill.”

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11. Franchise Woe

Reddit user GhostRiders said, “This happened to friends of my parents. They were one the first people in the UK to purchase a Burger King franchise, it was in the ’70s. They were based in Birmingham, the second-largest city in the UK. A Decade later they were running 5 Burger Kings and raking it in. However, they got greedy and started to buy stock from non-approved suppliers. They were doing this for about a year, then one day several men all in suits turned up at each of their restaurants all armed with massive amounts of paperwork.

“The paperwork stated that due to them breaking their contract that they were taking ownership of the restaurants. About a year later, tens of thousands spent on solicitors, courts ruled in favor of Burger King. They lost all of the restaurants and to run salt in the wound Burger King then proceeds to sue them. Fast forward a couple of years, hundreds of thousands more spent on solicitors and the court ruled in favor of Burger King again. They had to sell all their houses, cars, possessions, etc. They were left with next to nothing and left the UK.”

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10. Millionaire Buyer’s Remorse

A Reddit user with a deleted username said, “I have a rich uncle whose father owned a big chain of gas stations and some oil fields in Turkey. When the father died and the uncle took over, he didn’t give any crap about the businesses. He was just partying and squandering everything. Like he bought a new luxury car every week. Plus all of the boats. Every few months he would move into a new luxury home and buy 100% new furniture for it and just threw the old stuff away. He was living a slippery slope that would end quickly.

“After some years, it all collapsed and he had to sell everything to a big US corp when hitting insolvency. Everyone in the family hates him now. Well, he was always an entitled guy… But guess what: Despite being an unproductive loser, he managed to marry a bank director. She is rich as heck and continues to sponsor his stupid lifestyle. His sugar mummy… For some people, consequences just don’t seem to exist…I mean how can you go broke owning oil fields? It boggles my mind…” This man squandered his wealth buying houses, cars, and boats. He had the opportunity to be a multimillionaire in the oil industry but couldn’t stop spending.

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9. Millionaires Who Don’t Want It

I-Euan says, “Technically not me but rather my family; my great grandfather was born to a long line of vicars who had land, properties, and farms. They were loaded. He was the rebel only son and swore that he would break tradition, so he joined the army, and come world war 2 he was shipped off to fight for Britain. While overseas, he was captured and spent a few years in a POW camp where he subsequently found Jesus. After the war, he returned, joined the clergy and, his father having died, gave every single penny to the Gosh darn church.

“All of the land, property, and titles were given up, and he lived off his vicar’s salary. It was never mine to lose, but the knowledge that I could have been a Lord with a horse sting.” It sounds like this great-grandson is a little bitter about his great grandfather’s choices. It sounds like he led a difficult life with being in a POW camp. He deserved to do whatever he wanted with that money. The poor man probably saw more than we’ll ever see in our lifetimes.

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8. A Tale of Embezzlement and Prison Time

Cat9tail shared the story of his dad’s boss. “Not me, but my dad’s boss. He was a corporate executive in the finance world, wealthy, and was very well-liked until they discovered he was embezzling from the company. He lost his job, went to prison for a long time. Shortly after the crime was discovered, my dad was offered his boss’ job, which he took. He was over the top transparent about everything, and I grew up hearing the cautionary tale told over and over again. My dad retired with a large company stock portfolio, worth nearly $2M. Sadly, he never sold the stock (he has other retirement income) and today it is worth about $300K.”

It sounds like this executive made some bad choices. He decided to embezzle from the company and ended up going to prison. It’s never a good idea to take advantage of your position at work. It seems as though he got what he deserved for doing such a thing. The father in the story never made waves at work and ended up with a large stock portfolio involving lots of money. He told his son the tale to ensure he never decided to take advantage of a position at work. If only the father sold his stock to receive the money he deserved.

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7. Greed Changes People

Nonuniqueusername’s mother was married to a millionaire. Their interesting story may just leave you in shock. “My mom’s second husband was a millionaire. Our family and his first family treated everything as one big family. When he got cancer, he set a very intricate and fair system. Then he appointed three people to oversee any emergency changes to his estate. My mom, his first wife, and her second husband. As soon as he died they voted against my mother to throw away his whole plan and just give them themselves the money, 50-50.

This Reddit user’s mother was married to a millionaire, and as soon as he passed away, his ex-wife went above her head to take all of his money. This poor woman was entitled to some of his estate, but lost everything to her husband’s ex. It’s sad to think someone would stoop so low as to take everything for themselves, but it does happen every day. Even if they split the money it was enough for everyone to live comfortably. Being greedy and taking everything for yourself isn’t the way to go. The husband’s wishes should have been kept at the forefront during these discussions.

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6. He Couldn’t Stop Buying

Moonbunnychan dated someone who suddenly came into money and was unable to control it. “I dated a guy who unexpectedly inherited 6 million dollars. His parents had been killed in a drunk driving accident when he was a baby, and so their life insurance plus money from a legal settlement sat in an account collecting interest for 18 years. He got a call from a lawyer on his 18th birthday, and that’s how he found out about it. He went nuts. Every time I saw him he had a new car. This guy bought an extravagant house.

“He started a store that was more just a hang out for him and his friends and bled money. He insisted on taking these extravagant vacations. Then, he would go to our local comic shop and just buy EVERYTHING. Like ever see those statues in a comic store that are thousands of dollars and wonder who buys these? He had several. It was a major factor in why we broke up…it was all just too much, watching him blow through money like that. He didn’t invest any of it. In 5 years he blew through all of it. Last I saw of him on Facebook he was destitute.”

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5. Blew It All With Travel

Reddit User SansCitizen tells the story of their ex’s mom. “She grew up as a trust fund kid in a tremendously rich Jewish family in New York. When she turned 18, she decided to see the world, so she moved to Israel. Then Iraq. Then France. She spent 30 years moving from country to country, burning her money away like it was unlimited, but as it turns out, trust funds are finite, and one day she found herself with just barely enough left to get back to the US and buy a tiny house. Her family had at that point long since disowned her, so she had to get a job.

“Only, what do you do when you have no prior work experience, no credentials beyond high school, and you’re 48 years old? Answer: housekeeping at the local Best Western… Until they fire you for rocking the boat too much (she proposed a bunch of changes within her first couple of months there, most of which being rather expensive and offering no real benefit beyond “I think it would look nice.”) Then, you drive a short bus for senior citizens… Until you turn the wrong way down a one-way street, panic at the sight of oncoming traffic, and steer straight into a fire hydrant… Then flee the scene, abandoning the company vehicle and its several now-injured passengers…”

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4. Lost Everything To Alimony

Reddit user _effed_up stated, “I built a business worth ~3 million, had a house worth 1.4 million, Investments worth more than 2 million, 4 nice cars. Divorce laid me low. An ex-wife, a lawyer, and a judge stripped me of at least 3/4 of that. Left me with a Miata race car, a bit of money, and 51% of my company. Still had to pay alimony. I gave up. I negotiated my way out of alimony by giving up more of the company, liquidated everything else, bought a boat, and fu**** off. 26 months later, I sailed back into my life and started over.

“I’ve earned enough to live a modest retirement, and that’s where I am today. Don’t get married boys, it ain’t worth it. I’ve done it twice, the first time was a disaster, the second time was an annoyance. Just my opinion and experience. I’m way too drunk and shouldn’t have posted. Anyway. There it is.” It sounds like this business owner had a difficult time with his divorce. Hopefully, everything worked out in the end for him after buying his boat. and a fresh perspective made him feel better.

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3. A Traumatic Lie

PianoToonr shared the story of how their father lost millions. “My dad had over 20 million dollars in a business with 12 locations and 3 more openings on the way. An employee who was caught selling drugs fabricated an elaborate story that he got the drugs from my dad’s company, and that the whole company was a front for the Mexican cartels. My dad spent a lot of time in Mexico back in the day and had a criminal record, so that was enough for the DEA to raid him on this story. They stole all the computers, terrorized the employees, and raided every one of the locations on the same day with over 300 SWAT, including a raid on his own home (he wasn’t there, just his young children–they’re traumatized by it). They found nothing. Nothing. All papers in order. No indictments came, no case.

“Regardless, most of the employees and management quit due to the investigation. He had to close most locations and sell after less than a year at a huge loss just to pay for the lawyers to defend his case. The worst part is that they won’t admit they’ve found anything. The DA spent millions on this raid. So–they’ve left the case open indefinitely, making it impossible for him to work in his field. His lawyers said the prosecution has privately asked him (seriously), to find something wrong that he can plea to so they can save face. He won’t lie, so they won’t close the case. The government took my dad’s life’s work, his savings, and ruined hundreds of other’s lives–and we have zero recourse.”

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2. Managing Finances

Reddit user mistmanners and her husband lost their wealth due to a common situation these adays. “Well, I see a lot of stories here, but here’s one that’s a bit different. We moved from the USA to Lebanon after college to be with my husband’s family, they were close. Surprise, his parents died before we could get there, his dad a few months before we left and his mom, unfortunately, passed away during our flight and was buried a few hours before we arrived. This was not a good omen. However, we had moved every last possession with us, and we’re determined to stay nevertheless.

“After 30 years and close to retirement, we had several houses, apartments, good jobs with benefits, and ample pensions. It had been a tough road and we had starved at first. Now, we were looking forward to living where we wanted, whether in the USA or Lebanon and living off of a modest retirement income. All that was wiped away due to the current economic disaster in the country, worsened by covid but mainly due to financial mismanagement of the country and corruption on a grand scale pretty much unparalleled in modern history. Everyone in Lebanon wants to emigrate now. There are no renters with money to inhabit our apartments. The lira is worthless, and our pensions are worth almost nothing. We could have spent those years in the US building up 401ks and buying a home.”

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1. A Dangerous Situation For Millionaires

A Reddit user with the username PabloChickaso shared the story of their family wealth and downfall. “My mother’s family. It was the separation of India and Pakistan. My mother’s family was crazy rich in (now) Pakistan. I’m talking mansions, maids, businesses, and repute. But because of the socio-political unrest between Hindus and Muslims, they had to pack up everything and move in with their relatives in India. Her grandfather sent the family here (India) overnight and stayed back in Pak disguised as a Muslim. He had to stay undercover for 3 months so he could wrap up some financial affairs. His family could have no contact with him because being identified as a Hindu could’ve gotten him killed in that situation. They could only hope he was alive.

“He had to let go of much of their wealth but brought a bunch of big solid gold bricks with him so his family could start a new life here. He first went to Bombay and gave the bricks to a goldsmith telling him to coat them with silver. Traveling to a smaller town with so much gold was risky and silver didn’t cost as much then. When he reached his destination, he gave the bricks to another goldsmith to have the silver coating removed and evaluated for their worth in cash. Turns out his gold bricks were swapped for solid silver bricks.”

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