Yesterday
while on the road I listened to Bob Brinker’s “Money Talk” show on WLS radio.
Mr.
Brinker made it clear that we need to distinguish between assets and income,
and then noted that a high proportion of professional athletes - who had exceptionally high incomes for a several
years - file bankruptcy just a short time into retirement.
It’s
mindboggling to think of how much money that actor Johnny Depp must have taken in
over the years, but he’s reportedly now going through financial difficulties.
So,
you’ve never had a multi-million dollar income?
I
counseled factory workers who were paid very well at forty hours per week. But they had become accustomed to receiving
overtime income month after month, for several years. Then, when the overtime was cut back, they
had trouble making the boat or motorcycle payment and were compelled to take “emergency”
withdrawals from retirement savings.
It’s
sad to see so much wasted potential.
There
was a married couple of university professors who, even with a steady, six-figure
income, were struggling to pay their debts.
With first and second mortgages, car loans, and credit cards, they were knee
deep. Undoubtedly brilliant in their
fields, they simply were not good money managers.
High
income or not, too many people fail to create wealth over their lifetimes, even
when they could have.
It’s
hard to feel sorry for someone like Johnny Depp. But he’s probably feeling some of the same embarrassment,
desperation and helplessness that the rest of us would.
Each
of us must somehow find a way to live within our means, and often it involves making
substantial lifestyle changes.
You
may have heard the story of Anne Scheiber, a “normal” woman in New York who
worked a “normal” job. A very frugal
woman, she didn’t eat out and she wore the same coat year after year. In 1944 she invested $5,000 in the stock
market, didn’t touch it for 50 years, and made headlines when she died in 1995
at the age of 101, with a net worth of $22 million.
No comments:
Post a Comment