30 Ex-Millionaires Share What They Did To Lose Their Money

Making payroll during a pandemic has put a dent in my net worth. Haven't laid off a single employee or cut benefits.

First husband. Was making a million a year. He was enjoying life- spending frivolously, but bringing in enough that it didn’t matter. We divorced, but amicably (no alimony, no ‘child support’, he just paid for whatever the kids needed. Then he got leukemia. He fought like hell for three years. The last two years were very expensive. It was worth it. Money won’t make you happy, but the lack of it can destroy you. The kids and I can take comfort in knowing that truly, there was nothing else possible. His millions bought his kids two more years of dad. And I’m glad for him that he enjoyed his life while he could.

Friend of mine is a direct decedent of a super rich Spanish noble from Madrid. Essentially, this guy made so much money, nobody in the family needed to work for over a century. But because nobody worked, there was no money added to the family fortune, and it slowly dwindled away. His dad got the last of it and used it to get a degree from a good university and is doing really well for himself.

My dad is an Ex-millionaire.

He's a f*****g wizard at starting successful businesses...

His problem is he can't *let them go*. He's the boss/owner who never hires a manager that's not family because he just doesn't trust anyone else to run it.

He drove 3, million dollar companies into the ground because he couldn't keep up with his own success, and refused to hire people to do it for him.

Not me, my mom.

My grandfather died and left everything to my mom.

My father died and left everything to my mom.

Mom always thought she was a smart gambler that would win - and as proof she won something like $25,000 in the lottery once and went out and bought a car. That just got her hooked... good.

When dad was alive, he didn't let her gamble - he kept it under control.

After dad died, mom found a boyfriend. A former bookie who was a professional gambler. They used to like going to the Indian casinos where they subsequently squandered every single penny and more as my sister told me that mom, after selling the big house for another half million bucks and buying a small little condo - has now taken out a home improvement loan against the condo for $50,000.00 - no improvements were ever made.

Casinos and lottery tickets. A cool million or two gone.

My dad, not me. He made some really shrewd stock market investments after he retired. They were options on an oil refiner at a time when the USA had a real shortage of them. My dad had done a lot of research on this and studied the situation carefully. He got rich to the tune of maybe $2 million. He could have been set for life. My dad was already a really smart guy. He has a PhD in mathematics and was a highly respected big-brain professional all the way back into the 1960s. However, he thought this took him to the next level. He bought a lot of newer options in the same company. I suggested to him that he diversify, put a bunch of money into something closer to an annuity or another conservative investment that would give him plenty of income forever. I told him if he did that, he would always be rich. Well, he is pretty far from that now. I haven't said a thing about that to him since he lost everything. I did what I could, at the time, to save him from himself. But who was I? It pains me to see how it played out for him. He did a lot of things right in life. He deserved better, but there's no "deserve" in securities investing. Morals of this story:

1. You aren't an investment genius after your first blockbuster win. You need a track record.
2. Diversify.

I have a relative who is a self made millionaire many times over. He was the hardest working person I've ever known. As soon as he graduated from high school he got his real estate license and became a successful realtor. Within 30 years he opened a successful construction company, a store that sold kitchen cabinets, and owned over 20 rental properties. This wasn't enough form him and he started renting out his properties to people that would pay him more to grow pot in. His granite company was used to ship the pot across state lines and now he's sitting in jail facing a minimum of 10 years. The government is coming after all his rentals and money.

Edit: I should add he shipped the pot to 9 different states (7 of which weed is still illegal) using usps.

You can read more about the case here https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/eleven-indicted-illegal-marijuana-trafficking-investigation

My grandfather was a thrifty man. Always was a DIY guy, hated hiring contract workers (except for my father, whom he introduced to my mother), and worked for nearly 40 years at our local GM plant.

His savings, myriad cash deposits, and investments over the years netted him a net worth of about 2 or 3 million. After *walking off the job* at GM after a scuffle with the plant management, he went into business for himself and became a landscaper and evergreen farmer at 64 years old, earning government contracts with county and local agencies, which netted him another sizable chunk of money.

His sister's husband did the same thing essentially, and this is where my aunt comes in, we will call her Karen. Karen worms her way into my great aunt's life and as my great aunt approached her 80's started becoming more frail, and Karen "took care of her" which means she had my great aunt sign over power of attorney and immediately signs everything over to herself. Brand new house, all three cars, RV, everything. Consigns my great aunt to a convalescent home where she died, the will having been officially amended to award everything not already taken by Karen to Karen.

My other great aunt died suddenly and left my mother as her executor of her modest will, which was basically the stuff in her house, as she was in the process of selling the house. I was very young, but I remember Mom loading me and my two brothers into the car and flying down the highway to beat Karen to the house before "anything turned up missing." We were successful and Mom got to inventory and disperse everything properly. We ended up with, of all things, her turn-of-the-century pasta crank and her big box of recipes.

Grandpa by this point had developed cancer, and slowed down his business. Now 75 years old, he had a nice, modest house on a nice chunk of *extremely* valuable land thanks to the explosive development there. Mom takes time off work to help Grandma care for him, until he too passes away, leaving everything to Grandma. At this point, we move into Grandma's house to help her around the house and to help her close and liquidate the business assets. After about a year, Karen worms her way in like a tick and things start disappearing, like...farm equipment, and other things. Her daughter's husband also had gone into the storage barn and "trashed out" a lot of family heirlooms (which also was where we kept a lot of our furniture from *our* home) which all ended up in a fire pit behind the barn. It wasn't long after this that Karen convinced Grandma to let her "handle" her finances and Karen evicts us. Within two years, they sold the family home and land, liquidated all of Grandpa's stocks and bonds, and fled to Florida. Karen had once again gained power of attorney and legally stole all of Grandma's remaining assets. Grandma died ignomiously when she was given an insulin shot 20 times her supposed dose, and she went into DKA and died slowly and horribly in brain death.

Out of an estimated 4 million dollar inheritance, Mom and her two sisters were given an "equal" inheritance of twelve thousand dollars. Karen kept the house, the cars, and ended up burning through everything. Obviously this ended up shattering the family, and now none of us speak to the other.

Edit: 9 years and just got my first award! Thank you! You're too kind!

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 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

Took my sister and I travelling all around the world.

My life growing up was literally 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.

They now 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.

I work in finance and my team and I work with all very affluent clients. I’ve seen so many millionaires lose it all not from investing in the markets, but from: Taxes, Lifestyle and poor business decisions.

Once had a client who was making 50k a month, but was spending 60k a month and perpetually dipping into his investments. There were months where payments bounced because he was living a lifestyle and always wanted more.

My favorite investment advice: Same car, same house, same spouse

My dad had over 20 million dollars in a business with 12 locations and 3 more opening 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. Absolutely 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 nothing. 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.

I don't know if this fits, but my ex had a friend who inherited a million dollars in cash and near-cash assets when his only parent died and he was 20 years old. Now, you aren't just going to retire at 20 on a million bucks but it's a great way to pay for college, maybe buy a car and a down payment on a house, and save/invest the rest. Basically, it's a really good way to start your adult life and nearly ensure you'll be quite wealthy in your later years.

Did he do any of that? Nope. Bought himself a ridiculous luxury car, bought cars for his friends, bought wardrobes of designer clothes, threw huge parties repeatedly, etc. Ended up broke in two or three years and went back to waiting tables to make rent. Sad to see.

Not me (technically), but my grandma.

So a little backstory. My great grandparents owned a luxury fur coat business and made an absolute shitload of money. When my grandma and her brother, my great uncle, had moved out from their parents' house, they were given a sizeable amount of money (not millions, but far more than the average person might get in such a situation) to fund their adulthood.

Great uncle ended up opening two businesses using this money - a gas station and a used car lot. He made pretty good money running these two businesses. We'll get back to him a little bit later in the story.

Grandma however took this money that was given to her and blew a lot of it on fancy clothes, vacations, etc. She then got married to my grandpa and had three kids, and then he ended up cheating on her and took a bunch of her remaining money in the divorce.

Meanwhile, great uncle was furthering his business ventures, opening a payphone business, helicopter tours, and all kinds of other s**t. He was rolling in money at this point.

Some time later, my great grandparents died, within months of each other. They then split their inheritance two ways - 1/3 of it going to my great uncle, and 2/3 going to my grandma. The argument was that he was a wealthy bachelor with no kids, and she was struggling to get by with a secretary job while raising three kids by herself.

This ticked off my great uncle quite a bit, since he knew what she had done with her previous huge handout. He was mad about the inheritance not being 50/50, but not something that he'd quit talking to my grandma over. Not yet, anyway...

So, what do you think my grandma did with her huge windfall of money? Did she open a business? No. Did she invest it in some way? Nah. Did she do absolutely anything productive whatsoever? Of f*****g course not.

The first thing she did was buy a great big house in a nice neighborhood. Actually, no wait, that was the *second* thing she did. The *first* thing she did was *quit her job*.

Then, she bought a luxury car. Then came luxury clothes for my mom, aunt and uncle. Then she hired a full-time live-in maid. Then came the vacations to all the hottest vacation spots of the day. Gourmet meals every day. All the toys and gadgets that they could possibly want. You name it, she bought it.

So it should come as no surprise that she burned through the *entire inheritance* in less than a year.

Two-thirds of the money that her parents had worked their whole lives for, more money than anyone should reasonably ever be able to spend, she blew through in under 12 months. But she kept spending, driving herself into debt. They lost the house, lost the luxury car, and even had to sell all their fancy clothes and toys, just to pay the enormous debt she had gained.

And then she came to my great uncle's office and asked him for money.

She was promptly thrown out by security, and was told that he would never speak with her again. And he never did.

Imagine my surprise when I grew up in what was basically the borderline of total poverty, and my family tells me that they used to be filthy stinkin' rich.

Because of what my grandma did, my great uncle more-or-less cut off contact with her side of the family for YEARS. It wasn't until I was a teenager that I ever met the man. I think later on in his life, he felt bad about punishing the rest of the family when all of the fault lied on my grandma, and he started to talk with us every so often... but we knew to never ask him for anything, even though we were all struggling.

When my grandma was on her death bed, she begged for us to have my great uncle come to the hospital so she could apologize to him. When told about this, his response was basically "I don't give a f**k."

And then, in an almost ironic twist, he married an obvious gold digger, 30ish years his junior, who had already survived two other dead old rich guys. And then when he died, she got everything, disconnected their phone line, and disappeared like a f*****g bandit. His actual family got nothing.

**tl;dr: Great grandparents were rich. Great uncle becomes a successful businessman. Grandma blows every last penny of their inheritance in record time. Great uncle cuts off contact with her after she begs him for money. She dies alone. He dies and has his entire inheritance taken by his goldigging wife. I'm still poor.**

Hypothetical millionaire.

I bought $100 worth of bitcoin when they were about $1 each. I sold them when they were about $2.50 each and was so happy I made money from "internet coins".

As of the moment I am typing this those coins would be worth $1,855,000.

The Somali Civil war. My grandfather had a manufacturing company, but the war ruined it. My family used our last half-million to get our relatives out of the country.

I have never been rich but my family was well above average when i was a kid. My father was a mechanic and in 1981 he bought a car repair shop that made us money pretty well.

Then in 1992 the Bosnian war started and our hometown of Sarajevo was put under a siege that lasted until 1996.

In 1994 we were able to escape the city and move into a refugee camp. When the war ended we returned to Sarajevo and my fathers car repair shop as well as our home were in total ruins after all the artillery and mortar fire.

We were able to get a new home fairly quickly with the help of some of our relatives but we never got the car repair shop fixed. It was in so bad condition we just demolished it after we had sold all found scrap metal and usable tools.

My wifes Aunt used to be rich. Was married to a brain surgeon who was also on the board of directors for all the local hospitals so pulling down two checks. She was a platinum member of a local casino and would send us and other family members coupons for all inclusive weekend visits to the casino. You literally did not need to bring any money for anything. All food, drink, gratuity, ect was all taken care of. Anyway her husband had his medical license revoked for writing too many scripts for pain killers to her and other people and they both now live in Mexico somewhere.

Not me alone but my family: Both parents got serious illnesses. About $2 million gone in 5 years. I went from really never thinking much about money to everything being gone, wondering how to run up all of my parents debts as far as possible to keep a roof over their head before having them declare bankruptcy.

I watched a guy at a casino somehow get a loan against his house, about 200k and lose it. He looked suicidal. Apparently he was already in almost 50k and thought he could win it back. I got hired there, and I would leave on Friday and Return monday, and see the same people in the same clothes, who pissed and s**t themselves and were still sitting at the blackjack table gambling.

Not me but my great grandfather 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 bed ridden 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 afterwards from her lawyer that the will was never changed. 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