From Sad To Shocking, 31 People Share How They Lost All Their Savings Because Of A Single Event

Partner’s business failed.

She borrowed money from my 83 yr old mom, and I emptied out my Roth IRA to save it.

A month after handing over everything, she decided she was poly and wanted to sleep with her coworker.

I tried to handle it all, but it absolutely broke me. 
It’s been almost two years and she’s still fighting the divorce. .

I had a few grand saved, but was offered an entry level software developer job on the other side of the country. I used that money to pay for an apartment, pay for the move and other expenses. Getting your first job as a developer is incredibly difficult, particularly for self taught (although it was probably easier 11 years ago when I did it)

It worked out, moved on to a better paying job and the career has never lost steam since.

Happened twice:

1st time. My wife and I were fostering medically fragile infants. One of three families in Texas, at the time, qualified to do that. We had a nurse living with us and had 24 hour care for two of the infants. We. flat. loved. it. You feel a very strong purpose when you are opening your home to such a complex set of challenges. Needless to say, my per-monthly bills for everything we were doing, exceeded $10k... per month. I was let go from the job I had for 14 years. Bad politics in the office and my whole team was ditched. We were able to make it 2 years on everything we had saved... we ended up having to retire from fostering and had to sacrifice everything but some furniture and personal effects.

2nd time: Wife started uncontrollably throwing up... even drive heaving and we tried to figure it out on our own but after a this coming and going, it was now non-stop. We called and ambulance and my wife was in the hospital for 4 months. Sure insurance was present but my out of pocket drained us down again to just $2k to our names.

I am about $4k away from recovering from that.

Bonus item: My wife had numerous procedures and 5-9 operations. We lost track among all the other tests. She was sent home with basically the same condition and a bunch of meds... and after two days, she stopped the meds cold turkey, so to speak, and slowly popped right out and back healthy. A one day difference. We found out later that it was part of her LUPUS and part medicine combos that triggered the LUPUS reaction. She's strong and mows the lawn just because she gets to prove to herself that she's back and better than ever. She also has a playlist on her iPhone for mowing the lawn that might actually cause unsuspecting victims a shock. :)

To anyone facing this situation. You can and will overcome it and you will have gained so much personal growth. Endure it, have a plan and execute it. The comfort you will get from having a plan and sticking to is it peace of mind and good rest at night. Personal experience I'm sharing with you, here.

My son passed away at 19. I worked my whole life to raise my family and finally got out of debt and started saving…..now I’m 6k in debt from burying my son. 😞.

It was 2 events in rapid succession. My beautiful, sweet, funny son died very suddenly and the funeral needed to be paid for. 2 months later, my much loved dog got sick, needed round the clock care, and that drained the rest of it plus having to use credit cards. He ultimately died horribly.

I was 19 and lost everything I had in a fire except my car and the clothes on my back. My parents abandoned me when I was 16 and my extended family did not want to help me, so I had no support. A week later, my car was totaled and the insurance pay out only covered the value left on the loan. I joined the military the next week. Took me 20 years to rebuild my life.

I suffered a massive bilateral pulmonary embolism in January 2024 at 36 yrs old and was out of work for months. Back to work now but had to start over with my savings. 😖.

Husband wanted to move to Montana. Sold everything, gave up a fully paid house. I went up first with two kids because I had a job and housing lined up.

Husband arrived two months later, declared he hated the town, refused to work or contribute to the family in any way (he wouldn't even babysit.) We gave up two years later, were divorced two years after that.

Divorce. We had significant debt and decided to pay it all off with our savings so we could both walk away scott-free. He got the house and furniture and I was given $2000 to start over. It was really hard to bounce back but now I'm happy that I got all new things and not living with the memories of our martial items.

Roof replacement, unexpected travel for a parent funeral, planning/paying for the other parent funeral, sickness, SO emergency oral surgery.

All in the span of a month.

Purchasing a home 2 years ago took all my money. 2 years later we're still struggling to save.