Cute!
I just remember all the crazy day trading yahoos in the late 90s and even early 2000s. Then suddenly few had that self-employed day job anymore.
Back around that timeframe I worked with a guy who was born in 1957. He was 13 years older than me, so I had it in my mind that he was wiser than me, in many respects. At the time, I was living with my grandmother, only a few miles from work, trying to get back on my feet after a divorce.
I had a few antique cars at Grandmom's house, and this guy was into old cars, so one day we swung by, on our lunch break so he could see them. My grandmother met this guy, and for some reason was taken in by his smooth talking. She got it in her mind that he was really smart, and financially savvy.
She told me, a few days later, that I should try to learn everything I could from him. Well, let's see...I learned NOT to swap out cars more often than some people change their underwear. I learned NOT to play with penny stocks, unless it was money you could afford to lose. I learned NOT to buy more house than I could afford, and to NOT take out loans against the equity if it appreciated in value. I learned to NOT live beyond my means, in general.
And, I also learned NOT to marry a gold digger. Now, admittedly, my ex-wife had her faults, and they were many, but "gold digger" was not one of them!
Anyway, at one point, he was working a regular 40 hour/week job with me, plus pulling another ~35 hours at a bookstore. His wife had some kind of issues that let her get disability, but she was also babysitting kids on the downlow, pocketing the money and not reporting it. Yet they STILL couldn't make ends meet!
When it all came crashing down, they got lucky. This time, at least. He told me they paid about $400K for their home, in 1999, but I just looked up the records online and it was even cheaper, $338K. They sold in 2003 for about $650K, and had just enough profit to wipe out all their debt, and bought a much cheaper house, for something like $269K. But, then they started living large again, and then he had a stroke, and had to go on disability. So they lost that house, and last I heard, they're now down somewhere in Appalachia, living off whatever they can eke out from disability.
So, in the end yeah, I learned a LOT from him. Basically, to do the opposite of what he does!
I also remember, around 1999-2000, for some reason, my Mom got the bright idea to start investing in something with more potential than just savings bonds, CDs, and other low-risk stuff. So, she went with some company called Genworth, which I think is part of GE, if it's still around? Anyway, she talked my uncle into putting some money in with them, and Grandmom as well. None of them invested more than they could afford to lose, but they got screwed pretty royally.
So yeah, good times, in general.
