I was watching the Suze Orman show last night and she had one of Bernie Madoff's victims on. While she has every right to be upset....they lost $5 million dollars!....I am finding it harder and harder to feel sorry for these people. This couple, like so many others had darn near everything invested with this guy, how dumb was that? I mean really. And as the conversation wore on, it turned out that her husband was still working and they made $300,000 a year, they live in a $2 million home that's paid for and they still have $200,000 in the bank. They are in no danger of hitting the skids. Of course the husband is 75, but even if he retired tomorrow, couldn't they sell the house, buy another great home for $1 million dollars and still have a mill left over? Sheesh......
the Bernie Madoff "victims"
January 19th, 2009 at 02:08 am
January 19th, 2009 at 02:17 am 1232331465
Look at your 401k. It is all invested with the same management company and then diversified into various investments. If it turned out that the management company was running a scam, collecting your contributions but never actually investing the money, you'd find yourself in the same position as Madoff's victims.
January 19th, 2009 at 02:28 am 1232332082
I agree I too can not scrounge up much sympathies either. Perhaps they should have worked harder in guiding their own money to avoid this sort of thing, and either way, they're still going to be OK. However, it's tough sometimes, isn't it? For example, I really don't know too much about cars, and when I take it to a mechanic, I am assuming he isn't going to overcharge me either, but it could happen unless I learn to repair my own car....
January 19th, 2009 at 02:41 am 1232332893
January 19th, 2009 at 02:45 am 1232333107
January 19th, 2009 at 02:54 am 1232333652
January 19th, 2009 at 02:34 pm 1232375669
BUT I see it all the time in my line of work. There are always people that are too trusting and just don't understand money on some level. I have had a couple of clients who jumped from one set of bad advice, one bad broker to the next, etc. This women was the same story. She said so herself, they had lost a lot of money and were looking for someone to trust, and thought they found someone in Madoff.
Anyone who had $5 Million dollars STOLEN from them is a victim. No doubt about it.
It's a good lesson not to keep all our eggs in one basket. But certainly a hard way to learn that lesson.
January 19th, 2009 at 07:07 pm 1232392069
January 19th, 2009 at 10:19 pm 1232403542
January 19th, 2009 at 10:25 pm 1232403903
January 19th, 2009 at 11:41 pm 1232408477
You said that you think it is foolish to have everything with one advisor. I think you'd have a tough time finding anyone who invests with more than one advisor. I don't use an advisor, personally, but I know plenty of people who do and they all use just one person. It would be really difficult to use more than one advisor because he/she needs to know the big picture and manage your overall portfolio and asset allocation. If you had 2 or more advisors, each handling a portion of your money, there would be no coordination of your accounts. That could lead to all kinds of problems.
January 19th, 2009 at 11:49 pm 1232408950
January 23rd, 2009 at 10:04 pm 1232748266
January 24th, 2009 at 01:39 am 1232761184
I don't care if someone lost $100 or $100 million. Either way, they are a victim and should be treated as such.
May 12th, 2009 at 01:54 pm 1242132875