What would you do with $250 million bucks...

[junker]

just noticed on news that rapper dmx just recently found out that hes been ripped of by one of those "companies" that was hired to collect funds for him....just another example of trusting planners, lawyers, banks, etc...i guess most of you are a lot more trusting than i am... i have seen way tooo many people being ripped off ..hey maybe he could invest with another bernie madoff....that man was a genius and should NOT be in jail...the dummies that were naiive enough to give him all their money are the problem....the old saying a fool and his money are soon parted......comes to mind when you mention lawyers, planners, advisors..etc........

[WhatMoney]

junker - has it ever occurred to you that you are thinking at a rather low level compared to most in this discussion?

Are you really comparing "Rich Kid Entertainment" with UBS or Credit Suisse International wealth management divisions? You are funny. And DMX got what he deserved - letting low life criminals manage his royalty income. You can't fix stupid.

[keepinitreal]

I read this on another site: "...grow a beard, leave the country for a year or two. come back as a mysterious count and exact revenge on my enemies." lol

[junker]

was Madoff "stupid" or the people giving him carte blanche with their money "stupid" and the the countless others that gave authority to people have access to their money to "invest" stupid....none of this really matters of course, because WE are just speculating what WE would all do with this money....you would give your money to jackals.....i wouldnt.......i would imagine the people hounding him the most right now....are lawyers, financial planners..investors....etc...probably more than his own family....

hey btw.....i just read that the bull actually won one......

[onwards]

was Madoff "stupid" or the people giving him carte blanche with their money "stupid" and the the countless others that gave authority to people have access to their money to "invest" stupid....none of this really matters of course, because WE are just speculating what WE would all do with this money....you would give your money to jackals.....i wouldnt.......i would imagine the people hounding him the most right now....are lawyers, financial planners..investors....etc...probably more than his own family....

hey btw.....i just read that the bull actually won one......

You're kidding me, right? OK, let me ask you this: how do you "avoid giving your money to the jackals"? truly, I'm curious. What would you do with it? if you "put it in the bank", then you are "giving it to the jackals". And with more than $250K in the account, you have no guarantee that the money is safe either (the FDIC insurance cap).

What will you do with it then? put $100M under your mattress? wanna bet how long it will take for you to lose all of it and be dead to boot?

Will you open... let me count here... four hundred (400) checking and savings accounts and put $250K in each? there are enough banks in the country to do that, so I can see that happening I suppose. Of course, most of them will be regionals and quite a few locals, but at least they would be FDIC-insured (although I am curious as to why you seem to trust the folks in DC more than, say, UBS wealth management). But then... the money will just lose value over time. I'm sure you'd want interest, right? how would you gain that? you'd have to invest in something. What would it be? treasuries? bonds? you would manage it all yourself? that's a lot of money to manage yourself, takes a lot of experience. Maybe because of that you'd go with a few mutual funds? ah. Guess what. The mutual funds INVEST THE MONEY ON YOUR BEHALF. Oh, wait... that's just like those jackals...

You are exhibiting the exact same problem we are referring to. You have little clue what $100M actually means. It's not a criticism of you. It's natural, it's true for most people.

And leave Madoff out of it. He was a spectacular fraud, in the singular. Even if you had $100M and some of it was invested with him, you'd lose just that portion. That definitely falls under the category of "shit happens". Serious wealth means that occasionally, you'd lose what to most of us seems like serious money. Heck, a mere 1% drop in your portfolio - a pretty regular day - would cost you a million bucks at the $100M level. That's how it is. But believe me, if you tried to manage it yourself, you'd have a lot more days like that than the opposite.

EDIT: and one last comment about Madoff - he was the pinnacle of the friendly local advisor. He succeeded in his fraud PRECISELY BECAUSE people, for some reason, trusted him personally more than they did wealth management groups at established firms. In other words, his success was predicated on the behavior we are speaking against, at the highest possible levels. He stated as much. Just goes to show that you don't have to be a country bumpkin to behave like an idiot.

[DeadManCrawling]

Madoff used his reputation as a former NASDAQ Chair and his previous work in government and on Wall Street to set up his gig. Of course people were duped. We are simply, as people, not prepared to believe someone of that "caliber" could be a fraud. Which is precisely why it worked so well.

This lottery winner has a different set of problems, and the only thing he can do to fix the issues is to acquire a master's degree or higher in finance and economics in the next 10-15 days. Since that isn't going to happen, he better at least hire someone used to dealing with HUGE amounts of money. All the names mentioned, UBS, JP Morgan, and so on, would be a good place to start. I severely dislike these outfits, but there are few on the planet who know what to do with that kind of money.

Then, I would do a disappearing act and be only available for legal and family matters. And would be inaccessible behind a cloak of lawyers and secrecy for the most part.

It is not the kind of life I envy, as much as the money and stability would be welcome. The change and disruption in a person's psyche could be enough to destroy most people.

[junker]

HEY......HOW about that.....just as we are being convinced that trusting jackals with your money is the right decision......more are in the news today....goldman ceo...and his cronies......are flatly denying any wrongdoing....i am sure that will make the "investors" that lost their money with this "prestigious" firm feel a lot better....like they didnt throw their money away....

[flyinbroke]

I give him a year. This is Jack Whittaker's story, and I think he lasted about a year, and the family disintegrated along with him.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36338-2005Jan25.html

[onwards]

HEY......HOW about that.....just as we are being convinced that trusting jackals with your money is the right decision......more are in the news today....goldman ceo...and his cronies......are flatly denying any wrongdoing....i am sure that will make the "investors" that lost their money with this "prestigious" firm feel a lot better....like they didnt throw their money away....

Ah... Goldman made good money for its investors. You DO realize that, right? the folks who LOST money were their folks who made the opposite bets. As an investor, that would make me want to give Goldman my money, you know.

And for all the SEC's posturing, it is highly unlikely they did anything illegal.

This is another classic example of completely misunderstanding what actually happened for a big headline event, and feeding off populist rage. PLEASE do some SERIOUS research - I recommend reading the economist, as they have the advantage of packing solid knowledge with a dispassionate attitude into bite-sized articles.

EDIT: I just realized you are probably referring to Abacus, which makes what I wrote above sound really wrong. Sorry about that. Abacus is a bit of an odd story, because there was nothing particularly unusual in it, but Goldman is being hung out to dry. It's odder still because they were a relatively small player in the synthetic CDO market.

[justbroke]

I agree. You can't just stuff your money in a mattress and hope that it grows. Investment is risky by definition.

Anyone who put all their money in Madoff or in the REIDX funds, was simply not diversifying and put all that money at risk. A smart investor has money in several different strategies, which may include money market and some cash.

[tigergem]

This video is pretty amusing and relevant to this discussion.

http://whoknew.news.yahoo.com/?vid=18555864

[CashMoney]

I would GIVE it away.... (most..not all)

[justbroke]

I would GIVE it away.... (most..not all)

If you ever win, I'll forward you my address in a PM.

[tigergem]

If you ever win, I'll forward you my address in a PM.

hehe.... I'll get in that line. I don't need much.

[Overmylimit]

250 Million; I would buy a large company, make more $$ then buy a huge mansion with caves in the mountain under it, then I would have a special suit and car built so I could go out at night and fight crime.....maybe I could be like a bat or a hawk or something...wait, this sounds familiar.....