She’ll want that stimulus check now! Is it possible to win a million dollars and still file for bankruptcy in 2 months? Apparently so!
How to be a millionaire? Well winning a game show is one way to do it. But then again, here’s this story of such a “millionaire”, which I can only describe as a tale of riches to rags, or maybe of rags to riches to rags.
There’s this woman — no other than a State School Superintendent — who won a million dollars on the game show “Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader”? She won the grand prize and pledged to donate it to various schools. But since her win 2 months ago, her husband’s home building company has failed, forcing her family to file for bankruptcy.
Goes to show you just how tenuous our financial situation can be at any point in time. For many people, it only takes a layoff, one bad business cycle, one bad trade in the stock market or one major illness to wipe out the family’s fortunes. I covered a lot of this when I wrote about the only 3 reasons why people go bankrupt.
The game show winner is still honoring her promise to gift her winnings to schools, with the funds sheltered in a “gift foundation” that is supposed to be protected from her creditors. Hopefully, her donation stays intact and untouched throughout bankruptcy proceedings.
Now what else caught my eye this week? Some more reads from the financial web:
- The Sun’s Financial Diary: FDIC Problem Bank List Now Includes 171 Banks
- Money Smart Life: Black Friday Deals or Cyber Monday Savings?
- My Dollar Plan: An Administrative Error Could Cost You Your Retirement
- Bible Money Matters: Christmas Is For Debt?
- The Wallet: What’s Your Black Friday Strategy?
- Personal Finance Analyst: Online Consumer Education and Rip Off Report
- Happy Rock: The “Paying Cash” Experience – 2 Months Later
- Stock trades: Free stock trades from Zecco, Cheap stock trades from TradeKing, Stock news and Investment info at INO TV Free, No cost Trend Analysis for stocks
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- Cash bonus: Discover More [$50], American Express [$25], Lending Club [$25]
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Thanks for the link!
It’s funny, no matter how much money you have, it always seems to just drain right through your fingers like water. Income goes up – so does the spending!
Goes to show that managing money is not about money, but rather lifestyle and priorities. So, even with a bonus of $1MM the women above (and her family) could not control money problems.
Best,
Vince
Thanks for the link SVB!
that’s really interesting.
even if she had kept the money, it seems that she would still end up bankrupt?
hmmm.. thanks for the post.
I suspect this is a “chain bankruptcy” of the sort that often happens in the building business.
My guess is that he did work for various bigger developers who themselves have gone bankrupt due to not selling houses and/or not being able to roll over debt, so he didn’t get paid. But doubtless he’ll be back building once the economy improves.
Shoot. I feel bad for her. Can you imaging the swing from having a million dollar win and then feeling that the world turn against you? Man. I don’t envy her. It’s one thing to always have been broke, but to be built up and then destroyed is likely much worse psychologically. My thoughts go out to everyone struggling now. I know how tough it is, but with luck, everything will pick back up and start recovering in the spring. Hang in there.
Joe
being 3.5 million in debt, the 1 mil she won wouldn’t have done any good
That’s kind of sad… but at least she’s honoring her promise.
I think builders can go bankrupt pretty quick. Compared to other investments you really have to put alot of money on the line and if the market turns it can wipe out years of profits in a few months. For a small developer each month can eat up 100k and if nothing is selling its very hard to stay afloat.