Lessons from Financial Downfalls

I've always found stories of people going broke more interesting than people getting rich.

Maybe it's because the lessons are usually more applicable. Do you have any? Too many.

I worked on Wall Street for the past 25 years at banks and hedge funds. The most common

thread is people overspending and not realizing things can go wrong. I saw one salesman

get a huge contract to join my bank. It was the first time he really got paid.

He bought a six million dollar house. The financial crisis hit, he didn’t work out

in the new shop and was fired before the end of his contract. He sold the house at a huge loss and

has been bouncing around third-tier banks making twenty percent of what he made at his peak.