Retired Baseball Player Files for Bankruptcy with $31 Million in Debt
I read yesterday that Lenny Dykstra filed for bankruptcy with an incredible $31 Million in debts. For those who might not know (or care), Dykstra is a former Major League Baseball player who played at the highest level here in the US for 12 years. He was also an all-star during his career. My point is, I’m sure the guy earned some money during his career (millions if not tens of millions).
So how did he end up with debts of $31 Million and assets of less than $50,000? I don’t have the slightest idea! For me, I’m thinking if I could earn $2 Million dollars, I would probably be set for the rest of my life and if I was worried it would run out before retirement, I could easily make that stretch far enough by working for a few more years. Of course, I probably wouldn’t be living in a mansion, flying around in my private jet, and driving a Rolls Royce as reported by cnnsi.com (I guess that answers my previous question!).
Seriously, is it just me or are you also astounded by how some of these incredibly wealthy athletes and entertainers can run through tens of millions of dollars and end up broke (a la MC Hammer)? This isn’t common, but it’s not ultra rare either. In fact, Sports Illustrated ran an article discussing how and why athletes go broke just a few months ago. It seems like they would be smart enough to at least sock away a little bit of it somewhere safe so they could fall back on it if they needed to? No? Private jet just too enticing? (I don’t know much about private jets, maybe they are an appreciating asset…but I doubt it – but they sure do seem convenient!)
There’s my tip of the day to you, my faithful reader, if (let’s think positively -”when”) you come into a few million bucks, take a bit of it and store it somewhere nice and safe – think emergency fund on steroids. Granted, it’s not as easy as just sticking your millions into a savings account at your local bank (”Sorry, John, our bank went under with $10 Million in your account, but luckily it was an FDIC-insured account so here’s your $250,000″) so maybe I’m just being naive. Well, I’ll be sure to do a series of posts on how to safely diversify and protect your millions of dollars if I ever have that much.
But back to Dykstra for a moment – $31 Million in debt and less than $50,000 in the bank?!? How is that possible? I mean, who was still loaning this guy money? “Ok, Mr. Dykstra….can I call you ‘Nails?’ Anyway, let’s see here….$25 Million in debts, no income, no assets, ummmm, sure, here’s another $6 Million to buy another mansion.” What the?!?
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yea I don’t get it – I have heard about celebrity debts like this a lot lately. It kind of blows my mind that they can get so carried away with spending…
ChristianPF´s last blog ..See you at the Top | Giveaway
The more you have (well, he didnt have it!) the more you spend.