How do you blow a $1 billion fortune?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2006943/Former-nude-model-richest-divorcee-history-declares-bankrupt.html

I don't believe it, she had enough money to make a thousand millionaires, yet still ended up bust in the end. And why on Earth would she need a loan? Then again, this happens to alot of celebrities who can make millions a month yet don't have the money management skills or self-restraint to hold onto it.

edited 23rd Jun '11 9:55:19 AM by Shichibukai

People who win the lottery are like this. They think they can be reckless with money, because they have so much of it.

What they don't realise, is that when you splurge on everything, you use up a lot of money. Most winners spend more than they've won, leading to divorce, bankruptcy, broken families... etc.

Lack of intelligence, imagination or any single redeeming feature. What a waste.

edited 23rd Jun '11 9:56:18 AM by InverurieJones

They never earned the money so they don't know how to keep any of it.

Pretty much, epic stupidity, lack of money skills, and the mistaken belief that having that much means they'll never run out of money.

Am I the only one who's not seeing any indication that she had a billion dollars anywhere in that article? It says she got a Million-dollar - a week settlement 21 years ago, then later it calls her a "billionaire" but when did that Million-a-week turn into a Billion?

A Billion is a thousand Million if you're using American English, or a million Million if you're using British English. Either way, there's a lot of difference between a Million and a Billion.

The math simply doesn't work out — a million a week is 50 million a year. At that rate, it would take 19 years and some months to accumulate 1 Billion (American -style), assuming that you spent virtually nothing the whole time. To make it to a British-style Billion would take nearly 2 centuries.

And if she and her husband are billionaires, by either reckoning, 50 million in liabilities isn't near enough to merit declaring bankruptcy.

edited 23rd Jun '11 10:14:03 AM by Madrugada

It does add up. Whilst the list of her assets and liabilities is scarce, this is within a 21 year timeframe. It isn't explicit about whether it was a lump sum or weekly payment, but we can assume either way, that she has been paid most of the fortune by now.

edited 23rd Jun '11 10:18:21 AM by Shichibukai

The math still doesn't work. If she's been living an extravagant lifestyle for those 21 years she may have had a Billion dollars pass through her hands, but you're a billionaire when you possess a Billion dollars, not when you've spent it over an extended period of time.

Ok, so perhaps she wasn't a billionaire par se, but she almost certainly had an equivalent income. That could explain her liabilities too.

edited 23rd Jun '11 10:22:12 AM by Shichibukai

Tell that to the newspapers, though.

I think I know what happened:

She got a settlement of a billion dollars paid out in 1.6 million dollar installments. The Daily Mail chooses to interpret this as meaning she owns a billion dollars, even though she never actually owned the entire billion dollars. In any case, she's since ran out of payments, and thus out of money.

That's probably it, but that's not how it works. I've spent over a million dollars in my adult life, (spread out over 40 + years) but that doesn't mean I'm a millionaire.

Sounds like she had fun, though.

Maddy, you're asking journalists to show knowledge of something beyond bullshit, I don't think that's reasonable any more than it's reasonable to ask a dog not to sniff things.

I approve of stupid people losing money.

How to blow your load.

Anyway, yes. Title is misleading.

And I get told that I have too much money in my bank account.

"sad downfall of the former billionaire."

..yes, sadness. Sadness for human stupidity.

Billionaires have funds, accounts and holdings worth a billion that supply them with annual interest. An actual billionaire is going to have something of the order of 50 million a year. I just consider this a case where the trust fund manager is one's ex-husband.

Yep, what Breadloaf said.

We really need to overhaul the divorce laws. Separate of assets should mean separation of assets.

I definitely know how I'd go about spending a billion dollars. First of all, I'd donate all but a million dollars to charity, then give each one of my dearest friends and relatives a thousand dollars each.

edited 24th Jun '11 8:41:48 AM by SoberIrishman

Haha, awesome. Love the Apprentice.

On topic: I don't think she's as bad as you're making her out to be. Would it have been better to give the money to charity? Almost certainly. Would it have been better to just sit on the money and live a very comfortable life, instead of attempting to set up her own business? I don't think so.

I'd have more sympathy if she'd been trying to produce something that was more of a necessity than wine, but it sounds like she blew through the cash not because she was spending it on herself (directly), but because she was trying to do something with her life and found herself with the funds to make that happen.

She failed. Lots of people do. Business is hard, and unforgiving. I prefer that she tried than that she should've acted like many lottery winners do, for instance, when they find themselves with a large and largely unearned fortune, and set themselves up with personal luxuries for life.

The article seems to answer the title question.

One purchases a 3000 acre estate and country manor, one invests in agricultural land and tries to set up a global wise business, one invests into property and then one arranges this all around a global recession. Also one pays taxes. Because it comes from a divorce settlement, it's known to be your income and the amount is already declared.

I'm imagining serial bad investments and failed ventures.

edited 24th Jun '11 11:11:29 AM by SomeSortOfTroper

Invest massive amounts of money on businesses that flop.

General recklessness when it comes to personal expenses.