Posted on 01/23/2009 9:43:42 AM PST by marshmallow
Maureen Ebel, 60, of West Chester, Pennsylvania, thought she had $7.3 million invested with the New York financier when he was arrested last month and charged with running a massive hedge fun scam, possibly the largest financial fraud in history.
But after Mr Madoff's alleged confession that the scheme was "all just one big lie", a revelation that shook the investment world, Mrs Ebel realised she had nothing.
She went from an annual income from her investments of 400,000 dollars to worrying about how to pay her next bill and picking up coins in the street.
In less than a week following Madoff's arrest, Mrs Ebel found a job caring for a 93-year-old woman, cleaning her home and ironing.
"This is my fate," the retired nurse, whose doctor husband died in 2000 aged 53, told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "I was married, had a fabulous marriage to a man I loved and worshipped, a physician. We travelled. We had a very fine life. And he's dead. He died, and every penny I had in the world has gone."
Mrs Ebel, one of hundreds if not thousands of investors who together lost tens of billions of dollars in the scheme, has raised some cash by selling off jewellery and a painting and returned thousands of dollars worth of items recently bought on credit cards.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
People it is called diversifying your investments, look it up.
And it doesn’t look like she had unrealistic financial goals for this money. She was making 5.5% on her money, which is more than a CD but hardly too good to be true.
Should have spread that money around.
I can’t muster any sympathy for the rich, except that it’s a shame she didn’t spend that wealth she had before she lost it to help those less fortunate.
She didn’t make good financial decisions about where to keep the nest egg, but within a week she had a job. I admire this woman.
If you’re cleaned out, I guess you DO become cleaner.
Why ? It was HER money. She and her husband earned it, and in the process paid taxes, some of which were used to help the “less fortunate”.
What a private person does with their own money is THEIR business, not anyone elses. . .
With the struggle that we’re in, are we to fill sorry for some former wealthy beyond dreams woman that lived high and mighty and is now on the same level that we average people are? Nah, don’t have any sympathy left.
She obviously did not consult the Bible when making investments. King Solomon had a lot to say about money.
He should be made to trade places with that woman.
The story says she cleans offices but she is a registered nurse who was married to a doctor? It is sad but she is only 53 years old and RNs get paid well. RNs earn their money but she should be able to get a decent job as an RN.
And looking upthread, I see that marxist class-hatred is alive and well on FR.
Disgusting.
raised some cash by selling off jewellery and a painting and returned thousands of dollars worth of items recently bought on credit cards.
A high maintenance women at the end of the tunnel, where she found no light.
I'm not talking about paying taxes. Part of the reason she's so upset over this is because she can't live the pampered life she once had, and she feels like an "alien" (her word) in FL among the other rich people she knows. If she'd lived more modestly (especially after her husband died) and not been so class conscious, she'd not be so devastated personally. She'd have looked at the money as a blessing that had an expiration date. She could have spent all the excess doing God's work. "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." This woman was a fool.
However, it is her business. I agree. That's why I don't actually care about her plight.
We should withhold judgment until we determine how many illegal aliens worked for the family.
Just... wow.
I feel sorry for her. She got lousy investment advice, not something everyone is an expert on. She’s also a widow now. But she’s dusting herself off and found a job. I hope she has other family in the area that can help her out.
Ditto.
This whole story smells REAL BAD...like I care...? stupid says as stupid does...
“Made-Off” should be tarred and feathered and rode out of town on a rail...nobody has the guts to do it tho...
If a guy making 50,000 bucks a year gets bilked... they can usually pick themselves up and get it back...
Will this “rich chick” be homeless? She was a fool with “her” money...
you are absolutely right. BUT when they make a public spectacle by becoming a newscast about it, air their stupidity, and then begin lawyering up to get back that money from ME, it is no longer JUST private. There are ALOT of people who were defrauded by Madoff, only the ones who are looking for public sympathy are coming out with these sob stories of how ALL their money was invested and now they might have to gasp go back to work and give up all their luxuries, thinking the american public will bail them out. Not ME. I am not interested. You play with fire, you get burned, lesson, don’t play with fire. Enough already
The biggest problem I had with the story was the complete idiocy of having 7 million in investments while making mortgage payments on two places. I just cannot fathom owing anyone anything if I had enough money not to. It’s utter foolishness not to have your primary residence paid off and all yours if you can, in my opinion.
"Put all your eggs in one basket and the WATCH THAT BASKET!" Mark Twain.
L
She probably let her certification lapse and it’s probably hard to get reinstated these days, with the technology changes. But I DO admire her for doing what hundreds of other Americans don’t do—she got herself a job, even one that many others would consider menial and demeaning.
I feel bad for her too. I’m not comfortable with anyone who feels that Madoff’s victims deserved to lose their money even though you can argue they should have known better.
It looks to me like they allowed Madoff to have custody of their money. This is insane. If you have a money manager he should never have actual custody of your funds. The money and securities should be with a custodian (like one of the big brokerage houses)and in an acct with your name on it. The custodian, not the advisor, sends you a monthly statement of activity.
This is the most fundamental piece of info that anyone who hires a money manager is supposed to know. I can’t believe the institutions who violated it.
Exactly. I haven't worked in patient care for over 10 years now but I keep my registration active "just in case".
Now that's what I call taking a bath.
I read in another article that her certificate had lapsed and she’s working on getting recertified. And, she’s 60, not 53.
Her uncle turned her onto Madoff, who sent her monthly statements about her investments. She thought she was invested in Johnson and Johnson, Coke and other blue chips.
My bet is that the 4 million initial investment she made was probably from her husband’s estate (life insurance, sale of practice, etc). It doesn’t sound like she was living really high on the hog. A condo her husband bought in FL and her house with a payment. She’s just a widow who took really bad investment advice from her uncle.
Reading this thread I see that there are sooo many hear at FR who are grappling with envy.
My ex-mother-in-law (was then the current) inherited well over a million dollars when her husband (suicide and he definitely did it) and mother died (emphysema) in the same year. She was off her rocker mentally at that point and had her mother’s financial advisor handle all of her money. We had long been distrustful of this woman, but she convinced MIL to move out of state where she had moved just months after her mother died, despite our warnings. Between bad investments, suspected embezzlement, and bad decisions on spending (including buying a house where she is now upside down) on MILs part, she has not a penny left of that money, and in-fact owes the IRS because the advisor improperly moved funds around. She will be 59 this year, and it’s sad, but it’s not newsworthy (although we suspect that advisor has mismanaged a lot of money- we have no proof.)
Wow. From all the “class warfare, eat-the-rich” replies I’d think I was on democraticunderground.
Lady and her husband had good jobs, paid a lot of taxes and made investments based on a personal recommendation from someone she trusted. Turns out she isn’t as smart about personal finance as all the posters here so the spite-fest begins.
So I can assume everyone here is a subject matter expert in every aspect of their lives?
It was her money and it was stolen from her. Again, it was her money to do with as she wished and it was stolen from her.
The granite state must grow them different, because I thought conservatives were about respecting private property and not envying others for what they have.
I’ll never have 7 million dollars myself but I can certainly sympathize with someone near retirement age having their entire nest egg stolen from them.
Maybe, her government should have taken all of her money and spent it for her? Yeah, that would be better/sarc. Maybe you should have taken it from her and spent it as you thought best. A thief is a thief is a thief.
Can you tell that I’m peeved?
Shove off then. They could use a bit of your envy politics at DU.
...so we’re going to what? Bail her out? Why are they bothering to publish this?
How can you call yourself a conservative when you feel it is your prerogative to decide how others should spend their money?
sad. but eggs & baskets come to mind.
The article says she spent $400,000 each year. I'd wager the majority of that DID, in fact, go to people less fortuante than she was.
Quit yer bitchin, we live in a capitalist society, where wealth is still spread.
“In less than a week following Madoff’s arrest, Mrs Ebel found a job”
This tells alot about this woman’s character. She got knocked down but she got back up. She is NOT on welfare or unemployment.
She and her husband worked hard , paid taxes and saved for retirement. She made a bad decision by putting all her investments with one company. However, it sounds like she is adjusting to reality. She will be fine.
However, the fact that Madoff is not in jail pisses me off. I can not imagine how she must feel about it. Who is Madoff paying off to keep himself out of jail.
You had 400k a year coming in, and you didn’t put anything away, other than what was with madoff? I know the guys a crook and I feel for this woman and others taken by this guy, but come on... you had 400k a year coming in above and beyond the money that was in the fund and you did nothing with it but spend it or leave it in that one fund?
Never EVER put all your eggs in one basket, EVER.
I didn't say it was my prerogative. She can do with her fortune what she wished. I wouldn't think of taking away that right of hers. I can still call her foolish, because she was a fool-- not primarily for investing her retirement with one guy, but for learning to love money. She lived a luxurious lifestyle and let her money define her and now she feels alien among her so-called friends. She should have asked God for wisdom every night instead of gold.
I’m not envious of her at all. Just the opposite. God doesn’t want us to be rich, because we become like this woman and treasure that gold too much. Also, DUers would have the government confiscate her wealth. I don’t advocate that at all.
Certainly. I agree. But she wouldn't be in such awful shape now if she'd lived modestly all this time. She had that right and I wouldn't take it away. But, she has to deal with the consequences.
Let’s look at the facts.
The lady claims to have lost 400K, and was getting a 5.5% return on her money before Madoff ponzied-out.
So she was getting an income of perhaps 22K a year out of it, assuming she was purely living on income, and not depleting capital in the process. If, more likely, she was taking income AND drawing down capital, she probably had 20-25 years of money there.
Sounds like fairly smart planning, but a lousy implementation. . .
I am still surprised Madoff isn’t hanging from a lamppost yet.
Her income from the 7.3 million was 400k.
It sounds like all her money was invested with one person or in one fund. That is not smart planning, actually it is pretty stupid.
I don't think you can assume that at all. It doesn't say she spent that much-- just that she was receiving it as an income. But, regardless, the fact that she lives in a house and has a condo and that neither are paid for, yet, that she spent money all the time on trips and art and jewelry and new furniture and new cars and such (according to another story about her) tells me that she could spend with the best of them. It's no different than hearing about rappers being broke because of how poorly they spent their windfall. Millionaires spend money in ways you can barely imagine, in sums you can barely imagine. I don't assume at all that she donated a large share of her income to charity. There's no evidence of it.
And I'm not bitching about her being rich or even how she spent it. I just said I don't have any pity for her. I don't waste energy pitying fools.
And who builds those cars? I'll wager it's people poorer than she was.
Who makes the jewelry? I'll wager it's people poorer than she was.
Who builds the furniture? I'll wager it's people poorer than she was.
Who delivered the furniture? I'll wager it's people poorer than she was.
How about the sales people who sold her the car, the jewelry, the furniture? I'll wager it's people poorer than she was.
I'll wager that ALL the people I just mentioned were grateful for her business, and pleased that she willing chose to share her good fortune with them by willingly giving them some of her money.
I propose we shoot anybody making either more or less than me!
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