It sounds like he melted down 2 years ago (he has not made a mortgage payment in 2 years...). He hasnt been able to find a job in 2 years??? Something is wrong with this story.
I havn't a clue in McDonaldology. But given the difficulties in a startup of that sort, I would attribute that as to why he did not take that route rather than something he felt more confident in. I guess people that want to get involved in a business proposition that is a sure success would have a slim chance given the prerequisites.
The guy has a MBA from UCLA's Anderson School of Business, which is one of the top business schools in the nation. That should already be above 99.9% of the posters on ET. It is almost a certainty that he drew up a solid business plan, and thought he had a good chance to succeed in his new business venture. Most businesses have good business plans to even get a loan, but still 8/10 business fail. A lot of it is planning, but luck and timing all have sometime to do with it. His backup plan was to get his old job back, however he has been unable to do so. Do you know how many people with MBA's in the financial district is out of work??? A ton of them. And these guys were laid off from their job. So the people who are talking about how this guy was set with $750K, he could be out of a job now even if he hadn't tried to start his hedge fund. Sure he would have a lot of money to live off of, but he still would be out of job. And the guy took a chance at something better, so what, it's like people blow up their accounts...it's the same thing, I'm sure they all had their systems and edge in their plans...things just don't go according to plans sometimes.
Great post. Thank you for showing how absolutely useless a college degree is in the face of rampant greed, stupidty and lack of anything even remotely resembling common sense. He put together a business plan that, when it failed absymally, instead of chalking up his losses, retooling and getting back into the game he choose to dig into life savings and kept the ship sailing straight for the fucking iceberg (not paying mortgage for two years, racking up $100,000 in credit card bills, relying on the grace of friends to keep his kids in school). You're an idiot for complementing a guy who epitomimizes exactly how the US economy got into the FUBAR situation it is in today. If you ever wonder why trading has a 95% failure rate, just look around you. I've never seen so many retarded replies to what is basically a simple question in my life. Like Trader666 said: Later idiots.
This guy is a F*(& tool but he is like most of you morons on ET and in the "World" of 9 to 5. He lived on pure credit, spending more than he brought in. You mean to tell me this guy didn't put some of the 750 k away somewhere? Goes to show you, idiots are all over, across every "economic"system. If you make 750k you don't have a pot to miss in. Well then FUCK YOU....learn to 'build' wealth and equity, or starve to death. I made half of what he did in 08 and yet I was able to put away 80% of that plus yeild 8% on any money I stashed away for "saftey". And this guy had a family but did not prepare? Propaganda at its finest.
He used to be an equity trader, why cant he trade for a living? Just goes to show the number of morons in the banking industry that brought it to collapse.
What he said. Although, the way things are going, you could 'stash it away' and still have it either turn out to be worthless, or have it confiscated (Taxed) away from you anyway. 90% tax rate resurrected kids? This guy is proof positive why I won't put my kids in private school until I have their college education paid for. If they didn't fall too far from the tree they will do ok.
All good points that I was going to echo. I've heard countless stories of people living in multi-million dollar homes in FL who haven't paid their mortgage in 2-4 years. The banks don't foreclose for all the reasons you mentioned. It's just cheaper for them to let the defaulted owner remain in the house rather than to take the writedown hit, as well as pay for all the maintenance (and risk having the empty luxury house be gutted/vandalized). Unbelievable the non-recourse laws in FL & CA. Some of these "homeowners" extracted all of the equity they could in multiple mortgages/HELOCs, defaulted, kept the extractions in the bank recourse-free, and keep on living in the houses for free. What a clusterf**k...
The guy was making $750,000 a years then lost everything investing in a hedge fund Greedy, stupid, he had a life most people dream about, with a little prudent investing, he could have been set for the rest of his life. The problem is he wanted more!!
You guys are forgetting something! Screw the f'ing bank that lets this guy sit in a house worth several hundreds of thousands of dollars for TWO YEARS without a payment and doesn't foreclose - even for tens of cents on the dollar - no these greedy f'er banks are depending upon the dumb ass Geithner plan to take this thing over...which the gov't will NEVER kick his ass out...and he will have his house AND been a screw off!!! -gastropod