Sibling was a doctor. Living the highlife. Had a box a NFL Football games, Hummer, BMW, etc. DUI, and other things but license was revoked. Downward spiral. Unemployed for a while, food stamps, living paycheck to paycheck. On Medicaid. Very sad.

Armie Hammer

I had a family member that their parents created a successful restaurant business and they were worth millions. The ungrateful kid spent it all on drugs and strippers. He was completely incapable of managing the family business and it eventually closed.

Anonymous wrote:It’s not that common

Neither are rags to riches stories, yet I read about those all the time. On average, when controlling for inflation, people achieve the same level of success as their parents. For every overachiever, there's an underachiever.

My great-uncle. He was left a thriving import-export business by my great-grandfather and managed to blow everything betting on horse races. He spent the rest of his working life as a retail employee.

Anonymous wrote:Not exactly riches to rags but I know several adults with families who rely on financial support from their families. Some of those parents are controlling with the purse strings. I would HATE to depend on my parents when I am in my thirties or forties supporting my own children.

+1. I dated someone once whose family had become rich starting with her grandfather, and he and the grandmother acted as patriarch and matriarch of all of the descendants. Decided everything for them. They would get together at the family lake houses every summer and things would get hashed out. It was extremely weird (and seemingly miserable for everyone but grandma and grandpa). Her dad had actually done well for himself in real estate (with an initial infusion of cash from the grandfather) so he had a little more leeway but he still had to kiss the ring every now and then.

Google Donald trump

Just a few more years and will be able to add a former president to the list. Amazing how much of his father's money he has burned through already.

Son-in-law might be the same eventually. Already cut his family's holdings in half the few years he managed them, before his criminal father got out of prison (for extorting his brother-in-law) and took back over.

My uncle was very rich. He was the richest in his family, owned a ton of land and buildings. He had supported so many family members financially and also co-signed several loans for family. When he died, the fortune was significantly less. He had 3 daughters who grew up rich girls, wanted for nothing and all married men who were below them financially. All 3 husbands could not support my cousins to the life they were accustomed. Decades passed and besides their homes that the father bought for them, the cousins had no assets. Their husbands earned middle class incomes so they now live very MC lives.

Not exactly riches to rags but I know several adults with families who rely on financial support from their families. Some of those parents are controlling with the purse strings. I would HATE to depend on my parents when I am in my thirties or forties supporting my own children.

It happened to my uncle many years ago. His father died and my uncle ran the family business into the ground . He became an alcoholic, got divorced and died in his 60s.

Actually I rarely hear of rags to riches except for actors.

It’s not that common

“Squandered Fortune: The Life and Times of Huntington Hartford” (Putnam, 1991).

https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/20/arts/design/20hartford.html#:~:text=voted%20for%20eviction.-,Mr.,my%20millions%20creatively%2C%E2%80%9D%20Mr.

I’ve read more stories about successful people who grew up poor than I can count. But I have yet to read about someone who grew up in the lap of luxury and managed to squander all their advantages and made nothing themselves as an adult. I’m so seasick of all these “rags to riches” stories that I feel it’s high time I read a “riches to rags” story.