The arrest of Bernard Madoff, the financier who allegedly ran a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, could mark the end of the hedge fund industry as investors know it.
The Madoff brothers were boys from the Outer Boroughs who made the big time. I liked their street smarts and their charm. Bernie was the elder statesman and Peter was the young visionary. They were generous with their time, whether it was explaining the intricacies of market structure to a fledgling reporter or striving to improve the competitiveness of the NASDAQ Stock Market.
More
The second richest person in France, with estimated wealth of 22.9 billion
dollars, had entrusted part of her fortune to Madoff. The perpetrator of the …
Sample Pages:
Chapter One: Living the American Dream – Or Are We?
Recently I attended a four-day conference focused on financial success. It was an extraordinary event that included some of the foremost experts in their respective fields – from world economy, investing, and trading to saving and taxes. As one of the experts, I was about to speak to nearly 800 people about getting out of debt and the psychology of financial success. Even though I had done this many times before, my heart was racing.
Just before I ran out on stage, I felt a sudden surge of overwhelming gratitude. It seemed like only a few short years had passed since the day when I was 26 years old and woke up, as I did on most mornings, totally stressed out about my credit card debt. On that particular day, I had to go to the bank, take out a cash advance on one of my credit cards, and deposit the money into my checking account to cover checks I had written to my creditors the day before. Talk about robbing Peter to pay Paul! Those checks were simply going to cover the minimum payments due to keep my debts from getting further behind.
Sick to my stomach, I entered the bank knowing that what I was about to do was completely against everything I believed about financial responsibility. How could I have created such a mess of my finances? What had gone wrong? Why had I allowed this to happen? I was frustrated and deeply humiliated by the desperate situation had created for myself. I didn’t know what to do next or how to turn the situation around.
It was 1989 when I found myself in that horrible situation. In less than two years, I paid off my creditors entirely. I soon realized that I had the desire and knowledge to inspire others to do the same, and I’ve been doing just that ever since. As I heard myself being introduced at the conference, I bounded onstage. I was ready to rock the house!
Before we go any further, you should know that I am not an accountant, Certified Financial Planner, stockbroker, or professional money manager, nor am I a multibillionaire or mega business owner. I believe I am qualified to write and teach about financial solvency because I have been buried deep in debt and I got myself out. Since doing so, I have devoted my life to learning everything I could about debt elimination and I’ve shared my strategies and principles with thousands of people, helping them to get out of debt, too.
More at The 5-Minute Debt Solution
personal finance, personal finance planning – Google News