Riches To Rags: Learn From 9 People Who Lost It All [Infographic]

We’ve all read stories about people going from rags to riches, but how about from riches to rags? Just a few days ago, Richard wrote an article about the Richest People In America. It explained how the richest people here in the States got rich in the first place. Since there are so many different ways to be rich in life, I want to specify that I’m talking about rich when it comes to financial means. I know a lot of people aspire to be rich, and it got me thinking about what happens when we get there.

If you think acquiring a lot of money is a challenge sometimes, you might consider thinking about what you’d do with it once you have it. For some people, keeping money once they’ve got it can be even more of a feat than getting it in the first place. We’ve all heard stories of people who have won millions of dollars in the lottery but ended up broke a few years later. Have you ever stopped to wonder how that could happen? I’ve often thought maybe they got scammed somehow, or perhaps it was just a string of poor financial decisions.

In this infographic called From Riches To Rags: 9 Musicians Who Lost It All by paydayloan (designed by NowSourcing), you’ll see several examples of people who went from riches to rags so to speak. I’m blown away that at one point, MC Hammer maintained a payroll expense of $500,000 a month. That was back in the ’90s when it would have seemed like even more money than it does today. It seems Toni Braxton has filed bankruptcy twice in 12 years. Apparently one way to go from riches to rags is to let someone in your family manage your money. That happened to Billy Joel, and he lost 90 million dollars because of that decision. There is a lot we can all learn from this about the importance of living within (or beneath) our means, regardless of how much money we have. It’s all relative if you know what I mean.