Wise Money: Avoid Going Back to Zero

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"All successful investing is goal-focused and planning-driving. All failed investing is market-focused and performance-driven.

All successful investors are continuously acting on a plan. All failed investors are continually reacting to the markets. Everything else is commentary.”

- Nick Murray

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Michael Beasley victims were primarily members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons). His investment pitch was an opportunity to earn up to 50 percent returns lending money to slip-and-fall victims as they awaited their lawsuit settlement checks.

Unfortunately, there were no slip-and-fall victims. The only victims were those whom Beasley convinced to invest. The Las Vegas attorney had been running a nearly $500 million Ponzi scheme that unraveled in 2022. More than 900 people invested between 2017-2022, most of them members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Many of his victims invested their entire retirement savings, some even took out second mortgages on their homes to invest.

The victim stories of Ponzi schemes like this are always devastating. Greg Hart, an 81-year-old retired entrepreneur, invested $2.2M in the scheme – 95% of what he had left for retirement. Once he learned he’d been duped, he had to consider selling his home to make ends meet. “This has been completely and totally devastating,” he told the Washington Post.

The hope of outsized investment returns allures investors into taking risks that could lead to catastrophe. No potential return is worth losing everything you have.

Once you have built something, it's imperative to avoid decisions that could take you back to zero. Consider just how many good decisions were required to build what you have, yet a single poor decision could erase it all.

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