Anna Nicole and Dying Rich

Anna Nicole and Dying Rich

“Get Rich or Die Trying”

-50 Cent

I just watched the movie, Get Rich or Die Trying. The main character was a fascinating study of someone who viewed money and status as the key to happiness.

Being rich doesn’t make you happy. Ask anyone who knew Anna Nicole Smith if you need more elaboration.

The saddest are those who get rich through lottery, inheritance or some other one time money, and then blow it.

They had a chance but couldn’t make it work.

It’s been said that 90% of people who receive a lump sum of money will run through it all in five years or less. After 24 years of doing financial counseling for lottery winners and injured people, I am sure that that figure is correct.

It overwhelms most people to receive a large lump sum of money. They make mistakes and let people take advantage of them.

Some people view the wasted lives of lottery winners as proof that money is evil.

Money isn’t evil. Even quick money is not evil. Money allows us to feed our families and live a high-quality lifestyle. It is the exchange system we use to translate work product into rewards.

Get rich or die is not a motto to many people; it is a lifestyle. Like sex, drugs and rock- and-roll, money can become an obsession.

Just watching people with money, like Anna Nicole or Paris Hilton, has become important to some people.

It is said that money is the root of all evil. A television minister named Reverend Ike said that the lack of money is the root of all evil.

I say that the lack of respect for money is really the root of all evil.

I’ve dealt with over 2,000 people have come into instant money either through a settlement or a lottery. The people that set financial limits and goals live happily. Those without limits often end up making a fool out of themselves.

The unhappy people did not have respect for the money. Money is like fire or a dangerous substance. You have to understand that it can do for good and evil.

If, after receiving a lump sum of money, you take 50 of your closest “friends” to the Super Bowl, you don’t have respect for the money. If you go into a strip joint with $600,000 in cash, like Powerball winner Jack Whitaker did, you don’t have respect for the money.

Most people have friends within 15% of their own income class. When someone wealthy has friends who are poor, it is hard for them to do the same things socially.

Some big spenders think that money can buy them love, friends or happiness.

What kind of person would want “love” from someone who wants them only for their money?

It would be a lot cheaper and productive to dump the “friend” and spend the money on a good therapist.

There is not a law against being stupid. When a 60-year-old lottery winner suddenly gets an 18-year-old lover, the lover is not with them for their looks.

I really don’t understand the inner mind of people who leech. They are certainly out there. Look at the big “posse” that lottery winners have.

How much self-respect can a person like that have? I wonder how people get up in the morning knowing that they are going to suck money from someone who trusts them?

People who earn money learn to respect its power. You don’t see many self-made millionaires doing the stupid things that lottery winners are known for.

Go to a self-made person and see if they are paying people to be their friends. It does not happen. The self-made person has sweat and stress invested in the creation of money.

They view their money with proper respect.

Three has been too much media coverage of Anna Nicole. She did not earn her wealth or make the world a better place. Her big accomplishment was inheriting money.

She managed to be rich and die trying.

Don McNay is Chairman of McNay Settlement Group where we want our client to get rich and live through the experience. You can write to him at don@donmcnay.com or read other things he has written at www.donmcnay.com. His award winning column is syndicated on the CNHI News Service.