My 68 years old uncle lost his job as a top manager in a British company in his 40s and was unable to find any job since.
When he was fired, he had accumulated quite a fortune that he estimated would have lasted him for all his remaining life (he never had kids or a spouse).
Due to medical emergencies, depression, bad friendships and decisions, he depleted his fortune in less than 20 years and he is now completely money less and lives an extremely frugal life as a retiree.
He is still resilient and upbeat, and I speak frequently with him about his life, what he would have done differently and what he misses the most of the good years.
Here is a short list of what my uncle misses of his “good years”:
- Girlfriends: as long as my uncle was rich he always had an amazing touch with women. He maintained a bit of this touch even after he was not rich anymore but obviously now he cannot do with these girls all the things he did before. In particular, when he was rich he was traveling a lot with a series of girlfriends scattered among Europe. These trips started in the 70s and he still remembers amazing hotels in Capri, Venice, London, Prague, Budapest, Paris which he visited with these girls and made amazing memories with. Continue reading “What do rich people who have lost everything miss most about having money?”