Teenagers steal $250k, go on spending spree

[byzantium]

Teens Steal $250K From Grandpa On Christmas - Money News Story - KCRA Sacramento

They sure acted like they'd just won the lottery. It makes me wonder where the priorities of some kids are, the only thing that's important to them is spending and they will do anything, even steal from relatives, to get the money to do it. You hear about this over and over with lottery winners-once they get the cash, they immediately go out and spend every last dime, then have only regrets and junk to show for it, as well as a newfound appreciation for thrift. I remember reading the opinion of one person who studies instant wealth who said that "the previous personality must play itself out" before people learn that the ads are wrong and happiness can't be bought.

Every entrepreneur forum has the people who want to be their own boss simply to make a lot of money so they can spend it. They heard that businesspeople make tons of cash, and they want tons of cash to spend, so here they are. It's nice to learn that happiness can't be bought before you blow through millions, but some people have to learn the hard way. I also read that America's wealthy amassed nearly $400 BILLION in personal debt in just 10 years. Obviously, the only thing that stops some people from spending is running out of cash.

It reminds me of Larry Ellison, who was borrowing to the crack of doom to finance his life, and whose accountant worried about him running out of cash. When you run out of cash, you realize that you could have invested better, or just have invested, rather than buy huge houses and Bentleys and yachts. It's telling that most people's concept of being rich involves spending and having stuff rather than freedom or power or security.

[Tmiles]

Very nicely said. To go one further, take the greed you are talking about to a macro-economic level. The economy is failing basically because of greed and the fact that people equate wealth to things (material) and not savings...

[Fanatik]

Excellent thread and great insight. I've often wondered how it would be to win the lottery. I wouldn't appreciate the instant wealth nearly as much as if I built a business from the ground-up and became wealthy.

It's like the snot-nosed kids that get a BMW at age 16. They dont know a damn thing about it, and they don't appreciate it for what it is - because mommy and daddy bought it for them. Now, if that teenager saved and bought their own car - you better believe they'll understand and value that lesson.

I think too many times in business, entrepreneurs think about "rich me - gimme gimme gimme" and not giving back to the community or humanity. Even just taking a portion of proceeds and donating them to a charity or something along those lines, truly shows that you care about more than making a buck.

-J

[byzantium]

It's telling that one of the guys was caught with a "juvenile runaway female". It seems that for a lot of young females, access to the goods (ahem) is contingent on the guy's access to wads of cash. The legs don't uncross until you buy her something expensive. How many guys here have told a woman that you run your own business and then see her suddenly perk up, only to have her shut down when she realizes that no big payday is coming? Of course, there is a word for such women. Unfortunately, it seems to cover more and more women.

Also, it seems that people just want money to spend, without regards to anything else. On another forum, somebody talked of young men who go into high paying professions simply to buy luxury goods-he mentioned luxury cars. A 20 foot long Rolls Royce is a highly impractical car, but if you've ever been to Palm Beach during snowbird season, the streets are filled with them.

So many of the modern rich come from the middle class, and are in their 40s, so they grew up with the media idolizing of Donald Trump and his high consumption life. They think that's the way rich people live. In the Gilded Age, such consumption was viewed as evil. Today, it's not only normal and natural, it's what people aspire to. It's wrecking civilization. Do we discover-too late-that there's something to be said for thrift?

[byzantium]

Excellent thread and great insight. I've often wondered how it would be to win the lottery. I wouldn't appreciate the instant wealth nearly as much as if I built a business from the ground-up and became wealthy.

It's like the snot-nosed kids that get a BMW at age 16. They dont know a damn thing about it, and they don't appreciate it for what it is - because mommy and daddy bought it for them. Now, if that teenager saved and bought their own car - you better believe they'll understand and value that lesson.

I think too many times in business, entrepreneurs think about "rich me - gimme gimme gimme" and not giving back to the community or humanity. Even just taking a portion of proceeds and donating them to a charity or something along those lines, truly shows that you care about more than making a buck.

-J

Well, it seems that most people win the lottery and then go on spending binges, like being on dope, except money is the drug. They'll buy massive houses, 10 cars, electronics out the wazoozie, the latest designer clothes, then it all caves in when the money runs out and they're broke. They sell off the stuff and pay the debts, then are left with nothing. They'd have been better off not winning anything. In George Orwell's cynical fiction, the Lottery existed to keep the proles at bay, it never paid the top prizes, just small ones. Today, the prizes are real, and the problem of what to do with the cash is too. Winners find themselves so besieged by crackpot "financial advisors" and imaginary relatives that they have to go into hiding. Then they spend. Then they're back to being a nobody.

I remember this kid in my high school who wanted a BMW. I lived in a fairly affluent area and some kids had 5 year old beemers. His parents told him that he'd have to buy it himself. So he saved, and put down $1,000 for a 1972 Bavaria that was 20 years old. It was a real clunker, and parts were nearly impossible to find. At least with the 75 Plymouth Valiant I had, I could go to the junkyard. He couldn't-very few BMW's were sold in the US in the early 70s. Finally he got tired of paying through the nose for parts and junked it. I saw him a few years ago, and at least now he makes enough to buy a newer model. I always thought that the Mercedes Benz cars made in the 60s were cool, but my grandfather convinced me that I wanted a Chrysler instead. It was probably just as well. I drive a Nissan Sentra today.

Robert Kiyosaki once wrote that he'll ask entrepreneurs what the point of their business is, and they'll look at him like he's a two headed Martian and say "To make money, DUH!" He then says that most of those businesses fail. The entrepreneur doesn't have a clear goal beyond making money, so when the business fails to make money they abandon it.

[byzantium]

Original story, from St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer Press:

2 teens, $250K, 1 big spending spree: Cash allegedly stolen from relative fueled Christmas binge - TwinCities.com

It lists the cars, also gives the fact that they paid off debts (probably the original motivation) and it's possible that the runaway girl was a friend or girlfriend. Apparently the kid in Kentucky had been heading for Florida. Nobody knows why. I wonder how much money they'll recover. It's possible that the sellers of the cars haven't spent the proceeds yet and would be willing to return the money for their vehicles back. It says that the kid had $2,000 in his pocket. That's quite a spending spree.

[chrispalko]

So, these kids stole $250k...one father said he was proud that his son took initiative to pay off debts first with the stolen money...and the grandfather keeps $250k cash in his home.

The stupidity in this story goes back three generations...sad

[HarveyJ]

There are so many things that are stupid with this story.
Chrispalko nailed most of them on the head.
My biggest concern is a father that is proud of a criminal child.

However, the main point is that people are of the opinion that material goods can purchase happiness.
I've often found that the more money I've got, the less happy I am.
As a 21 year old, I was earning a hell of a lot more than I am now, and with a bit less work.. and I was amazingly unhappy as my life was somewhat hollow.
For the most part, I'm now doing what I actually like. I'm earning a lot less doing it too, but at least it keeps me engaged instead of dreaming about ramming my car into the side of a petrol tanker.

Byzantium: I ain't sayin' she a gold digger, but she ain't messin' with no broke gentleman of African lineage.

[pcbres16]

So what do you all think of the robber barrons? Carrnige, Rockefeller, Van der Belt? Do you think they are poor roll models for then new generations of entrepenuers?

[byzantium]

So what do you all think of the robber barrons? Carrnige, Rockefeller, Van der Belt? Do you think they are poor roll models for then new generations of entrepenuers?

Carnegie was the real deal, and preached something very similar to the Law of Attraction. I found it hard to wrap my brain around Think and Grow Rich until I read other Gilded Age era books on the law of attraction, then it made sense. Rockefeller was lucky, he got in on the ground floor of industrial civilization, and rode it to the top. I don't know enough about Cornelius Vanderbilt, but I do know that he had steamship and rail lines, and that when he died his heirs acted like real jerks with his cash and spent it all on wild parties.

Rockefeller was actually a miser, not as bad as some but he made his kids wear hand me down clothes. He also seems to have been quite disagreeable and ruthless. Henry Ford I DON'T like, he was perpetually angry at the world and had very little talent beyond tinkering. Another guy who got lucky IMO. If I had to pick one, I'd pick Carnegie.

I also like Warren Buffett, he's a good guy, and he used brainpower to outsmart the herd mentality of the markets, which is cool. As for Bill Gates, I think luck had a lot to do with his success too, he got to IBM first because mommy was friends with the CEO and mom then convinced that guy to do a deal with her son. I generally don't like Lucky Sperm Club members. Trump is another member, and he's way too slick, including his hair. I don't like plastic people.

[Aletheides]

For some reason this reminds me of Sarah Palin.

[Articles R Us]

The more you make, the more you spend.

This is why financial education is so damn important...

[brandon123]

Nice thread guys. Pleasing to read. I don't know why individuals feel the need to steal period. Then to steal from a family member??? It is just sad how some people go about acquiring "wealth." Stealing will definitely not make you rich because your road to riches will almost always come to a screeching hault.

[HarveyJ]

Well, the psychology behind theft is rather simple.

Someone has something you want and don't currently have, so you take it.
The only thing that prevents most people is societal rules instilled into them by authority figures at an early age, a lack of opportunity, fear of repercussions, or a combination of the three.

[AnthonyStanley11]

I still dont understand how they didnt get caught until the spending spree was over...smart kids lol