The bank lent me $2m so I spent it on strippers and cars(bbc.com)
bbc.com
The bank lent me $2m so I spent it on strippers and cars
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38308842
2 comments
A potentially smarter thing would have been to take all you could, invest and hope for the fast short term gains, then come clean to the bank and pay it back - keeping the proceeds.
Twice I've taken credit card companies up on their 0% interest balance transfer deals. Specifically, the ones where you can write a check drawn on the credit account in lieu of a balance transfer.
The effective cost for me each time was 2.5% up front (the "transaction fee"), but with even conservative investments that's trivial to cover by the end of the interest-free, 18- or 20-month period.
Alas, with today's interest rate hike, I'm not sure how long those offers will continue. With bonds prices increasing, the "transaction fee" will rise, and there'll also be less money in the stock markets reducing the upside.
Those deals aren't a sure thing. If the stock market crashed you could maybe lose a quarter to half. But as these things go it was pretty easy money. I'm not rich enough to be able to leverage debt like the big guys, but I didn't mind taking the opportunities afforded me. Paying $500 for the privilege of investing $20,000 of someone else's money, reaping all the rewards, was well worth the cost.
The effective cost for me each time was 2.5% up front (the "transaction fee"), but with even conservative investments that's trivial to cover by the end of the interest-free, 18- or 20-month period.
Alas, with today's interest rate hike, I'm not sure how long those offers will continue. With bonds prices increasing, the "transaction fee" will rise, and there'll also be less money in the stock markets reducing the upside.
Those deals aren't a sure thing. If the stock market crashed you could maybe lose a quarter to half. But as these things go it was pretty easy money. I'm not rich enough to be able to leverage debt like the big guys, but I didn't mind taking the opportunities afforded me. Paying $500 for the privilege of investing $20,000 of someone else's money, reaping all the rewards, was well worth the cost.
"...and wasted the rest" to quote the late George Best.