# Riches to rags: tennis star is bankrupt



## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

This is a bizarre story:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40358006
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-...-bankrupt-boris-becker-liquidating-his-assets

It seems that Boris Becker has lost his entire fortune of around $74 million CAD. The article talks about being bad with his finances, but it also sounds like divorce was a huge part of this. If I'm converting currencies correctly, the divorces cost him about $60 million out of his $74 million fortune. Ouch.

Overall, I'm not sure what the takeaway message is from this story. Avoid aggressive and exotic investments seems to be one message, but I can't help but think divorce was the bigger factor in his ruin. Other sources say that the prenuptial agreement was side-stepped in one of the divorces. (Are prenups useless?)


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## Danny (Oct 17, 2012)

Sounds like that Nigerian prince is still doing quite well....lol


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## STech (Jun 7, 2016)

Maybe his ex can throw him a few bucks, otherwise it's really hard to feel sorry for guys like him, or lottery winners that end up broke.


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## jargey3000 (Jan 25, 2011)

"_Spiegel claimed that it has seen details of a single investment of “more than $10m” in Nigerian oil prepared for Becker by Forbes & Manhattan, a *Canadian* investment bank and a former associate of the tennis player. _"


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## jargey3000 (Jan 25, 2011)

jeez, they got Paul Anka...as a "Special Business Advisor"...???
http://www.forbesmanhattan.com/Engl...th-Carlos-Slim-and-America-Movil/default.aspx

BTW...is Carlos related to Fatboy..??


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

As Donald Trump can confirm..............being bankrupt is not the same as being broke.


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## Rusty O'Toole (Feb 1, 2012)

This sort of thing is surprisingly common. A high percentage of professional athletes end up broke.


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## boingboing (Jul 5, 2017)

Can't feel bad but then these stories aren'r meant to make people feel sorry for them but to make those who arent rich, happy. But anyway, typically when the rich file for bankruptcy it doesnt mean they are penniless. He very likely has a nice egg stored away in an offshore account or in some retirement account which, depending on the country, may be untouchable by his ex.


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## jargey3000 (Jan 25, 2011)

decent serve & forehand....lousy investor..


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## cainvest (May 1, 2013)

jargey3000 said:


> decent serve & forehand....lousy investor..


You finally got around to reading this from 2017?


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## bgc_fan (Apr 5, 2009)

cainvest said:


> You finally got around to reading this from 2017?


It's always fun to bring up old topics. Here's an old story to match the old link, about how NFL is teaching personal finance to avoid the same pitfalls.








This is how the NFL hopes to keep its players from ending up broke


NFL players — and their wives — attend a Personal Finance Camp to learn to make their money last long after they stop playing.




www.marketwatch.com


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

cainvest said:


> You finally got around to reading this from 2017?


lol.

Revisiting this article though. Let's say from his original $74 million, the divorce cost him $60 million. That still left him with $14 million in 2017.

That's not a bad amount. Here are a few things he could have done with it.

If he just put it into super safe short term bonds, he would now have $15 million.
If he had put it in a boring, standard balanced fund like VBAL or XBAL, he would now have $17 million.
If he had put it all in Bitcoin, he would have $350 million.

Based on this ^ it's clear what he should have done. He should have invested in a standard balanced fund.


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## Money172375 (Jun 29, 2018)

When I worked with the bank, a few Raptors and Leafs would visit occasionally. I always found it weird they would come in to their banking. The Raptors were hard to miss and had groups of young girls following them. We had to sneak them out a back door once. Anyway, the Raptors guys did some silly things….I know they have tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars but……….they would thrown down random US credit cards and ask for 10, 15, 20, 25k in cash for the weekend road trips…..all cash advances. Fun to watch, knowing they would spend 25k US on a weekend trip out of town. Heard some good stories about their “s exploits” too.


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## hboy54 (Sep 16, 2016)

Money172375 said:


> When I worked with the bank, a few Raptors and Leafs would visit occasionally. I always found it weird they would come in to their banking. The Raptors were hard to miss and had groups of young girls following them. We had to sneak them out a back door once. Anyway, the Raptors guys did some silly things….I know they have tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars but……….they would thrown down random US credit cards and ask for 10, 15, 20, 25k in cash for the weekend road trips…..all cash advances. Fun to watch, knowing they would spend 25k US on a weekend trip out of town. Heard some good stories about their “s exploits” too.


The lowest NBA salary is about $1.5M, an amount that is approximately 50% more than my entire lifetime earnings from employment. Hard to feel sorry for professional athletes that manage to go broke.


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## bgc_fan (Apr 5, 2009)

hboy54 said:


> The lowest NBA salary is about $1.5M, an amount that is approximately 50% more than my entire lifetime earnings from employment. Hard to feel sorry for professional athletes that manage to go broke.


It's not an unusual story. You have lotto winners that have never had significant amount of money ending up going broke. Some of it is that they have no concept of value of money and keep spending without acquiring any income producing assets. Or they feel pressured to give away money to friends and family. Or they get caught up in scams because they don't know any better. As much as people on the board discount the services of financial advisors, someone who suddenly comes into large sums of money with little financial knowledge, can really use some direction.

Then again, you also hear stories about what happened to Leonard Cohen where his manager embezzled his money.

OTOH, this is kind of the reverse survivor-ship bias, we only hear about the ones who go broke, and not those that actually do well.


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## dubmac (Jan 9, 2011)

It's always sad when you read these kinds of stories. 
Bill & Melinda Gates divorced recently - but both are rather...(ahem)...well off.
...they continue to do remarkable work to try and right fix some global issues.


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## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

dubmac said:


> It's always sad when you read these kinds of stories.
> Bill & Melinda Gates divorced recently - but both are rather...(ahem)...well off.
> ...they continue to do remarkable work to try and right fix some global issues.


Having done the split after 26 years, I think it is a sign of bravado that they do this because they can. Staying together is the easiest path. For 10 years, we stayed together for the kids. Then we each went our own way with half our equity.

26 years later, we are glad we did. Previous wife had the benefit of half our equity plus an inheritance from her Dad. We both have a good relationship with our kids.

We had the advantage of not having the world second guess us.


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## dubmac (Jan 9, 2011)

kcowan said:


> We had the advantage of not having the world second guess us.


well said kcowan. Having this perspective shifts my own.


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