Money Management – Book Review 2013

Lately I’ve been studying finance and have stumbled across “Lost and Found” by Geneen Roth which primarily deals with her personal financial loss due to the Bernard Madoff scandal which broke open back in December, 2008.  Madoff was very secretive about this accounting firm dealings as he normally met with his clients in upscale country clubs on Long Island and in Palm Beach.  Many people in the so-called, “Jewish Circuit” respected him and his services based upon the fact he was Jewish and said he worked for the people.  Geneen Roth was one of his victims and was drastically hurt since she lost her and her husband’s 30-year life’s savings in one quick afternoon.  She received a phone call one day explaining that everything she had was now completely gone and Madoff was in handcuffs.  Geneen’s husband was on a ship out-of-town and couldn’t provide much support for her over the phone.  She was hysterical since all they had left between both of their checking accounts were $6,000 in total.  The next two weeks before her husband returned she stayed home, ate eggs on toast and cried with her best friend who also lost all of her money.  She didn’t want to spend a dime because with only $6,000 dollars left it was going to go fast and she was worried about losing her home, her car and everything else she worked so hard to achieve her entire life.  She turned to her faith and spiritual beliefs finding comfort in a “kindness poem” that she recited every day.  Prior to losing everything, she learned how to meditate and started rekindling her spiritual journey to help her through this tough time.  In this book, she recounts some of her conversations with her spiritual teachers and how she even doubted that faith would help her through this financial crisis. 

If you are ever feeling down in the dumper and felt that you have lost everything; I would highly recommend reading this book because it clearly demonstrates how one person’s life can be completely turned upside down due to bad financial planning.  Geneen explains in her book that she regrets giving Madoff every penny she had ever earned and that most people who are smart about finance split up their accounts and have some money here, some money there and so on and so forth.  Every since this Madoff incident she wished she would have listened to her instincts rather than simply trusting the wrong people with her money.  This book serves as a warning for others not to put every penny into one specific area.  Spread it out and place your money into different accounts, if possible.  This way if something or someone would try to take or hack into your accounts; they can only get a limited amount rather than 30-years of life’s savings.  This was clearly a major blow to Geneen and for the first time she was truly questioning the meaning of life.  How could she possibly take care of herself or husband if either one of them were to get sick.  As she indicated $6,000 wasn’t going to go far hence she locked herself in her home for two weeks waiting for her husband to return to provide advice as to what to do next.  However, she was very worried to trust her husband’s financial suggestions again because it was because of him that they trusted Madoff.  Madoff was her husband’s accountant who clearly was on the wrong side of the law.  Now who do they trust?  Where do they go?  How do you rebuild your life at a later stage of your life?  Geneen had many questions for herself and for her family starting over.  She worried about being homeless and living off food stamps.  Again, this book serves as a true wake-up-call for many of us who are too trusting with money and people.  Please listen to Geneen’s words as she takes you on an emotional roller coaster by losing everything she spent her entire life working for and trying to figure out how to come out of this major blow.  Where does one even start?  To find out how to rebuild your life after a financial crisis… she later explains all of this in her book “Lost and Found” by Geneen Roth.  A wonderful read and a heart-breaking tale about trusting the wrong accountants and losing everything.  Hopefully you have found my book review to be helpful and I highly recommend it to anyone.  If you would like to contact me about this review or to discuss other related materials; please contact me, the Director, Cultural Arts Center of St. Louis, LLC at cacstlouis@gmail.com.  

Thank you and I hope to hear from you soon.

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