18 years old and suddenly wealthy
Discussion
Pub-chat inspired by the 18 year old Emma Raducanu's victory in the tennis yesterday, for which she bagged £1.8m.
How do you think you would have coped if you had unexpectedly received a massive lump of cash like that when you were 18?
I don't mean a wealthy family, trust-fund type situation but rather somebody suddenly finding they have an amount of money they never expected to have to deal with.
I really don't know. Thinking back to how I was as a late-teenager, my guess is I'd have been pretty boring with it and invested most of it. I reckon my treats would have been to buy a Lotus Exige and set up my own film company.
Anyone been through a similar experience?
How do you think you would have coped if you had unexpectedly received a massive lump of cash like that when you were 18?
I don't mean a wealthy family, trust-fund type situation but rather somebody suddenly finding they have an amount of money they never expected to have to deal with.
I really don't know. Thinking back to how I was as a late-teenager, my guess is I'd have been pretty boring with it and invested most of it. I reckon my treats would have been to buy a Lotus Exige and set up my own film company.
Anyone been through a similar experience?
Digger said:
I wonder how involved her manager & parents are in managing her wealth?
I assume these days for any professional sports there is a pretty robust infrastructure in place to help deal with this kind of thing. My question was not about Raducanu so much, but rather if it happened to the average person who doesn't have all that.
Edited by durbster on Sunday 12th September 12:36
i had this debate with the mrs last night. We have savings plans for the kids and for the family, but I must admit we haven't really put loads of consideration into what happens when they become adults. I don't really believe the ones for the kids are that great an idea, and I described that approach as giving them a nice pot of 'wasting money'. In our case there isn't much in there compared to a lottery win, maybe a couple of grand each, but they are very young and they are still getting paid into, so i guess by the time they are 18 it will be an OK ish pot. They won't just get given it though, so in many ways it was a pointless debate as we'd kind of agreed that was not a good idea... but then if they aren't going to get given the pot then why do the plans need to be separate, i guess is my argument. The mrs thinks they would be sensible anyway - I say if you were 18 and got given that, would you make the right choices? I had mates who got this sort of nest egg (I did not) and they all f
ked it away almost instantly, and not even in a way which was memorable. Giving kids money at 18 is probs wrong, regardless if they earned it or not. It should probably be paid into trust to pay out a certain figure each year, or may have rules around what it can be spent on. Today's 18 year olds are like yesterdays 13 year olds.
ked it away almost instantly, and not even in a way which was memorable. Giving kids money at 18 is probs wrong, regardless if they earned it or not. It should probably be paid into trust to pay out a certain figure each year, or may have rules around what it can be spent on. Today's 18 year olds are like yesterdays 13 year olds.durbster said:
Pub-chat inspired by the 18 year old Emma Raducanu's victory in the tennis yesterday, for which she bagged £1.8m.
How do you think you would have coped if you had unexpectedly received a massive lump of cash like that when you were 18?
I don't mean a wealthy family, trust-fund type situation but rather somebody suddenly finding they have an amount of money they never expected to have to deal with.
I really don't know. Thinking back to how I was as a late-teenager, my guess is I'd have been pretty boring with it and invested most of it. I reckon my treats would have been to buy a Lotus Exige and set up my own film company.
Anyone been through a similar experience?
I think it depends partly on your upbringing and partly on your personality.How do you think you would have coped if you had unexpectedly received a massive lump of cash like that when you were 18?
I don't mean a wealthy family, trust-fund type situation but rather somebody suddenly finding they have an amount of money they never expected to have to deal with.
I really don't know. Thinking back to how I was as a late-teenager, my guess is I'd have been pretty boring with it and invested most of it. I reckon my treats would have been to buy a Lotus Exige and set up my own film company.
Anyone been through a similar experience?
Even at 18 i would have invested it in stocks & shares (or probably property as that was when the BTL stuff was really kicking off). My younger brother has a far more optimistic "live for the moment" approach to life and a 911 would have been the first thing os his list.
Wasn't that sometimes the issue with young footballers of the not too distant past, all of a sudden thrust into earning ridiculous amounts with no real help or support in how to handle and manage it, hence why many ended up being dicks, getting up to questionable things.
However it does seem far less of an issue now so I guess they now have the proper support behind them.
However it does seem far less of an issue now so I guess they now have the proper support behind them.
untakenname said:
She went to a state school so £1.8 million will be a lifestyle changing amount, hopefully she will stick to sport and not let the win go to her head.
Her career earnings prior to the US Open was about £350K, so she was doing OK for a teenager already. I'm sure she'll have a team around her to manage her wealth. And she won't have to buy much, as there will be sponsorship deals with a car company, a watch company, clothes, trainers, etc.
Countdown said:
I think it depends partly on your upbringing and partly on your personality.
Either you're born with the ability to manage your finances or you're not. I can nominate plenty of people who are genetically incapable of hanging on to money no matter what the circumstances or amount. It's bizarre to witness and I've yet to see anyone like this properly turn it around.
I grew up in Aberdeenshire with quite a few kids who lost their fathers on Piper Alpha; a number of whom were sole beneficiaries of the death in service awards which they could only access to once they were 18. A few were sensible, a few splurged on cars and drugs, one or two went completely off the rails. It was quite surreal to see.
parabolica said:
I grew up in Aberdeenshire with quite a few kids who lost their fathers on Piper Alpha; a number of whom were sole beneficiaries of the death in service awards which they could only access to once they were 18. A few were sensible, a few splurged on cars and drugs, one or two went completely off the rails. It was quite surreal to see.
A friend of my son received a large sum in compensation about 18 months ago, enough to buy a house etc At least half has gone with only a (now) 18 month old Audi to show for it and some very expensive golf clubs.Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff