Earning More vs. Spending Less, Round 3: ‘The Queen of Versailles’
Published on - September 10th, 2012 (by El Nerdo) This is the third article of a series. The first one is here and the second one here.
Earning and saving money both take time, effort, knowledge, attention, and continuous dedication. Since we know that willpower is limited, and so are energy and time, it can make sense for a lot of people to put a keener focus on making more money, which has a greater potential than saving.
However, potential is never a guarantee of earnings, and high debt and spending can destroy even the largest of incomes, so it’s crucial not to overextend. The fascinating documentary “The Queen of Versailles,” which I watched recently at the movies, illustrates this subject beautifully.
The trailer will probably give you an impression that this is something like a special extended episode of “The Real Housewives of Orlando” on Bravo, and in some sense that is true (Bravo has bought the rights to the film). And of course the audiences are tempted to judge and point fingers at the excess. However, there is much more to it than a reality show, and I believe this film is a rich cultural artifact for those interested in the study of money and psychology.
The plot
David Siegel is a real estate mogul, Jackie Siegel is a former beauty queen; they have eight children and more money than they know what to do with. At the start of the movie David claims that he is directly responsible for getting George W. Bush elected in Florida in 2000, but he can’t tell us how he did it because “it’s probably illegal.” He’s also crazy about the Miss America pageant and loves to host the contestants and flirt with the girls. Jackie, a former Mrs. Florida, goes from one fundraiser to another wearing skin-tight clothes and a collection of shoes that includes a pair of $17,000 boots, while an army of nannies and housekeepers look after her life.
At the height of the real estate bubble, Siegel’s company is selling $1 billion a year worth of timeshares to people who can’t afford them, and Jackie and David are building a 90,000-square-foot mansion. Then the economy crashes, and it’s not just their business that suffers: they risk losing it all because everything they own has a mortgage on it. Their creditors take control, put David on a salary, and the Siegels have to learn to live on a budget like everybody else (not really like everybody else, but you get the idea: they now have limits like us mortals). As the bubble bursts, their lives fall into disarray.
The characters
“The Queen of Versailles” won one of the Best Documentary awards at Sundance, but probably not just based on the main plot, even if that plot is similar in trajectory (though not in scale) to the lives of millions of people before and after the onset of the Great Recession. Yes, the scale of the Siegels’ lives is gargantuan, and that gets quick attention, but I believe the real strength of the film is the careful examination of its characters, and the way it depicts their humanity amid the surreal settings.
And this is where the documentary gets really good: the words that come out of people’s mouths in front of the camera are profoundly revealing and deserving of attention. While the title and trailer hint at Jackie as the main character, I found David to be the more fascinating subject, because he is the one who knows money and how to make it, whereas Jackie appears clueless about finances (though we later find out she’s quite smart).
Here a few quotes I managed to jot down in the darkness of the movie theater:
“If they can’t be rich, the next best thing is to feel rich– if they don’t want to feel rich they are probably dead.” David Siegel on selling timeshares to those who can’t really afford them.
“If you’re using money to make money, why have an asset that doesn’t have a mortgage on it?” David Siegel on why he is broke in spite of his enormous earnings.
“Work is my life 24/7,” and “Nothing makes me happy these days. I can’t separate business from personal.” David Siegel when battling for the survival of his empire, while becoming emotionally unavailable to his family.
“Lenders are pushers, we’re addicts” and “The bankers made us do it.” If you think only the poor get in debt and the rich are pure and virtuous, this shows you a different reality.
Every character is supremely interesting to watch: Jackie, who got a degree in Computer Engineering but fled that field to become a model because, she says, the people she worked with hated their jobs. Her children, who learn that now that they lost everything “they’ll probably have to go to college and get jobs.” Their Filipina nanny, who hasn’t seen her own children grow up and is obsessed with building a concrete house for her aging father. Jackie’s chauffeur, who also lost everything in real estate and borrows his employers’ Rolls-Royce to rent for weddings. Their adopted teenager, who was rescued from an abusive household and is able to observe things with greater clarity than the adults around her. The estranged son, who grew up poor while his father got rich and relates to him now as an employee relates to a boss. The thousands of people who tour the company’s properties with mouths agape and buy timeshares on credit.
And the theme that pervades each character’s story is is how we relate to money. Money is the biggest star of this film.
Casino Capitalism
In spite of the misinformation you’ll get from the Internet echo chamber, let me state clearly that the eponymous house is NOT a replica of the real Versailles. The Siegels aren’t interested in history or what happened to the former occupants of that palace. While a visit to France inspired them to build their own McMansion on steroids, the architecture was actually copied from a Vegas casino.
And Las Vegas shapes the very core of this drama. The bleeding heart of Siegel’s empire and the cause of his financial troubles was a tower in Vegas with $400 million in unpaid bills. We also find out that David’s parents never had any money because they lost everything in Vegas, a place where they were made to feel rich even though they were nobodies (just like his timeshare customers). And while David is a genius at making money, and shows an admirable tenacity in the face of adversity, he also comes across as a gambler who overextended himself by betting everything on winning perpetually… just like so many of us would in similar circumstances, because we already did in our own little ways.
As of the writing of this review, David Siegel’s fortune seems to be on the rise again, and while I wouldn’t dare guess what’s going on with his family, I do wish them the best.
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Fascinating.
I like that line: if we don’t want to feel rich, we’re probably dead. Is borrowing and blowing money your ultimate expression of living?
Come to think of it, someone having to face the constant barrage of debt collectors and foreclosure claims is “probably dead.” Financially they are, for sure.
In the meantime, being able to sleep easy and waking up to a simpler, debt free life might be a little closer to real living…
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@William
Yes! I thought the notion was perverse, which is why I wrote it down furiously. “Feel rich today, live broke tomorrow” is how I’d put it.
Being “King for a Day” is usually how poor people stay poor, but there’s gotta be a logic to it or it wouldn’t happen so much… I’ve been mulling this over for some time and I suppose I’ll write about it at some point.
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Sounds like an interesting show. We’ve definitely made it easy to feel rich in this country.
This guy seems to break the mold of the rich, since his fortune is basically hanging on by a thread and tied to the health of the economy.
A true self-made American – artfully selling millions of things no one needs, that are a ripoff.
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I think it is an insult to the rest of the true “Self Made Americans” to lump this guy in the same category. This guy is a shark, a sleezebag, pure scum if you ask me. Contrary to what the liberal media might lead you to believe about capitalism and capitalists, most self made Americans did it the right way (seeing an opportunity,taking some risks,working very hard,etc) not by taking advantage of somebody.
This is one movie I absolutely will not waste my time watching.
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Time shares are some of the worst investments ever, they go down in value and often times people can’t sell them later. In fact often times they can’t even give them away for free because the yearly fees are so expensive no one wants them. You are much better off renting on the open market than buying a time share.
On the topic of making more versus spending less, our goal is to keep our costs flat from year to year. And costs mean the costs associated with running our lives, the mortgage, the insurance, upkeep, cars and car insurance, food, utilities, etc. basically flat from year to year. In order to do this, you have to keep track, which we do. Then as our salaries increase or we earn more in rental income or we receive a bonus, that money goes into savings.
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Time shares are not great investments, but aren’t bad ones if they are gifted to you.
My mother gifted hers to my family 10 years ago. The maintenace fee is less than half what it would cost to rent a small apartment or suite in a hotel. For another $100 or so per year, we can swap it for another unit anywhere in the world. If you want a 5-star hotel you’d be disappointed, but if you can be satisfied with something modest but clean and attractive they are fine. I consider it budgeted lodging.
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Or buy it on the secondary market.
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I wouldn’t look at it as an investment but as a prepaid expense– if I had the disposable income and was financially independent, I might buy one for fun (on cash). However, these guys were selling their timeshares mortgaged at 16-18% to Walmart customers. Crazy!
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OMG! You paid to watch a movie?! In a movie theater?! How un-frugal of you!
OK, now to be (a little) serious. I like the fact that you were able to pull those observations from the movie. While I am no Dave Ramsay convert (I actually think loans, in moderation, can be a good thing), I think this shows how bad things can really get (relatively, of course).
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@JakeIL7
Ha ha ha, yes! bought discounted tix @ Costco, saved the receipts for tax deduction, got paid to write about it, and the free bonus was a date night with my wife.
Regarding credit, which you mention: the banks also play a part in this, but I didn’t have the space to write about it. Basically, when you make the kind of money this guy does the “oh-so-responsible” banks throw cheap money at you; later if you fail they are happy to feast on your entrails. There’s of course much more to it than that but I can’t respond in this limited space.
Seriously, I want to rewatch this movie and write down EVERYTHING that happens because it’s an epiphany a minute.
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@ElNerdo,
I’m not a banker (but I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night), but I am not sure if what you are saying is exactly true. I think it is more of a minimum risk kind of thing given what this guy is using to secure the loans he was taking. In fact, with his ready access to lawyers, this guy might be a harder target versus you and me.
The banking industry fell for exactly the same thing in the housing boom with their appreciation estimates. The problem is that when that went bust, we all got caught in it instead of just those with high net worth (not necessarily the same as “rich”).
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Jake, here’s a detailed profile on the guy, look at page 4 for info on the foreclosure battles:
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-03-14/versailles-the-would-be-biggest-house-in-america#p1
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El Nerdo, your timing is fabulous. I watched a trailer for this yesterday and was wondering if it was even more interesting and deeper than the trailer hinted at. From your comments, sounds like it is and is well with seeing. Can’t wait to see it – thanks!
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Not sure what the point of this article is…the rich lose their money too? It seems like a synopsis of a movie and not an actual article…need to step up the writing El Nerdo.
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You mean, a review of a movie that illustrated his point?
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The only point I see is that all people need to budget and everyone loses. I don’t want to read about a movie, he should be able to make his point without a movie. The 3 El Nerdo articles so far have been below GRS standards to me. They’ve been about justifying purchases and not helping people save or invest funds. I don’t think any of the new staff writers are doing a good job.
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My reaction was somewhere in between Julia’s and Marla’s – I knew what El Nerdo was getting at, but I wish he had a couple of paragraphs at the end that tied the movie to his personal experiences or gave some advice or just something that tied it all together. I felt like this was an article without a conclusion, but I still enjoyed it.
I’ve been wanting to see Queen of Versaille since I read an interview with the director. I think this was the interview: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/blog/2012/07/conversation-lauren-greenfield-director-of-the-queen-of-versailles.html.
Here’s another interview with the film’s director: http://collider.com/lauren-greenfield-queen-of-versaille-interview/179048/.
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Interesting article and I’ll make a note to watch the movie. Seems we could all learn something from it. The one point that really stood out for me in your article though was in the last line when you said “David Siegel’s fortune seems to be on the rise again…” It reminded me of an interview I saw with the man who created Zappos (can’t think of his name but I always enjoy hearing what he has to say). In the interview he said something like (and I don’t remember his exact words) that he thought it would be a fun challenge to have all his money taken away and start over. I am sure he thought it would be fun because he knows he would be rich again in no time. That concept is something that fascinates me – how some people just “get” money and how to make it, grow it, etc. I don’t know if that’s a gift like how some people “get” sports, knitting, music, etc. or if money is something we could all get if we learn the right skills, expand our belief systems, take more chances…I don’t know but I like to think it’s possible.
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I think there is some sort of innate ability that’s applicable to making/growing successful businesses — or more accurately, a constellation of abilities. Being able to talk — to sell — to others is a huge part of it, I’d say.
But the other part of it is that once you’ve done something, you know more of the shortcuts. You know the things you did or spent money on that you can skip next time. People/banks/venture capitalists know you and are more willing to invest with you.
It just seems it’s much harder to fail once you’ve hit a certain level. How many times have Trump-owned businesses declared bankruptcy, for instance? For most people that would create a ripple of changes throughout their life which would affect them for years.
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@ Katie – YES. I think it can be learned (I’m making an effort to learn). I wouldn’t want to do it the way he does it, but one thing I admire is his tenacity. At some point he says “if I have to live to 150 years to get back on top, that’s what I’ll have to do.” This for a man in his 70s. For me, there’s a lot to dislike in his whole outlook on life, but there’s also a lot to admire– I’ll take the good and leave the rest alone.
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I hear you – I’m definitely making an effort to learn as well. I have a very successful small business so I’ve learned enough to get this far.
Of course, what I meant regarding business was the difference between “getting” sports like the average person and being an Olympic athlete – as much as I get sports, I don’t get them like that. As much as I get how to successfully run my small business, I couldn’t run a huge corporation. Though, maybe we’re not all meant to run huge corporations. The world wouldn’t be very diverse then.
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You might enjoy “Delivering Happiness”. It’s mostly about the writer’s life before and after founding Zappos.
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Thanks, Steve! I’ll look into it.
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This is a movie I’d be very interested in seeing. Thank you.
If you enjoyed that movie, have you seen the movies “Born Rich” & “The One Percent”? They are filmed by Jamie Johnson of the Johnson & Johnson Empire and they are FASCINATING. Most of the people in them are old money so there are differences in what they do with their money. (Warren Buffett’s granddaughter is in them, etc) I watched them thru Netflix (one is available thru Instant Play). They changed my perspective on wealth–my focus now personally is to focus on happiness instead (of which you need some wealth, but it should not be the focus).
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@ Phoenix1920 – I haven’t yet, but I’ll be sure to watch them!
I’m working on some ideas for future posts on how our upbringing shapes our relationship with money (hi Laura!) and I’ll add the movies to my “reading list.” (Actually I just did– Born Rich is on disk only but The One Percent is streamable).
Thanks & thanks!
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I LOVED Born Rich. One of things that stood out for me was that Jamie’s Dad did not want him to make the documentary nor did he EVER talk about money as he was growing up. The most well adjusted rich kid was the one who went out and got a job….just amazing to see all the distortions that wealth can bring.
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Agreed — they’re both really worth watching.
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Thanks for the tip! This looks like it is right up my alley.
Not as lavish (by far), but I also really enjoyed the reality TV series Downsized and especially how the children had to learn to cope with their new reality.
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@ Paige- thanks, I’ll be sure to watch!
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Only thing I got is a movie review and lessons from the movie into an article….meh
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Wow to this: If they can’t be rich, the next best thing is to feel rich– if they don’t want to feel rich they are probably dead.”
Sounds like you stumbled on the magic key to sales. Manipulating people’s emotions to buy your product based on what prestige, status or feeling having the product can give you, versus selling the product on it’s ability to make your life more productive, safe or easy. I know I’ve fallen prey to that before, not with real estate per say, but cars, oh cars….and clothes I don’t need…sigh. Despite my best efforts I still get caught up in the swarm of “buy this to increase your face value to the rest of the world”.
So sum this up for me El Nerdo – Given that this is your 3rd part of earn more vs. spending less: what is your conclusion about the movie? Other than wishing the stars of the show the best, how does it relate to YOU and your quest to find the right combination of earning more and spending less?
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@ Amy – While there wasn’t enough space in the article to discuss everything I wanted to say (I had to cut out a passage about a deeply significant Hershey’s bar…), my conclusions in the earning arena with regards to this movie are (right now, more or less) as follows:
1) It really pays to be entrepreneurial and tenacious, and to give people what they want, although that’s not a product I’d be comfortable selling.
2) You don’t really want to mortgage every asset to make more money– some times it’s better to “get rich slowly” and balance speed with security.
3) Mental health, emotional intelligence, and a happy family are the greatest treasures a person can have.
4) Prosperity is good, but being overly attached to material possessions leads to suffering.
5) Character is destiny, as Heraclitus would have it, but character is grounded in personal history more than we like to admit (see: Freud & co., Malcolm Gladwell, etc)
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This should have been in the article. Your actual thoughts on money and what is important to you.
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@Julia
There’s a word limit to the length of articles, and given the limited space I prefer that people watch and draw their own conclusions rather than tell them what to think about something they haven’t seen (I hate Cliff Notes for that reason).
But of course there’s always the comments, where I can write endlessly free of charge
ps- actually i’m saving the “conclusions” for some future point when it all may (or may not) come together. really, a lot of people can’t stomach 2,300-word articles on the internet, as much as i’d love to write them.
but try to watch the movie. really! it’s worth watching. lots to learn from it– that’s my whole point.
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Talk about lifestyle inflation! And, El Nerdo, you continue to inspire me to get rich slowly, so thank you for sharing another wonderful article.
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I am fascinated by shows and documentaries along these lines, exploring or at least exposing us to what I think of as the psychology of money and/or consumerism. Another good one is TLC’s “The Lottery Changed My Life”.
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Loved reading your GRS take on this, El Nerdo! What a sad microcosm of the distorted American Dream. I read the piece before watching the trailer. It sounded so depressing, and then watching the trailer, they somehow made it seem so lighthearted. Which may be even more depressing!
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Thanks, yeah, it’s depressing, I think, in spite of the cheerful music (which I think is meant ironically). The American dream of course always requires an immigrant somewhere, and from all the characters, the nanny’s story is the most grim–like a story by O’Henry gone wrong.
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I really love an article that leads people to draw their own conclusions – sounds like that movie is right up my alley! Thanks, El Nerdo!
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I don’t want to be anybody’s ayatollah.
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The way these people live does NOTHING for me but I would still like to see the movie
May I just add, never never NEVER go to a timeshare presentation unless you are absolutely prepared to buy one. The salespeople are relentless and the sales pitch and pressure are unbelievable. I made the mistake of going to a pitch once and I was lucky to get out of there with my bank account intact. I didn’t succumb but it.was.this.close. I can see why he makes so much money selling timeshares ~ the salespeople are hard HARD core.
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My husband took me to one of these, without telling me explicitly what it was… he knew I’d have shot it down. As it was I was so angry at the semi-deception and the sales pitch I had no trouble walking away. Even though my husband berated me in the car after – I suck at arguing, I can never come up with the words to express my reasons – I still came away confident in my choices and grateful that I could stand up to both my husband and the pitch.
FWIW, my husband will never admit he was an idiot for wanting a time share, but I do think he’s secretly grateful that I would have none of it. saving him from himself… it’s what I do.
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My parents used to go to these to get the “free gifts” and they were great at it because they had no problem sitting there listening to a pitch for an hour and then saying, “No thanks. Where is the free gift, we are leaving now.”
With this in mind, I went to one, on my birthday of all days, about a decade ago. It was horrific! They were relentless and then just got plain mean. At the end, the sales person actually said, “Here are your worthless plane tickets, you can only use them to travel on a Monday. Good luck idiots.”
When we complained to the “manager” they seemed sympathetic and then made a sales pitch of their own.
Never go!
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I can’t fully decide whether them being rude/mean to you is supposed to be part of the pitch. Well actually I can…I’m sure it’s part of the pitch, but often poorly implemented.
If the salesperson can make you feel bad for wasting his/her time, you may make a purchase out of guilt. If the salesperson tries to make you feel bad because you obviously can’t afford it, then you want to prove him/her wrong.
So I very much think it’s designed this way. But obviously they’re under a lot of pressure, and can’t always deliver their rudeness in a 100% profitable manner.
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There’s a lot of that in the movie and you’ll get a chance to see them operate. The thing that cracks me up (in a gallows humor sort of way) is that David’s son, who works there, motivates his sales people by telling him that THEY ARE SAVING FAMILIES, AND SAVING LIVES!! (Because apparently going into high-interest debt for a week’s vacation is going to cure your stress or something). They explain the whole thing about why they give away tickets (if they are greedy enough to sit an afternoon for two free tickets then they are greedy enough to buy our product– or something along those lines)
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“They explain the whole thing about why they give away tickets (if they are greedy enough to sit an afternoon for two free tickets then they are greedy enough to buy our product– or something along those lines)”
Lies, all lies!
They’re just telling their salespeople what they need to hear.
The timeshare people gave you a gift. You feel a need to reciprocate (should be noted that they’re also probably giving you free food, and of course their time). They help you build a certain image of yourself (a person who really values quality vacations) and then you feel a need to act on that image (you see yourself as someone who really values quality vacations, so you make decisions as though you’re someone who really values quality vacations…why looky here, someone’s selling quality vacations). Oh and the food…information presented while you’re eating is seen in a more favorable light (also why the business lunch is so important).
Then comes the sale. You’re presented a fake offer, they really don’t expect you to take it. Why offer it then? So they can make the first concession. They say “Buy this for $40,000″ and you say “No.” Then they say “Ok, how about this for $20,000″ and you say “Hrm.” Of course, a quick jab at your inability to afford the first one (“It’s ok, many people can’t afford the mid-level, I’ll go see if there’s something a bit more economical”) helps too (in that you want to show that you are, in fact, quite flush with money and could afford anything they show you).
And of course there’s much more to it than just that. It’s a wonder anyone comes out of there with their shirt still on. If you think car salesmen are bad…go to a timeshare presentation (wait…on second thought, DON’T). Nothing is as it seems. Even the foreign guy who acts as though you don’t like him because of his ethnicity, so he’ll be the nice guy and get a white man to conduct your tour…that’s all fake. Anything to trigger whatever feelings are necessary to get you to sign the dotted line.
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There’s a proverb that goes something like: When a rich man fails—it is a misfortune not a moral evil, but when a poor man fails –it’s a moral evil and not a misfortune. Depends upon what set of eyes you’re looking out of.
The gist is that the “millionaire next door” is what most of us—here—strive to be, not the over leveraged risk taking machine like the super pockets with the names we all know. There are only so many people that can actually stomach accumulating those kinds of riches and sleep at night. When you accumulate a lot of wealth, you want to accumulate even more wealth—no matter who you are. Even by trickery or infomercial style consumerism—which does, in fact, matter who you are. Most of us won’t ever enter these concentric circles so it’s best to look at it with awe and walk back to our smaller house, nonexistent debt, and comfortable (yet significant) pile of self made wealth. I, personally, don’t find it hard to turn down anything, and understand that everyone—everywhere—is trying to sell me something.
Excellent post, Nerdo. The only thing I would say to you is that —come on, you know YOU have an infinite amount of willpower even if you have to dig for it. YOU know that. I don’t even know you but I get that about you.
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Ha ha, trust me, it’s not infinite– last night after a day of work at 10pm with looming deadlines and no day off in recent memory I called the pizza man– for a delivery no less. We were exhausted and had work and had cooked 2 meals and clean after. Willpower is like a gas tank that gets replenished with sleep.
Also, I’ll eat any and all ice cream that is kept in the house. Hence I don’t buy it (or make it) unless I specifically want to eat it that day. And cheesecake— cheesecake is my crack. I just have to put it out of my mind cuz I can’t resist it.
More seriously now, decision fatigue is real, which is why we have to automate + outsource + schedule things for the right times (for more on this check the Laura Vanderkam’s book about mornings… whatsis name… something-something before breakfast…. anyway she makes some good points there.)
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NUUUUUUUMMMMMMM. Chocolate covered bacon ice cream in fresh vanilla bean.
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I just came across the documentary, but couldn’t decide if I wanted to see it. Now I do. Thanks for the good synopsis of the film.
Funny thing is, my wife and I just got back from a vacation and we were pitched the “time share” vacation speech. The first thing I told them was that it isn’t practical. I could have been making this man a little richer.
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Wow! What an interesting story. Definitely going to check this documentary out.
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I also saw this in the theatre. Great documentary for anyone interested in finance and lifestyle.
The biggest shocker for me was that at the end of the documentary, David confesses that after making all this money he hadn’t put A SINGLE THING ASIDE for the education of his 6 kids. WTF???
Wow. I was just shocked that people at this level of the economy could make that kind of mistake just like everybody else.
I admired him though for fighting to keep his timeshare building in Vegas and thereby keeping all those people’s jobs…instead of just letting the whole place go back to the bankers immediately and continuing to expand his dream house and lifestyle. I think that is admirable.
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It’s a common problem – entrepreneurs end up as gamblers, risking everything on the next deal.
When you’re earning what they did there are plenty of ways to put aside money for yourself/your family that are protected from any subsequent attachment by creditors.
E.g. the late Ken Lay’s wife is doing very well with the deferred annuities they both purchased before his scheme fell apart.
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I am gonna this movie, when is this coming out?
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Guess I’m too busy to be culturally literate. Did I just read a movie review on this blog?! Please warn me next time before you WASTE MY TIME!
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This blog regularly reviews books. If you could please make a convincing case for why films are somehow rage-inducing, I’ll be sure to take note for next time.
And should I tell my local library to stop carrying movies?
ps- previous film reviews @ GRS can be found here:
http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2009/06/20/what-makes-us-tick-a-short-film-about-how-the-stock-market-works-from-1952/
http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2007/03/06/my-review-of-maxed-out-a-new-film-about-the-credit-industry/
http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2009/08/23/personal-finance-on-film-the-up-series/
http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2007/05/24/the-farmers-wife/
and of course, let’s not forget an annual tradition:
http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2012/05/02/2012-grs-video-contest-winners/
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Just wanted to say……very interesting article and a breath of fresh air. Thanks El Nerdo…..you are doing good. I am a bit late I know but I am catching up on my reading after being away.
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