Invest Yourself, The New Route to Rich : Men’s Health.com
Want to build wealth in lean and flush times? It’s easy. Just tame your brain
By Richard Sine
Attorney David Chizewer had hit the professional jackpot.
A judge and jury had awarded one of his clients the largest judgment in the history of the federal Whistleblower Protection Act, and in August 2008, Chizewer received his share of the payout. (He won’t say how much, but let’s just say that a tiny fraction of $334 million is still a gigantic payday.) And then he sat on it. Well, not exactly. He invested some of it and watched those investments lose value, and then put more into the market at its bottom in 2009. He has since regained his losses. So now the money is tucked away in retirement and college-savings accounts, even though Chizewer is in good shape in those departments thanks to years of fiscal discipline. * So what’s that money really for? “I thought it would end the war in my head,” Chizewer says. “That feeling I have that the world is going to end every time I let my kids order filet at a restaurant, or buy chocolatecovered goji berries at Whole Foods. It feels kind of inappropriate to do that during the recession, so we’ve tried to increase our charitable commitments, which makes our financial status seem even more precarious. So I just cross my fingers and hope everything works out.” * Experts are talking recovery, but sometimes this economy feels more like the world’s longest roller coaster. One minute we’re riding high, so we treat ourselves to a nice Napa cabernet. But then it swoops so low we can’t bring ourselves to open the bottle.
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