Talk About an Allowance!
Tip It!Don’t you just feel terrible for this guy?
In January, Alexis du Pont de Bie Sr., 62, who grew up in a du Pont family mansion and inherited $7 million, filed a lawsuit in New York City accusing his estate’s trustees of mismanagement that has reduced his wealth to $2 million and necessitated a cut in his allowance to $3,000 a month, making him, he said, “literally destitute and homeless.”
Granted, I wouldn’t be thrilled if someone mismanaged my funds to the tune of a $5 million loss, but still… Destitute and homeless?
[Source: Arizona Daily Star]
Published on March 7th, 2006 - 11 Comments
Filed under: Humor
About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!
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March 7th, 2006 at 1:56 pm
NYC does have a high cost of living…
March 7th, 2006 at 2:11 pm
Hey, I make $5K/month and it isn’t all that easy to get by in a place that has a much lower cost of living than NYC. $3K/month would pretty much be nearly destitute and homeless.
March 7th, 2006 at 3:01 pm
Well if $3k/month is nearly destitute in NYC, I’d pack my hobo bag a move on because out here in Washington State I’d be living mighty fine on $3k.
March 7th, 2006 at 3:03 pm
I agree that $36,000/year ain’t that much in NYC, however that is an EXTREMELY conservative 1.8%/year draw rate — particularly for a 62 year old.
March 8th, 2006 at 9:22 am
Didn’t he notice anything funny when they lost the first million? What about the second? What a fool.
March 8th, 2006 at 9:26 am
I’m pretty sure that with a JOB, the man could manage to get by on his wages plus $3,000.
March 8th, 2006 at 9:54 pm
You’d think he’d ask about his money every once in a while and think, “Gee, it looks like this statement is missing a couple million, I wonder where it went?”
March 9th, 2006 at 12:26 am
I’m sure a large portion of it went to taxes, the rest, well, why was his trustee managing his money?
$3,000 would be hard to live on….if you’re Paris Hilton.
March 14th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
This article is outrageous – I know Alexis very personally (or did) – and HE mismanaged his life and never even begin a real career, just milked a trust that wasn’t designed just for him and drank away any talent he may have ever had over the past 40 years. Now, he’s just a dillisioned, old fool – victim of his own actions and decisions.
October 12th, 2007 at 9:43 am
So what’s the update on this guy? I’m sure he has no leg to stand on as far as getting any money back but at least the judge could take into account the diminished amount in the account and lower the ex wife’s alimony. The trust pays the ex wife $12,000 a month and this poor bastard has to get by on $3000!
I understand that he’s an idiot, he was married 5 times, but that doesn’t excuse the crappy alimony laws that helped put him near poverty! I believe that alimony should be percentage based instead of a flat rate based on what was in the past.