Recently, I wrote a piece that contested the notion that the troubles which seem to so frequently follow lottery winners and other recipients of sudden financial windfalls were an absolute consequence of gaining their monies. On the heels of that article comes the news that ex-NBA star Antoine Walker who made over $100 million dollars in just 12 years and who is now still just 33 years old is about $4 million in debt. A closer look at what has brought him to this point reveals another case of nouveau riche gone wild: providing for the care and feeding of an entourage that has numbered as high as 70 people, a mansion for his mother that came complete with 10 bathrooms, numerous trips to casinos, luxury cars, jewelry, et cetera, et cetera. To his credit, it’s understood that he was also generous with underprivileged youth, but either way, he spent it all…and, quite obviously, then some.
As with the lottery winners and others who essentially tripped and fell into a pile of money, the casual observer may decide that money is the problem here. It isn’t. The problem is lack of even the most remote level of common sense. Money is a wonderful resource, and can quite obviously do so much for so many. There are plenty of people who possess a woeful lack of any sense, but because they have limited resources, the damage they can do is itself more limited; armed with sacks full of money, those same people can become weapons of mass (including self) destruction.
Money is a tool. I can take a hammer and build a house; I can also use that same hammer to smash in a car windshield. I can serve as a good steward of the money with which God has blessed me and provide for a meaningful existence for myself and my loved ones…or I can become a train wreck with all the fearsome power of a locomotive.
10 bathrooms? Really??
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Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor-At-Large www.ChristianMoney.com
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