When you think of addiction, I’m sure the stock market doesn’t rank up there on the list, but people can absolutely become addicted to trading.
What would you do if you found out that your sibling lost your college fund playing in the stock market, and you’re months away from going to college?
This 29-year-old man has a 17-year-old brother, and when their dad passed away four years ago, their dad left some money to use for his brother’s college education.
It wasn’t a crazy amount; $11,000, and since he was the only person who had a bank account, the money was given to him to protect.
“My mom trusted me with it. My brother trusted me with it. They never asked about it because why would they? I was supposed to be the responsible one,” he explained.
The money spent the next few years just sitting in his account, and he didn’t do anything with it. But a year ago, he began watching videos and reading up about trading.
He thought he comprehended how it all worked, but in hindsight, he says he didn’t know a single thing about trading. However, he convinced himself he could invest the money and grow the amount.
He thought he was doing something great for his brother. He figured he could double the money by the time his brother went off to college.
But instead of ending up a hero, he lost close to all of his brother’s college money, and there’s only $1,200 of it left for his brother to use.
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For the last six months, he’s been desperately trying to get the money back. He discovered an app that gives you alerts about certain trades, and it helped him for a bit.
“I clawed back maybe $3,000 at one point. Then I made a decision the app specifically flagged as high risk, and I ignored the flag, and I lost it all in two days. That was on me. The app told me not to,” he added.
“I did it anyway because I was desperate, and desperate people are idiots. My brother texted me three weeks ago, excited about a college fair he went to. He’s thinking [of] engineering. He’s the smartest person in our family by a distance.”
“He has no idea there’s nothing there for him. I haven’t slept properly since March. I’ve been doing extra shifts and putting every dollar I can spare back into that account, but I’m at $1,200, and I need $11,000, and September is in four months, and I don’t know what to do.”
“I can’t tell my mom. I cannot tell my mom. She’s already been through so much, and this money was one of the last things my dad left. I just needed to say it out loud somewhere because it’s been eating me alive, and I haven’t said it to a single person.”
He is fully aware that he’s to blame for losing all of the money, but he’s not sure what to do about it.
Ok, so he definitely owes his brother that money, and I think he should take out a loan to make it happen. He also needs to get a second job on the weekends or part-time to help bring more cash in.
He should tell his brother the truth and let him know that he will make it up to him. And he has to quit playing with the stock market for good.
What advice do you have for him?
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By Bre Avery Zacharski
Hi, I'm Bre, Chip Chick's CEO! I have a degree in Textile/Surface Design from The Fashion Institute of Technology, and... More about Bre Avery Zacharski
