Replies to post #424631 on Amarin Corp Plc (AMRN)

[sts66]

I feel for his wife and kids, but something bothers me about the idea of his family asking for donations - BB made $400k-$500k for at least 15 years, he should have had at least a $1M life insurance policy (yeah, I know that won't go far is his wife doesn't work or have the education to get a decent paying job), a large 401(k), and his kids should have already had a huge college fund - in fact, his oldest son should be in his senior year of college or graduated already - from the obit:

He spent time working on electronics with his son, which later inspired Connor’s future career.

Maybe I'm just worn out from a flurry of fund raisers I've seen posted on nextdoor.com for people living in my area literally begging for money for this or that - 3 of my 4 siblings plus me had to work to pay our way through college (younger bro went to a 2 yr nursing program) - we busted our butts working 20-25 hrs per week plus going to college full time, so I'm naturally biased against parents paying all costs for their kids to go to any university they want - for one it doesn't build the sense of responsibility that you get when you're working to pay for a large part of your education, plus paying for your car and the costs associated with it (insurance, repairs, etc.). Wisconsin has had 529 college savings plans since 1997 - no excuse for not taking advantage of that program with the kind of money he made. Wisconsin is also one of the lower cost of living states in the US, ranks 30th, median cost for a single family home in Madison is only $388k (where I live it's $490k).

Ah, think I just found the reason they may need money - read the obit closer:

Jason always had the fastest car, the fastest boat, and the fastest bike, and if it wasn’t the fastest, you better believe he’d tear that thing apart looking for more power.

So BB loved expensive toys, and it appears that may have effected how much money he put aside for his kid's education, probably because he thought he'd be alive to pay for tuition and other costs until they both graduated - it likely never occurred to him that he might be dead at the young age of 52, but that shouldn't have affected his financial planning. Ironically, I was just discussing this with someone on another stock MB yesterday - the thread was about "what defines being wealthy to you?", and one guy mentioned a good friend of his made "a mid-six figure annual income for almost two decades" but he spent most of it on expensive toys and things like season tix to the Cowboys - now he's retired and living alone in a one bedroom condo in a remote part of Panama with only SS for income. Reminds me of the old joke "The two happiest days in a boat owner's life are the day you buy it, and the day you sell it". For those who have never known someone who owned a decent powerboat, they are horrendously expensive to operate and maintain, especially if you have to pull it out of the water every winter, wrap it in plastic, and have it stored in a multistory boat lift facility. My ex-FIL had a 29 ft Grady White with dual 250 HP outboard engines - back in 1996 $400 of gas didn't even fill the tanks halfway - his annual costs for that boat were around the same as my annual mortgage costs, and that doesn't include the purchase price or loan payments for the boat itself.

Go ahead and call me a heartless bastard, I don't care - I have very little sympathy for anyone who made so much money but didn't plan for the future - it's the antithesis of how my Dad managed his financial affairs during his earnings years.