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At age 36, with no kids and no marriage, she had to obliterate her savings to fund 50k? I feel like some part of her "big life plan" went south.

It's rather troubling she mentions having insurance cover this procedure...



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The saddest part is that her life savings was $6k.

Strange that she decided to have three kids when she could barely even manage her finances.

And spend the rest of her life paying back medical debts that she shouldn't have to? To me, this sounds like indentured servitude and not acceptable in a first world country.

I agree with the parent's GP's interpretation. Woman was making $250k annual. Up to that point had only had a retirement account of $250k. Which strikes me as sheer bananas.

The point is that she spent $50k because she spent too much time not focusing on starting a family and instead was doing something else which was probably a self-centered lifestyle. She would have nothing to say to the man who bought the car.

It's difficult for me to believe she was in the workforce for more than forty years and never had an extra dollar to save.

Honestly the most distressing part about this is that in the world's most advanced economy, this freak accident which has already cost her all four limbs is probably also going to bankrupt her, and if her kids' educations aren't already paid for probably impact those too.

It's like a literal game of Russian roulette. Completely baffling.


How truly sad, it must have been so hard for her only ending up with $310 million at the end of her life.

It's far better to be old and poor in New York City, that way you can get food stamps instead of having to subsist on a paltry quarter billion dollars.


This article is quite full of narrative.

I bet she has a gigantic pile of debt and gets a lot of help from state. And alimony.


I’m just waiting for the part where her husband divorces her and takes all their money and leaves the country.

Life has a way of making a mockery of all your best laid plans.

What’s the point of suffering like this? She has escaped poverty from a financial perspective but not a mental one.


I haven't looked into that. However - she's in her 80s. Look at the net worth of her children, grandchildren and other family members.

I thought so too, until I read the part where she has been paying lawyers $20,000/month for many years, taking care of a retired husband, 2 children in college & 1 in high-school and having health problems of her own. And that's only the costs we know.

To paraphrase Bo Burnham, and she still will but it’s not as fun now.

If she has $50 million squirreled away somewhere she won’t be able to spend it openly. She can be sneaky and keep a slightly comfortable life but she’ll never again have an opportunity to be openly decadent.

Debts handled, excellent health care, a little bribery perhaps, and an occasionally get away to somewhere remote, but no conspicuous consumption, which for these people seems to be more than half of the fun.


I find it difficult to sympathise with her. How you entrust someone you’ve never met with $450K is beyond me.

Sure, but at some point she will be done paying off that large sum and she'll be living pretty well.

That's part of why I found her story so fascinating.

No disrespect, but that's not fascinating, it's stupid.

Basically, she had no savings. No rainy day fund. No retirement funds. No investments.

What's the first think Suze Orman types tell all of those women that watch her? Have enough set aside for 2-3 months living expenses - minimum!

There's simply no excuse for someone working so close to money to be so irresponsible with her own. I feel for her, but perhaps this is lesson learned.


She's a senior partner at a law firm, so I can't imagine their financial situation was all that precarious.

How exactly is she screwed? She owns an apartment building. She can likely liquidate for multiple millions even in a down market and live in luxury for the remainder of her life AND pass on a ton of money to her heirs.

As someone already pointed out, she filled her bank and made her friends rich as well. It will be enough for her, her family, her children, grandchildren and all their friends.

It is not like she'll need to quickly look for a job and will be ruined if nobody hires her afterwards. She could retire any second and do nothing for the rest of her life, which she might as well do.

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