Tag: Sudden Wealth Syndrome

Former Raiders punter and Southern Miss great Ray Guy files for bankruptcy

Hat tip Thomas Morstead on twitter which lead to this page from Sports Collectors Daily concerning the fact that Ray Guy is losing the 3 super bowl rings he garnered during his career with the Oakland Raiders.  I mention this because some of our most noticed work on a national level ironically generated little in the way of reader comments and that is certainly true of the post I did on Sudden Wealth Syndrome back in April 2010 that garners consistent high quality traffic to this day which in turn likely explains why it shows on page 1 of Google search results under that search string.

In Guy’s case I am not certain given the passage of years since his playing days that Sudden Wealth Syndrome applies here but it is also undeniable he joins a long and distinguished list of former NFL players that end up in bankruptcy court.

The journey which lead me to begin following Morstead on Twitter today has its roots with our Bro Editilla over at the Ladder, who’s twitter tirades are the stuff of cyber legend. Even better is the whole chain of events is conveniently explained by Grand Master Wang over at Moosedenied who suggests that this area’s favorite NFL punter needs a nickname and is well worth reading.

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From the sudden wealth syndrome files I offer Powerball winner Christopher Shaw: Slabbed by too much of a good thing?

Christopher Shaw / AP Photo

It is said a picture is worth a thousand words and I think that is the case today as I get a chance to indulge one of my intellectual passions in behavioral finance and its kissing cousin behavioral economics and introduce Missourian Chris Shaw to the Slabbed Nation. Chris, hit the last powerball jackpot catapulting him to the ranks of the hectomillionaires and the top 1% of this nations wealthy. Chris is truly blessed right? Probably not due to a phenomenon termed Sudden Wealth Syndrome but first lets start with the Sarah Wire’s AP report courtesy of Yahoo:  

A Missouri man who won a $258 million Powerball jackpot and plans to use some of the money to pay bills and take his children to Disney World says he hasn’t decided yet if he’ll quit his job at the convenience store where he bought the winning ticket.  

Chris Shaw — a 29-year-old tattooed father of three who was raised by his grandparents in rural southern Missouri — came forward Thursday as the winner of the 10th-largest Powerball jackpot ever. Shaw said he had just $28.96 in his bank account and recently bought a 1998 Ford Ranger from a friend who agreed to let him pay off the $1,000 price $100 at a time. Now, he said, he no longer has to worry about how he’ll pay his friend — or his utility bills.  

“We didn’t come from money. For us it’s just going to be a huge relief to know I’m going to be able to pay my electric bill, my gas bill,” Shaw told the Associated Press. “It’s like a weight lifted. I had bills at home I didn’t know how they were going to be paid.”  

Continue reading “From the sudden wealth syndrome files I offer Powerball winner Christopher Shaw: Slabbed by too much of a good thing?”