The 78-year-old screen legend has been bankrupted by a string of poor business decisions…. The 78-year old actor was one of Hollywood’s greatest stars in the 1970s, but a string of poor business decisions have bankrupted him and already forced him to sell several of his homes… SOURCE: Burt Reynolds Is Auctioning His Belongings to Tackle Financial Woes | TIME.

Burt Reynolds was not one of my favorite actors but some of his movies were entertaining at least at a gut level. Burt was a “guy’s guy” so his level of acting didn’t really matter much. Kind of like Schwarzenegger even John Wayne. They were just guys doing their testosterone driven  thing.  But I am getting off the purpose of this post.

I’m sure that Burt made millions of dollars for his many movies over his lifetime. From looking at his Wiki biography he made hundreds of movies and TV appearances. So, how can he be broke now and resorting to selling off his prized memorabilia? The article mentioned bad business investments but I kind of imagine another part was an extravagant lifestyle. He simply lived beyond his multi-million dollar means. The fact that he owned several homes  seems to indicate that.

No matter how much some people make it is never enough. I have seen too many articles from affluent people lamenting that they just don’t have enough money to get by. They wonder how people who have less than a million can even live.

I was fortunate enough to be one of the first in my father’s family to go to college. I made a pretty good wage but nothing lavish.  I was  definitely a forward dreamer but not much of a forward thinker but still managed to put some of each paycheck away for the future and to contribute the max to the company profit-sharing plan. As a result I have a pretty comfortable retirement but I’m sure that Burt and others like him would never be satisfied with it. Egos are powerful things that often get in the way of reasonable thinking…