Everyone Pays for What Bernie did if the same thing happens again...

They said that people in the courtroom cheered when the 150 year sentence was announced on the "Day of Reckoning" for Mr. Madoff. Since Bernie is 71, this is a life sentence. He will lose his lavish lifestyle on Park Avenue in trade for a small prison cell where he is still guaranteed a free room, 3 square meals a day and the best of free health care. There are more than 48 million Americans who do not have the "luxury" of health care benefits, and I would guess that many of those have no free room are not guaranteed 3 squares a day, so to that extent Bernie is still ahead of many Americans.

Who Else Loses?

Of course the innocent members of his family (there must be some) will be reduced from a fairy tale lifestyle to something far more pedestrian, but at this point there is still great personal wealth in the Madoff family that cannot be attached if no wrongdoing can be proven by family members.  The "victims" of the Ponzi scheme will suffer to varying degrees, but many were mega wealthy to begin with and were diversified in their holdings. Those who did not diversify and based their entire financial life on the inflated returns promised are ruined. There are those who will truly suffer from the financial consequences of their losses.

I doubt that there will ever be a substantial recovery of the missing funds. Anyone smart enough to game the system for $Billions over 20 years is certainly smart enough to bury their ill gotten gains deep in the global electronic financial system (or gold in the ground somewhere), freshly washed and accessible to those in the know. So what lessons can be learned? How can we make sure we don't put our trust in a Bernie Madoff? 

One of the easiest ways to accomplish this is by taking direct personal responsibility for the investment decisions you make, do your own due diligence and more specifically, buy hard assets like real estate or gold that you can drive by and check on. The use of a fully Self Directed Retirement Plan will allow you to do this. It means you will have to be directly involved in the process and some part of your free time will have to be re-directed to planning for your comfortable retirement.  

Would you sleep better knowing exactly where your money is and who is managing it (you)?  Can you trust yourself to work in your own best interests? Who else can you think of that is more concerned about the conservation and growth of your assets than you?

By establishing a Self Directed Retirement Plan for at least a portion of your retirement assets, you can change your life and create a better, more stable retirement.  If you want to learn more, join my next Webinar on July 7th at 6PM PST or email me at lance@selfdirectioncentral.com .