
The bank lent me $2m so I spent it on strippers and cars - marchustvedt
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38308842
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dawnerd
A potentially smarter thing would have been to take all you could, invest and
hope for the fast short term gains, then come clean to the bank and pay it
back - keeping the proceeds.

~~~
wahern
Twice I've taken credit card companies up on their 0% interest balance
transfer deals. Specifically, the ones where you can write a check drawn on
the credit account in lieu of a balance transfer.

The effective cost for me each time was 2.5% up front (the "transaction fee"),
but with even conservative investments that's trivial to cover by the end of
the interest-free, 18- or 20-month period.

Alas, with today's interest rate hike, I'm not sure how long those offers will
continue. With bonds prices increasing, the "transaction fee" will rise, and
there'll also be less money in the stock markets reducing the upside.

Those deals aren't a sure thing. If the stock market crashed you could maybe
lose a quarter to half. But as these things go it was pretty easy money. I'm
not rich enough to be able to leverage debt like the big guys, but I didn't
mind taking the opportunities afforded me. Paying $500 for the privilege of
investing $20,000 of someone else's money, reaping all the rewards, was well
worth the cost.

------
ausimian
"...and wasted the rest" to quote the late George Best.

