When the economy crashed, I saw many people I know who had done everything right in terms of retirement savings get wiped out just as they were retiring. They were ruined.
Each individual case is different, but en masse household net worth (house value and stock market investments) dropped 17%. Four years later, it was back to where it was pre-recession. 17% is a hell of a haircut, but not what I would categorize as "ruined". Unless, and here's my most likely theory, they panicked and made a poor timing choice in selling the house or selling stocks at the worst possible time, and then had to buy back in at higher prices (because they missed most of the upswing while sitting out).
My parents, OTOH, sat it out just fine, and are so far from ruined that Mom bought herself a new C7 Corvette a few years ago. Anecdata all around, but if you can't sit tight for four more years, you're doing something wrong.
I am at a loss to come up with any other explanation than those folks were over-leveraged, which in my book does not count as "doing everything right". Flipping houses is about all I can come up with, but there plenty of people more creative than I am about taking on debt.
So, being "negative" means someone is owed money. How does one do that with >1MM net worth? You sold everything, and still owe people money? You either weren't really a millionaire to begin with, or you were over-leveraged (which means you probably weren't really much of a millionaire to begin with).
Each individual case is different, but en masse household net worth (house value and stock market investments) dropped 17%. Four years later, it was back to where it was pre-recession. 17% is a hell of a haircut, but not what I would categorize as "ruined". Unless, and here's my most likely theory, they panicked and made a poor timing choice in selling the house or selling stocks at the worst possible time, and then had to buy back in at higher prices (because they missed most of the upswing while sitting out).
My parents, OTOH, sat it out just fine, and are so far from ruined that Mom bought herself a new C7 Corvette a few years ago. Anecdata all around, but if you can't sit tight for four more years, you're doing something wrong.