I have been trying to ignore news on LM, as it’s always been bad, never a shadow of light at the end of the dark tunnel we’ve all been taken down, not just this year but in the years leading up it this eventuality.
It’s ironic that my investment in the LM MPF would cause my wife and I to be audited due to my undeclared gains on the funds I had invested (only ever paper gains mind you). 10% was being withdrawn by the Australian government, which raised a red flag with the local tax authorities.
I had a feeling I should have been declaring my investments abroad but was told not to worry about it, “it’s large companies that the tax authorities chase” I was constantly told. Besides it was rather complicated to do in a country in which you don’t speak the language.
I was hit with a huge tax bill due to the penalties and unpaid taxes, so I decided to redeem all LM investments in 2011. Unfortunately I couldn’t yet I continued to pay taxes on them…now I hope I can at least claim my taxes back!
Working long hours, almost always 12 hour days, sometimes more in order to achieve an early retirement no longer seems to be a reality I can afford myself.
I gave up spending time with my children in order to better provide for them financially. As my wife chose to be a stay at home mum, I felt I needed to work the extra hours and invest wisely.
You read these stories about people loosing their life-time savings and think, wow, poor bloke. Then think, he should have seen it coming or why was he so foolish to put all his savings into one investment?
While this is a major setback, it’s not life debilitating. Surprisingly I haven’t suffered nearly as badly mentally as I thought I would…perhaps it’s yet to fully sink in.
It does depress me to think about this, so I don’t. I like to get out into the fresh air and feel grateful for what surrounds me. I’m hopeful this loss will change me to be a better person. Money doesn’t buy you happiness, it’s just a materialistic thing…our lives are controlled by money and it’s not right…I’d love to experience a nomadic lifestyle – I was hoping to do so on my own terms and for a period of time I’d determine, rather than it being a necessity…but perhaps that’s the hand that’s been given to me so I just have to accept it.
“Billy”