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# I lost 80% of my wealth
- URL: https://www.wtft.life/i-lost-80-of-my-wealth/
- Published: 2026-09-14T05:44:48.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T05:44:48.000Z
- Author: Franck @ WTFT
- Tags: Loss, Life, Work & Money, Relationships, Perspectives, Luck, Failure

![Franck’s former family home, which his family had to sell after losing most of their wealth.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/7d/01/7d0190e6-0d1d-48b4-ad5a-f339e47871ca/content/images/2026/09/IMG_6071.png)

A last evening game before selling the family house

I have written about leaving corporate life at 39 and retiring at 45.

I have never written about what happened in my 50s.

After selling my company, I placed the money in what I understood to be a low-risk fund managed by a friend who was a financial broker. I believed it would ensure my family’s financial security for the rest of our lives.

The investment was not being managed as I had been led to believe. The broker later went to prison.

By the time the truth emerged, I had lost 80% of my wealth.

The shock affected my entire family. We had to sell our home and completely reconsider the future we thought we had secured.

I felt betrayed, anger and grief. I also felt that the years of entrepreneurial struggle, risk and sacrifice had been for nothing.

It seemed as though my life had been stolen from me.

The financial loss caused real pain. But **much of the suffering came from comparing my actual life with an imagined one in which this should never have happened.**

That expectation was based on an impossible premise.

If we are fortunate enough to live long enough, some things will eventually go wrong. People we love will die. People we trust may disappoint us. Plans will fail. Health and circumstances will change.

**Recognising this is not pessimism. It is awareness of the nature of life.**

Pessimism expects the bad to dominate life.  
Acceptance recognises that it will sometimes be part of it.

The money was still gone. We still had to sell our home. The pain was real.

But recognising that what happened was part of life as it actually is—one containing achievement and loss, security and disruption, joy and grief—helped me stop the loss from consuming the years that remained.

It freed me to consider what was still possible and continue seeking new experiences and adventures.

The loss did not become positive. **It became one chapter in what we call life.**

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## The Perspective Shift

> ***Pain comes from what happens to us. Additional suffering comes from comparing reality with an imagined life in which it should never have happened and concluding that our life has gone wrong or been stolen from us.*** 
>  
> ***Accepting that loss, disappointment and grief are part of a whole life does not remove their pain. It prevents that pain from stealing the years that remain.***

I would never have chosen what happened, but refusing to accept it could not restore what I had lost.

**It could only allow the loss to take more.**

Walk your talk,  
Franck