Dumb Luck

[bjl584]

Anyone ever have a windfall or a positive money outcome due to pure dumb luck and not any kind of skills, dedication, or patience?

[disneysteve]

We got suckered into buying whole life insurance when we were young and dumb and just starting out. Several years later, there was a big class action lawsuit against multiple insurance companies and the companies lost. Our settlement was the return of every dollar we had paid in premiums for the years we held the policies.

[james.hendrickson]

One time I found $60 in the floor of a cab - that was pretty sweet.

[kork13]

I think the biggest dumb luck I've had was entering the workforce in the mid-2000's ... I started investing a bit in the fall of 2006, graduated & started earning a real income in summer 2008 ..... As the markets were still reeling from Lehman Bros & the housing bubble bursting. I got to start investing basically at the ground level & rode the 10-yr bull market to the top. It undoubtedly had a significant impact on where I'm at today.

[james.hendrickson]

Dumb luck - being born in America and not someplace like Nigeria or Afghanistan. That's had a huge impact on my wealth and well being.

[ua_guy]

Found $100 on the floor at Costco. Yeah, I kept it.

[Drake3287]

Found an envelope with about $1,000. in mixed bills lying in the roadway, looked like a store's receipts for the day that someone mistakenly placed on the roof of their car before driving off. To the surprise of many, I actually turned it into our local Police Department. 90 days later and no one had claimed it so it was mine to keep.

[Fishindude77]

My neighbor kid hit $100k on a scratch off ticket a couple weeks ago.
We were pretty tickled for them. Said they were going to replace a car and pay off some bills.

[srblanco7]

Found a nickel on the road while walking the dog yesterday!

Seriously, only example I could come up with was DW hit on a slot machine for about $1k during a trip to Niagara Falls several years ago. Covered the cost of our weekend getaway.

[myrdale]

I had a run in with the police one night in a cemetery. The next day I went to file a formal complaint. While driving across town I saw $20 laying on the side of the road. I stopped and found another $400 or so total. There was $1 Guatemalan mixed in. I figured some poor guy had his cash wad fall out of his pocket while walking down the road. Not much you could really do about trying to find the owner so I took my good luck and ran with it.

On another occasion I found about $1000 in gift cards in a wallet. But in that case there was an ID so I tracked down the owner and returned.

Similarly I found a $3000 signed check (just STUPID) at Subway. I tracked the owner down. He started cussing at me for walking across his yard up to his door until I handed him the check.

About two months ago, I bought a couple of books for a friend. $50 total. While walking back to my truck, I look down at the curve next to my front tire / door and there is $50.

[myrdale]

Dumb luck - being born in America and not someplace like Nigeria or Afghanistan. That's had a huge impact on my wealth and well being.

Dumb luck being born this century and not +200 years ago.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

DH would say he made an educated bet on someone else to make a lot of money and it paid off. He started a company with a guy he was pretty sure would "make it".