When I told Ray that I would be reviewing the book The Club No One Wanted To Join-Madoff Victims In Their Own Words, he looked at me and asked me why. I can’t say that I blame him for it either… I’m not the one that takes care of the investments in our home – he does. In fact, my eyes glaze over a bit whenever he starts to talk about it for more than a few minutes. It’s not that I’m not concerned about our investments, rather that I don’t quite understand it all (or the need to have to check on them every single day like he does). In my mind it doesn’t matter what happened on a daily basis, since they are long term funds – as long as they are gaining long term everything is grand.

It is partly because of my lack of knowledge and this thinking that I agreed to the review. I wanted to see who the people were who put their trust and money into Bernard Madoff’s hands. I had heard about him through the news shortly after the whole Ponzi scheme came to light, so it wasn’t a completely unfamiliar name. I knew that he was in jail for fraud and that there had been some big name Hollywood types that had fallen victim to him… but who were the others? Were they everyday people like you and me? As it turns out, many of them were.

The book is a collection of essays, written by some of the victims of Madoff. After reading the essays written by the victims – many of which prefer to be called “survivors” – I found that you couldn’t categorize this group of people into just one group… they weren’t just of one religion or background… they weren’t all doctors and lawyers… they didn’t all live in big fancy homes. What  they did have in common is that they worked hard and saved what they could, and then invested in a fund that they was safe and had a good return… most were referred to Madoff by friends and family who also had invested with him. These were not short term investors and they weren’t following some get rich quick scheme. Their ages ranged from young (30′s) to older (80+). While their backgrounds and lifestyles may have differed greatly from each other, their stories all had one thing in common… they had invested their life savings in a fund that they thought was secure (and insured) and found out the hard way that it wasn’t… and that the SIPC and SEC did nothing to help them.

It was interesting to read the essays written by the survivors. Not only did I get to find out more about who they were before that fateful day in December 2008, but I also got to find out how their lives had been impacted since. Many of them wrote of it being an eye opening experience… how they learned that living with less was actually living with more. They wrote of hope and new beginnings… though not by choice. I found it hard to read the essays written by the older generation… the ones that were retired and lost everything that they had worked all their lives for… the younger generation has time to make up for what they had lost; the older generation doesn’t. I would hate for something like that to happen to someone I loved.

Overall, I learned that what happened to these victims, these survivors, could happen to any of us. Just because you are investing your money somewhere you think is secure, that doesn’t mean that it is. We can all learn from this… it can happen to anyone, but let’s hope that it doesn’t.

If you want to find out more, you can click on the link above, which will take you to the Amazon page, or you can check out their Facebook page.

Fine Print

{I was sent the book mentioned above to review for free. I was given no other compensation. The review is written based on my opinion. To see my full disclosure policy, please go here}