The road to becoming a millionaire can be bumpy at times. Those that have reached that title in their lives are those that learn to have their money work for them. And nearly all of them will tell you that they’ve lost in their investments at one time or another.

Without loss there is no gain, right?

Maybe that means we’re on the right path. Maybe.

One of our goals in life is to learn how to get our money to work for us. And maybe, someday, we’ll find ourselves among those that call themselves millionaires. Wouldn’t that be nice! At minimum we would like to be financially free.

Anyway… in keeping with that goal we try to keep our eyes open to potential investments (particularly those with high yielding interest). Last March we signed on with one such investment. A relative had been doing the same investment for over a year with favorable results – around 7% return per month. At first it seemed too good to be true, but as the details were revealed it seemed more and more like a worthwhile venture. Besides, it helped to know someone else involved and know that they were succeeding. So we decided to go for it.

We figured that this was about the best time in our lives to take financial risks. And as many investments go, the higher the return the riskier the investment.

The minimum investment was $10,000. Let’s just say we put in more than the minimum. At 7% per month, the investment promised to repay itself in 14 months.

For the first six months everything was peachy! We were excited to see the payments come in and looked forward to the next one. We were paying down consumer debts and daydreaming about the days when it would all be icing. Several hundred dollars a month extra would be nice. Then around September something went wrong. We were told that there was a hold up in getting the funds deposited and that there would be a delay of a few weeks. A few weeks turned into a few months. Then we were told that the investment opportunity was no more and that our principle would be returned to us. Again was the promise of a few weeks turn around… again months passed.

We still have not received our principle. Nor any interest payments from the past several months.

We are still hopeful that we will, though we no longer expect to see anything “in the next couple of weeks.”

Yesterday we found out that the man with whom our money is invested is being investigated by the FBI and the SEC. Apparently the company we invested with is one of about 9 that have money tied up with this man. And apparently all of them have been getting the run around. From what I understand he has failed to show up to various court dates and has failed to pay by the dates set by the SEC. The investigation is considered global.

To say that things have gotten interesting would be an understatement.

I don’t know how the investigation will conclude, or how long it will take. It could be weeks, months, or years… but when its all over I’d like to think that we’ll see that money again.

In the meantime we have to view it as a speed bump on our road to financial independence.

Yes. It sucks. But what can you do.

…

The whole thing has me remembering my time as a “Campus Manager” for a company that collected credit card applications during my freshman year in college. To sum it up, I was responsible for hiring and training representatives that would solicit credit card applications on campus. After about a semesters worth of work and questioning some “gray” practices I learned that there were several open (unresolved) complaints with the Better Business Bureau against the man I worked for and a sister company. I added my complaint to the other outstanding complaints and the company was eventually shut down.

In the end, neither I nor my reps were given our final paychecks. And I had to break the news to the reps.

I’ll have to post that whole story later.