How the Vanderbilts Lost Their $200 Billion Fortune

Comments · 758

• FI

  @fintan3563 · 2 months ago

  The founder establishes the fortune, second generation grows it, the third generation looses it.  A tale as old as business.

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• NI

  @nicolecarlos6894 · 2 months ago

  It wasn’t the inheritance that ruined the Vanderbilt’s, it was the lack of knowledge, understanding, or even interest of how money is grown. No one grew up respecting the process.

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• BH

  @bhpr-xg5zk · 2 months ago

  Easy come, easy go. When you don't work for it, it's easy to spend it without any remorse.

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• RO

  @ronnieosims · 2 months ago

  Sour grapes.  All lottery winners complain about the difficulties it brings.  But nobody gives the money back.

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• LE

  @LeBelloon · 2 months ago

  "Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And weak men create hard times.”               ~ G. Michael Hopf, Those Who Remain

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• FI

  @fitzdawg821 · 2 months ago

  I am friends with someone who is 3rd generation away from the Owner of the Boston & Maine Railroad at its height. The money was gone, totally, by 1980. Any assets left, which included a mansion and a Compound in Kinnebunk, ME., were sold off by 2000. Much of the sale went to tax liens. I’m just shocked at the stories. In the 40’s and 50’s, they lived a life like royalty. In the 70’s, the whole family was fighting and blaming. In the 90’s, the next generation were working at coffee shops and involved with MLM pyramid schemes selling water filters and fake “gas additives” that make gasoline last twice as long.

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• FR

  @freedomfighter84 · 2 months ago

  Nearly 97% of family businesses fail second and third generation

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• CH

  @chriswalker3912 · 2 months ago

  I have seen some of  the Vanderbuilt mansions and the opulence is mind numbing.

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• TI

  @ticktock2383 · 2 months ago

  Set up a family foundation even if you only have $1 million.

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• JA

  @jamesr.9239 · 2 months ago

  Lottery winners broke in a short time, are the Vanderbilts of this era.  Windfalls are rare and usually wasted.

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• AN

  @AnNhienTuoiXeChieu28 · 2 months ago

  The Vanderbilt story proves that building a fortune and preserving one require two completely different skills. Cornelius Vanderbilt created an empire through discipline and ambition, but later generations treated the wealth as if it could never disappear. It is incredible that even a $200 billion fortune could be lost through extravagance, poor planning, and family decline.

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• KE

  @keiththompson9575 · 2 months ago

  It is through Edith Vanderbilt that the George Vanderbilt fortune was reinvented. After his untimely death she faced the grim reality of her husband’s colossal mismanagement.  With not even $1M to his name, she proved herself a savvy businesswoman, turned a failing “business” around, and became one of the first and foremost preservationists in America.  Her heirs have more than admirably continued her work. And of all the Vanderbilt women, she is the only one that I would have liked to have as a neighbor.

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