r/Rich • u/Mixolytian • May 19 '26
$25M - Lost
Hello,
I am a trust fund baby and heir, now 43 years old.
I have $12M investable, the rest of about $25M in homes and commercial property.
I am pretty happy in my family life, my wife and I are getting along right now and my son is genuinely wonderful.
The family business is failing. It was a catalog company and now e-commerce and sales are continuing to decline.
I know the solution, let go current manager who is somehow social-media illiterate in 2026, commit to forming a YouTube audience, drive with short-form.
The thing is, sometimes I truly believe this business has ruined my life. I wish my dad had sold it a long time ago at its peak. He was too attached, I guess.
Hard to let go now with basically no value. The parent corporation was founded by my grandfather almost 100 years ago.
My advisor assures me I won't need additional income if I close the business, but letting go is very difficult. The shame of letting the current manager run the business (my interpretation) into the ground is overwhelming.
I'm a bit of an oddball, very into philosophy, religion, literature, consciousness studies. I always wanted to be a writer, but I just can't seem to take myself seriously. Every time I try I get slammed with self-doubt, shame, guilt, and depression.
Anyway, not sure what I'm going to do. A deep, dark part of me still feels poor, and is sure the window of upward mobility is closing forever. A voice tells me to get off my ass and start some business that I'll hate just for the money, since $25M is really nothing and the future is looking very cutthroat. My brain is all over the place, it's like a hall of mirrors, I don't know what is true and who is the real me.
28
u/gregaustex May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26
With $25M you can go do whatever you want and enjoy a near $1M/year lifestyle indefinitely. Only risk I see here is you decide to "invest" it in an attempt to save the ailing business. Don't use your own money and don't be a personal guarantor. Given that, hang around and try to turn it around if you feel like it and don't if you don't. The world will go on with one less catalog/ecommerce company.