Yesterday this New York Times article asked a question I've often pondered, "Why do the rich go broke?"

The answer, somewhat predictably, is that their raging egos make them believe they are on a permanent gravy train, so why save anything? If Mike Tyson really went through $400 million before finally going bankrupt, there's no other explanation.

Sure, I can see how if you were getting $30 million for one night in a boxing ring you might feel like your money was endless, but, come on. You don't need a financial planner to tell you to sock away a couple million just in case--I mean you've still got the other $28 million to buy live pythons and other random things that ridiculously rich people seem to want.

Actually, think of the math. Say Mike Tyson made $400 million in his boxing career. Putting away just 5% of that would be $20 million. By doing so, Tyson would have had to make do with $380 million, which admittedly would be a tougher row to hoe. Nevertheless, without needing much more financial planning than the work involved in taking out a $20 million Certificate of Deposit, Tyson could have easily had a wad throwing off a million per year, just in case he, say, bit off the ear of another boxer and his career went into freefall. This isn't genius stuff here, even for Mike Tyson.

I don't mean to pick on Tyson. Remember that Michael Jackson special where the British guy got him to say he slept with kids? In that video, Michael made what appeared to be a routine visit to some sort of gaudy shop with 700-lb. vases and other crazy doodads, and he bought about a million dollars of stuff in 5 minutes. He barely even looked at the stuff--he spent about as much time checking these things out as I spend looking at eggs in the supermarket to make sure they're not broken. Did those things bring him some joy? Or was it just a way to alleviate some boredom? Who knows what goes on in these people's heads?

As you might guess, I'm in the camp that doesn't have a lot of sympathy for people who blow fortunes greater than the GNP of some small countries. I know a lot of these people are athletes or entertainers or lottery winners--people that came from nothing and had gobs of money suddenly thrust upon them. But couldn't they find even one person--just one--who cared enough or was smart enough, or both, to tell them to invest just a little bit of it? (And I don't mean investing it in a minor league hockey team or an unseen diamond mine a friend of a friend said was a sure thing.)

Maybe I'm just jealous. I want a python. Hey, maybe I could get Tyson's. At a discount.