A Homeless Man Blows $100,000 of Free Money As Seen on Oprah

A Homeless Man is Given $100,000 by a Film Director and Blows it All Foolishly

On a recent Oprah Winfrey show that aired on Friday December 1, 2006, a homeless guest on the show was given $100,000 by a film director. The film director gave him this money as a test to see how he would spend the money. The homeless man did not know that
 he was going to receive the money when he first got the $100,000. He was only told that he would be filmed as a documentary as to how a homeless man spends his days. It was about the day and life of a homeless person.

The man first found the briefcase with $100,000 in a garbage bin when he was looking for soda cans. This is how he made his money. The man was clearly broke and when he found the briefcase with the money in it, he could not believe it. He actually cried in shock. I was amazed to find out what the homeless man did with the money next.

The man first got himself an apartment and then he bought himself a $32,000 truck. He then bought his friends cars by taking them to a car dealership and having them purchase the car that they wanted. He kept on buying more more stuff and then he gave the money away. Was this a smart thing to do?

Shockingly the film maker also gave him the opportunity to use a financial advisor and counselor for free. The homeless man did not take him up on his offer. He instead spent all of the money on whatever he felt like spending his money on. Surprisingly the homeless man lost everything and he stated that he is back on the streets and homeless again. The sad truth here is that sometimes when you give money to someone, you hope that they would do the best with it. However, we can see clearly here from this example that it is not always true. Have you ever given something to someone and asked yourself if you should have maybe let them work for it instead? When you work for something, you tend to value it more because you knew what it took to make that kind of cash.

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I took in a homeless man about two months ago in hopes of giving him the opportunity to get back on his feet. Since then, he has spent his days sleeping and watching television, doing little (that I can see) to better his circumstances. He is negatively impacting my life and blames me for not understanding. While I still believe that homelessness is one of the more important social problems that needs to be addressed, I have learned my lesson. Acts that seem generous may actually not be the best thing for the recipient. I believe it may have been better for him to have remained in the shelter and forced to face his problems. I certainly do not have the training necessary to set him on the path I so arrogantly thought a little generosity could perform.

Posted on 06/20/2009 at 4:06:10 PM

As with all things, a person must learn how to deal with situations. A homeless man with all that money is like giving him a year supply of cocaine. When I was young I did real good in high school with awards and scholarships, etc.... But being a very poor kid from a poor family I did not understand about college or a career or creating a lifestyle for myself and family/ It made my life hard and I made too many wrong choices as a result. Do not criticise this man for his failure. We all need to learn from our failures.

Posted on 06/10/2009 at 6:06:42 AM

Well written, to the point and interesting.

Posted on 06/07/2009 at 3:06:16 PM

Not a surprise at all. People yatter on about "share the wealth" and yet, if all money was taken away and divided equally among us, in six months the previously wealthy would be wealthy again, and the broke broke again. The social engineers can't change that, no matter how hard they demonize people who have worked hard and built wealth. And no, I'm not rich. I'm TRYING to break the poverty mentality I grew up with, with limited success. But I do understand that the have-nots are being given an out for their own failures, the better to control them and create the mob mentality that brought us to where we are today, the sense of entitlement and "it's not my fault." This man ended up right where he wanted to be. AND helped several "evil rich" businessmen amass more wealth along the way. That's how it works.

Posted on 06/07/2009 at 7:06:49 AM

I don't think he spended the money unwisely at all. A car or truck for a homeless person is a godsend and improves their quality of life ten fold. A car gives you a place to sleep and is much warmer at night then outside with the rain and snow. A car lets you store things and if necessary and you can pay for gas, travel. He did a good deed by helping out all his friends

Posted on 06/06/2009 at 8:06:11 AM

So, he helped out his friends by giving them cars and cash. What a terrible person! Maybe if he had started his own health insurance company and then made a huge profit by denying benefits to policy holders when they got sick, he would be considered as The Great American Success Story.

Posted on 03/26/2009 at 9:03:47 AM

I just saw this and could not believe it a 100.000 dollars would have gotten my speaker company going bigger than i could imagine Maybe thats why its so hard to get help when your homeless all the others are giving a bad name. I did think about emailing oprah at one time guess thats out of the question now HU Oh well well keep trying Kevin Nelson Zealth Audio Loudspeakers

Posted on 03/22/2009 at 3:03:32 PM

Oprah should give this money to those PimpThisBum.com guys. They are taking a whole new approach. Make them earn it, send them to rehab, and don't let them chose what to do with the money. You make them have a financial counselor. These guys are truly brilliant.

Posted on 02/28/2009 at 12:02:54 AM

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Posted on 02/23/2009 at 5:02:57 PM

i don't watch,nor will ever watch oprah but i would like to know where i can see this documentary, i saw part of it but never got to finish it. please help!

Posted on 02/11/2009 at 2:02:53 PM

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