She built a foodie empire, but Bernie gobbled up her life savings.
Nancy Silverton, 55, cookbook author, restaurateur and founder of La Brea Bakery, Los Angeles."It’s true, I did lose everything. Money I earned. But as bad as it sounds, it wasn’t money I needed every day. And I still get a paycheck. I work five days a week at one of my restaurants, Osteria Mozza. People used to come up to me and say, “It’s so great to see you here, because you don’t have to work.” Now they don’t say that.
"When this happened, I knew I immediately had to change certain things. I cut my tennis lessons in half, cut the dog-walker from five days to three, stopped get-ting extra treatments from the facialist. Even though these were small things, I had to feel like I was being proactive. Because it’s a terrible feeling not to have backup. I didn’t used to have to worry. Now I do.
"My father always told me that investing is a gamble. I really believe that. I could have kept my money in a savings account and earned one percent, and I would still have it. But I didn’t. So I choose to look at this Madoff thing as an opportunity that didn’t work out. Do I like the guy? Of course not. Would I trust anybody with that kind of investment again? No, I’m over that.
"Right now I don’t have to worry about making investments. If that option comes my way again, I’ll have to figure it out. Maybe I’ll invest in real estate. Something tangible. But don’t worry about me. Worry about those 75-year-olds who lost their retirement savings. That was their life, now they have nothing."
Originally published in the July/August 2009 issue of MORE. Read more more wild "What It's Like" stories.
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