In the late 1980s, he founded McAfee Associates, the antivirus software company. The company went public in 1992, and two years later, he sold his remaining stake, bringing his gains to about $100 million.
[He was living a great life.] But then things began to change. In 2007, Mr. McAfee sold a 10,000-square-foot home in Colorado with a view of Pike’s Peak. He had spent $25 million to buy the property and build the house. He received $5.7 million for it. When Lehman collapsed last fall, its bonds became virtually worthless. Mr. McAfee’s stock investments cost him millions more.
His remaining net worth of about $4 million makes him vastly wealthier than most Americans, of course. But he has nonetheless found himself needing cash and desperately trying to reduce his monthly expenses.
Isn’t it strange the New York Times makes it sound like he’s so good and the “system” hurt him? He had a great company, got really rich, then made bad investments, got less rich. Simple.
He should start a church. The big mega variety with water slides and shit.
How tough. To be living in a beautiful house in the middle of a beautiful state and having enjoyed the best food, wines, toys, clothes, women, cars, appliances, and health care money can buy. Poor guy. We should all send him some spare fucking change.
Maybe he should get a job and go to work every day like me.
I drive a 1986 Ford pickup with a rusty hood. What does this asshole drive? Look at him. Standing in the middle of paradise in front of his fancy house. Fuck him.
Aww. Gee.
Does he have a mortgage? No.
Does he have a car payment? No.
Does he have medical insurance? Yes.
Does he need sympathy? No.
“He was living a great life”
Good. Welcome to the real world, asshole.
The software has gone to hell in the meantime as well. Since AT&T switched to McAfee I have become aware their software is unnecessarily intrusive and chooses to hog your computer, sometimes for long periods, after startup. I really don’t like it and thought they might be better than Norton, but no such luck.
Wah wah. If $4 million is such a pittance to him, he can just give it all to me. I’d be able to easily live on that money for many years to come….
The article mentions he has his New Mexico property up for auction with no floor, highest bid gets it regardless.
“Over the last several years, Mr. McAfee began to put a large chunk of his fortune into real estate, often in remote locations. He bought the house in New Mexico as a playground for himself and fellow aerotrekkers, people who fly unlicensed, open-cockpit planes. On a 157-acre spread, he built a general store, a 35-seat movie theater and a cafe, and he bought vintage cars for his visitors to use.”
Took a bath on his Colorado estate, sold his Hawaiian estate for a measly $1.5 million, and sold his 10 seat Cessna jet.
I didn’t think the article made him look like a victim of the “system”, but did make me wonder if he suffers from adult ADD and/or a bi-polar disorder.
No doubt he made some bad investments and really loaded up too heavy on real estate.
#5 But I bet his property taxes hurt like hell.
He was lucky, then he was stupid.
And his software sucks ass.
in an ancient ritual bury him up to his neck in the sand facing his house for his punishment for his sloppy and intrusive software that comes too many computers then have avg free antivirus move into the house.hahaha.
He should have invested some of that money into his company so they would make better products and services. I haven’t used any of their products in a decade because they’re so bloated and ineffective. These days, I use freeware that does a better job.
That NYT is quite confused. Its facts and analysis doesn’t support the several confused points it submits for consideration.
If certain very rich people become only rich people, does that mean the wealth disparity in America is decreasing?
No.
The fallacy of personal experience trumping factual analysis. Its everywhere.
He seems better off than many who lost big in this DEPRESSION. Its time for people with money to invest to learn the ropes them selves and dump the “experts for hire”. Oh well, I certainly wish him the best.
nunyac
The secret to making a small fortune on Wall Street? Start with a large fortune.
I never understand people who have accumulated a large amount of money (lottery, inheritance, smart business skills) and decide to invest it. Why? Spend it! Have a good time!
Clearly some people on the this Blog are Jealous it was not them, but we have to rememeber that in America, it is still the land of opportunity, if you find a void and then fill the void you too will be rich, or so the theory goes. It looks like he could have made a few wiser choices, but with 4 Million left, he can still live very comfortably the rest of his life, but may have to limit himself to 2 or 3 normal homes… I dont see him complaining, its just the news looking to sensationalize his circumstance… Oh and AVG is the way to go… better than Avast/Norton/McAffee… been using AVG for many Years…..
Oh my heart bleeds for him 😛 NOT
Thats how rich people think. They spend lavishly on themselves but they expect the poor and middle class to feel guilty for having any money.
Who would have thought that Jon Stewart’s joke about CNBC’s stock market advice would apply to Mr McAfee’s case in point?
“If I’d only followed CNBC’s advice, I’d have a million dollars today, provided I’d started with a hundred million dollars.” -The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
I suppose this asshole is looking for a government bailout.
Did he fuck up or what?
From the headline, I thought it was a rags to riches story. It says he went from $100 to $4M. It shows what a small-timer I am. I thought $4M was a lot!
Somebody fixed the headline. it did say $100 a minute ago.
I think one of the things people don’t understand that when you’re really rich you have more people who rely on you for income and jobs. Hired help, servants, chauffeurs, gardners, all sorts of people who work under you in the private sector, outside of your own company/business.
When someone like this man goes from 100m to 4m he has to let go many of the people who work for him in his private life.
So while you should feel bad about a millionaire who only becomes a lesser millionaire, you should feel bad about all the people (perhaps in the 100s) who were working for this man who lost their jobs because he cant afford them anymore. He lost so much net worth, due to real estate going into the toilet, and the economy going down?
This was the “Trickle down” theory Regan talked about over 20 years ago.
…”We are coming from an abnormal period where a tremendous amount of wealth was created largely by selling assets back and forth,” said Mohamed A. El-Erian, chief executive of Pimco, one of the countrys largest bond traders, and the former manager of Harvard’s endowment. “Some of this wealth was based on real economic gains, like those from the computer revolution. But much of it was not,” Mr. El-Erian said. “You had wealth creation that could not be tied to the underlying economy, he added, and the benefits were very skewed: they went to the assets of the rich. It was financial engineering.”
In the three decades after World War II, when the incomes of the rich grew more slowly than those of the middle class, the top marginal rate ranged from 70 to 91 percent. Mr. Piketty, one of the economists who analyzed the I.R.S. data, argues that these high rates did not affect merely post-tax income. They also helped hold down the pretax incomes of the wealthy, he says, by giving them less incentive to make many millions of dollars. Since 1980, tax rates on the affluent have fallen more than rates on any other group; this year, the top marginal rate is 35 percent. President Obama has proposed raising it to 39 percent and has said he would consider a surtax on families making more than $1 million a year, which could push the top rate above 40 percent.
In 2007, the top one ten-thousandth of households took home 6 percent of the nations income, up from 0.9 percent in 1977. It was the highest such level since at least 1913, the first year for which the I.R.S. has data. The top 1 percent of earners took home 23.5 percent of income, up from 9 percent three decades earlier.
#28–curmudgeon==well done. Yep, wealth disparity of this type hasn’t been seen since the Great Depression which was caused by many of the same things that has caused this one==almost identical in fact.
Its not a “just society” and yet many a dolt who is actually suffering from these disparities will argue and vote for them. It fits their notion of libertarianism, capitalism, the free market, being free themselves, their future potential==or whatever and they can’t see the simple fact that they are wrong.
All avoidable. Not all of it, but much of it. My favorite SciFi==we all live in the world we wish for others.
#27–Frag==you are who I am talking about. When wealth becomes concentrated, yes, certain jobs are created===but only at the same time other jobs are not and many other jobs are held artificially low. Total wealth is in fact reduced because the multiplier effect of lower cost transactions are reduced in number far exceeding the volume of the trickle down transactions.
You enjoy the crumbs from the masters table and never wonder where he got the cake from.
Idiot.
#1 – 30
You people sound like a bunch of old hens who don’t get out much. Bitch, bitch, bitch, smirk your way through life. Woe is me.
The problem with America is it’s attitude. If you think life sucks and you die, it and you will.
If you want real change don’t look to a leader, be a leader. Change your neighborhoods, change your town, change your cities. Give positive action for your own betterment and others around you.
Save your whine for cheese at home.
I know Mr McAfee, slightly- Dvorak knows him better (I just used to work at the company that bore his name and met him a couple of times) Did you know that John McAfee never wrote an antivirus program in his entire life? Not one line of AV code. He left the company in 1993 or 1994, made ‘guest appearances’ on occasion after that.
His great contribution to the world of software was downloadable product. He called it ‘electronic software distribution’. He made out big, and went and played with the money. That Colorado place was a vast wonderland with multiple houses, statues of buddha.
He founded another company, called Tribal Voice, that was an early entry into the IM market, but this one got knocked out of the water by ICQ. Lightning doesn’t strike twice.
He was an honest to god software entrepreneur, and is kind of a legend in the security software world. (along with Peter Norton, who also never wrote a single line of antivirus code)
Ironically, programmer David Chambers had a hand in both the original version of VirusScan and NAV. (both the Norton and McAfee products)
Four million today is worth a lot less than it was fifteen years ago. Whether this is good or ill for the total economy has yet to be seen.
Let’s hope for some more innovators and entrepreneurs, they are a lot more interesting than business school types.