Evander Holyfield, former World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, has joined the list of famous and anonymous people dealing with foreclosure. Many thousands of people are being forced out of their homes due to the rising rate of foreclosures subsequent to the housing sub-prime loan credit crunch.

So what kind of house does Evander Holyfield live in? If a family is foreclosed on and live in a average or basic home we can easily feel some anxiety and empathy about their dire circumstances.

But for Evander Holyfield his home consists of a 109 room, 17 bathrooms, 3 kitchens, 54,000 square foot house on an estate apparently worth about $10 million, near Atlanta, Georgia. It’s hard to feel sorry for someone losing that kind of grandeur.

 

Will he actually be homeless? Could he move in to the gardener’s cottage?

How could a famous and successful person get into this position? Like Ed McMahon of the Tonight Show fame, looking at bankcruptcy and foreclosure seems implausible when you think of the millions of dollars they have earned.

For Holyfield’s foreclosure situation, he is being sued for unpaid child support by the mother of one of his children, and for not paying a landscaping bill of more than $500,000.

Now I don’t begrudge anyone who’s successful living high, but I wonder if celebrities and athletes have a problem with behaving in a way that allows them to live even further beyond their means and having credit problems that boggle the mind in amounts and complexity. Just think of dealing with all the advisors, agents, accountants and legal help.

The sad thing is that ordinary lower income, hard working  but barely making it budget-challenged families are also being foreclosed on, and they have lived a frugal and ethical life. Bad credit, bankruptcy, and foreclosure can hit anyone at all levels of lifestyle.

Time to redo that budget, pay down debt, and get an emergency fund plumped.

Instead of living paycheck to paycheck, many people are just living day to day, trying to get by on a lot less than they ever thought would be necessary. In contrast to politicians claims that the economy is still