Risk and reward, ain't life grand? It's the way the world works unfortunately, however making wise investments rather than extremely high risk one usually has a happier ending. I don't take extremely high risks investing now whereas in my twenties I would have because I was still under the delusion that I would live forever.
It's a shame your cousin didn't make better investments as he moved on in his career, most people do. But some people are compulsive gamblers who can't stop. He may fit that category. Rock bottom often sobers you up to those bad decisions though.
I think guys like us tend to be much more careful because we aren't as healthy as we once were and life now looks a lot different.
!hiqvote
I think you've summed it all up. It's probably has something to do with people like us. Maybe when one feels invincible and immortal, they tend to do things without being careful.
In my 20s I made so many of those rash decisions and took terrible risks.
It's not my life anymore and I won't do those things anymore.
Yeah, my cousin was one of those people who was really successful in many things and it worked for him, but a lot of things have gone wrong.
Maybe if I still felt young and immortal, I could have been that way, but apart from my present condition, my life has changed in many divine ways.