When love and money collide: A cautionary tale of sudden wealth, trust, and betrayal

Photo Credit: A.I.

Letter from Lim.

Hi GC,

Lim here.

I really like your gc Ask The Gent section because I think it is good to know there are many men out there who have internal problems of their own especially when it comes to women.

Allow me to share an experience that my brother had, for your awareness/ sharing to all fellow men. Our luck had turned prosperous in 2022 when both of us won a 20 Million lottery. He won during CNY and I won toward the end of 2022. My brother was with a girl whom he knew since high school. They knew each other for 25 years plus another 2 years during marriage so a total of 27 years.

When we both won the lottery the same year, how we distributed the money among our families was the same. We gave some to our parents and sisters. I invested a lot of the money in various schemes, public mutual, properties, shares etc. My money really grew. My brother told his girlfriend whom he knew for 27 years, about the lottery victory. I was against that idea because you can never trust anybody except your flesh and blood. He did not believe in that idea. Right after he told her about the money, a few months later they got married, both at age 33. I was skeptical because it was all a sudden.

After that, the whole thing started with she wanted things from him. My brother is a very nice man. He can pamper a girl untill kingdom come. She asked him for a Ferrari, she asked him for diamonds, rings, the kind of jewelleries that millionaires would buy, she got it. They even went to Burj Khalifa for a 3 week holiday.

My brother is a yes man when it comes to woman. Everything he would agree to a woman. She went to the best facial. the best treatment, the best botox, whatever you can name. I had a big fight with my brother over how dangerous his spending was on his wife. His excuse was because he knew her for 17 years and she would never take advantage.

Then one unfortunate day, he literally had nothing left except a few hundred ringgit in his bank account. He could no longer sustain all those lavish life. She did not help him not one bit when he lost all his money buying her things. He asked her help to sell some of those high value jewelries to help him pay some bills, she got agitated. She went berserk. She went berserk on a very nice man who has never yelled at her, never beaten her, he gave everything to her and she showed her true identity by not giving him any hand when he was in deep trouble.

He was lucky because I did a lot of investment with my lottery money. My millions turned into hundreds of millions because I put the money where it was supposed to be and not spending on some lady just to prove you are a gentleman but she failed to prove that she is a lady with no compassion. No heart. Zero empathy. She is a woman for Christ sake. I thought they have more emotions than men.

The 2 year marriage just went downhill after that because of my brother's foolishness for sacrificing everything for a lady. He learned his lesson the hard way. He lost all his million dollar lottery over a woman who he thinks he knows well just because they knew each other for 27 years. That is not a strong justification.

My point is this, no man should ever say yes to a lady just to prove that he is a gentleman just because you are dealing with a lady. I am the opposite of my brother. I exert a bit of ego, a bit of power which is why I have a hard time finding one. When it's a No, it is a No regardless if it's a lady. No compromise. No flexibility. I am more firm than my brother but most woman see me as a mama's boy. That is why I am single because as one of your readers correctly pointed out, women and "mama's boy" don't go hand in hand. Yes I am also a victim of the misconception of "mama's boy" but I don't give a rat's ass. We were all born from our mother's womb. Literally, we are "mama's boy".

This post is about my brother not me, so I thought of sharing this unfortunate event that took place so you guys can be very careful when dealing with women especially when you win a large sum of money. They flipped 180. So my brother got a divorce, with no money. She left him with all the high value jewelries on her hands and ears.

I guess the fate is now reversed. She is probably a millionaire now if she had sold those jewelries and her handbags. She had a Hermes Chevre Mysore which my brother bought for almost RM 200 thousand.

Lim