It’s a Scamski!

Barefoot,

My wife is 57 and has invested thousands of dollars into an ‘education investment program’. It is a multi-level marketing program called SkyWay Investment Group (SWIG). You buy units (not shares)! In US dollars! Converted into Russian rubles! The lead-in was that they would develop a transportation company that would revolutionise transport. They seem to have strayed away from that, though, as they are now offering cryptocurrency. My wife believes we are going to be rich when all the dividends are paid. I think the truth is fabricated, but she just says “You don’t believe in me”.

Neale

Hi Neale,

It sounds like your wife has made Skyway Investment Group part of her identity.

That’s a problem because, to quote the first line of SkyWay’s Wikipedia page:

“Financial regulators in Germany, Belgium and 15 other countries have banned the sale of financial products from SkyWay or warned the public about a potential scam.”

So what you could do is whip out your phone and say: “See, I told you so!”

Yet this is probably the dumbest thing you could do.

After all, in her mind, when you attack SkyWay you’re attacking her.

So, what to do?

Well, my advice would be to go on a Barefoot Date Night.

The aim of that night is to show her you believe in her, and that you need her help.

The fact is you’re heading towards retirement, and you need to work together to nail your retirement number (see notes in my Barefoot Investor book to work that out). Then you both need to work hard to achieve it.

Personally, I’d never talk about SkyWay again. Don’t poke the bear!

You’ve lost that money. The worst thing that could happen right now is if you lose the faith and confidence of your life partner. You need to build her up so you can focus on the main goal: securing your retirement.

Scott.