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What would a homeless person do if they were given $100,000? Here to answer that question is Simon Whistler from the Today I Found Out YouTube channel and its sister, the Brain Food Show podcast. Let's take a listen. My name is Ted Rodriguez. I'm from Sacramento, California, 45 years old.
I'm now homeless in Pasadena, California, and I reside under Prevention. In 2005, a homeless man called Ted Rodriguez stumbled upon a briefcase filled with crisp $20 and $50 bills totaling $100,000, which is about $123,000 today. Ted was then told by screenwriter Wayne Powers that the money was to keep and do with as he wished, so long as he would allow a film crew to document the result. Rodrigue, understandably, jumped at the opportunity, leading to a somewhat controversial documentary, which was called Reversal of Fortune. I don't want much.
Little one bedroom apartment. Able to pay the rent? A place to lay my head down and be safe. Nice hot shower, Emily. Bought two from France today.
That's all I want. According to Powers, the genesis of this documentary stemmed from his time in LA, where he was frequently asked to money by the homeless, prompting him to ponder: what would a homeless person do if I gave them a million dollars? Powers was curious if such a substantial amount of money could change a person's life for the better, or if it'd simply make it worse. He took the idea to an executive at Showtime, where he'd briefly written a short-lived series called Out of Order. The executives loved the idea, but weren't exactly thrilled at the idea of paying out a million dollars, eventually talking Powers down to $100,000.
With funding in hand, all Powers needed was a homeless person to give the money to. According to him, he picked Ted after filming several conversations with him and coming to the conclusion that Ted was a man who'd been dealt a bad hand and deserved a break for once. If I had all my cards in a row and everything, I could have done good things in my life. As Ted put it, When I look back on my childhood, I think it was screwed up. My mother was an alcoholic.
They used to have parties all the time at the house, and we used to kids sneak in, grab a beer.
Sometimes they even give us one. I started drinking and it's I've been drinking since about thirteen. After he moved away from home, he noted, Basically I spent my twenty years in prison. That's where it really seemed like nobody gave a anymore. And when I got out of prison, I had no help from nobody.
And that's when I really started to learn how to survive on the streets by myself. I'd been living this way for about twenty years. I haven't had a relationship in over five years. At least. Women don't want to be with me because of my teeth.
And I felt self-conscious about it.
So I don't approach them.
So I just do my own thing, f everybody, you know. If I should have my dream life, it would just be uh Living society as a regular series. But I don't see it happening. It's too easy for me to say the hell with it because I know how to survive out here. Mostly homeless around two decades when filming began, the then 45-year-old Rodrigue survived by collecting cans and bottles.
On an average day, he noted he could make about $20 or so doing this. When I wake up in the morning, it's all about. survival. Make sure I want you to hustle. Do my recycling.
So I could eat that day, have cigarettes and break my bears. And that's as far ahead as I look. On a good day, he could sometimes earn as much as $35. Despite his homelessness, Ted revealed that he was relatively happy. kind of like recycling because I uh Don't have nobody tell me what to do.
I Go do it when I want, quit when I want. Take a break what I want. I have nobody to answer to. If I choose not to go out today, I just want to sit in the park, I can do that. He even had a prized possession in the form of a bicycle, which he lovingly cleaned on a weekly basis at a car wash, much more rigorous cleaning than he afforded his own body.
The last time I had a A real shower about three months ago. Other than that, it's been uh a hose. I've even gone to motels in the morning.
Sometimes they leave early and they leave the doors open in their rooms. I'll sneak in there. You're taking a shower. Before the makeup. I've done that quite a bit.
According to the documentary, prior to his windfall, Ted's only real friend was a young man called Mike who worked at his local recycling plants. Ted noted he considered Mike something of a son. I like him, he's a good Ted. In the whole city of Pasadena, he's the only one I trust. You know, I don't trust no money here.
Okay, I'll see you tomorrow, Michael. Whether the feeling was mutual or not isn't clear from the documentary, though Mike did seem genuinely friendly towards Ted. Besides alcohol and cigarettes, Ted avoided drugs due to bad experiences that he'd had with them earlier in his life. I mean is there every drug there is? I started breaking into people's houses, you steal from your friends.
Stole from her mother? After passing a drug test to prove that he was drug-free and undergoing psychiatric screening, Ted seemed like the ideal candidate for Powers' little experiment. After the screening was done, Powers and the rest of the film crew, rather than simply giving Ted the money, chose instead to hide it in a dumpster they knew that he frequently searched for cans and bottles in. Presumably, because originality is a scarce resource, they chose to hide the money inside of a nondescript briefcase with a note reading, What would a homeless person do if he were given $100,000? Oh my god.
Hundred thousand dollars. Upon finding the briefcase, Ted, showing remarkable restraint, immediately thought about leaving it behind, Riley equipping in a later interview: Well, when I first saw it, I thought it was a drug deal. Drug money? We don't hear it yet? I thought I was going to get shot.
But then I read the note. What would a homeless person do with $100,000? Darkly what is that? Once he was reassured by the filmmakers that the money was his to do with as he liked, the gravity of his cash windfall finally struck home. Maggie?
Cool. Uh you're not gonna believe what happened to me today. I was recycling and I saw a briefcase. And I opened it and it was $100,000 in cash. Oh, Kev, that is not casty.
I'm thinking about buying a Harley. From this moment on, the filmmakers didn't interfere with Ted's life or his spending in any way, merely observing and documenting his day-to-day life. They did, however, give Ted access to a financial advisor whose advice he was free to solicit or ignore as he chose.
So, it'd be real important for me to make sure that you get the kind of support that you need. Looking for a job. Um you know what what kind of um Wha what what kind of support do you have there? Um actually um I'm not worried about that. I don't know, it's like just right now I'm not even thinking of the future.
I'm just dealing with what I have right here in front of me. And that's where I'm focused at, is doing this.
Okay, alright. Yeah, let me know because I'm really interested in helping. Thank you.
So, what was the result of all of this? After a brief meeting with the financial advisor, Ted bought himself a new bicycle and took him and his friend Mike to an amusement park. Following this, Ted rented a room in a motel, but due to years of sleeping rough, he found it hard to adjust and ended up sleeping on the floor. As you can see, up until this point, Ted's financial decisions were reasonably restrained and probably not too dissimilar to what any of us would do. But what happens shortly after this resembles what happens to many big-ticket lottery winners, one-third of which go bankrupt within five years, most of which subsequently suffer social problems and often depression, even if they are sensible with their money and occasionally they even get murdered by former friends and family.
Luckily, Ted avoided the third of these gruesome outcomes.
So, in this case, what specifically happened to Ted?
Soon after finding the money, news of Ted's wealth spread to his associates in the homeless community who came to ask him for help. People coming out of the woodwork, uh. Acting like they're my friends all of a sudden, you know, like a lot of the homeless people, you know, they know what's going on. And all of a sudden they're my friends. And you've been listening to Simon Whistler, and he's a frequent contributor here on this show.
And you know him from the Today I Found Out YouTube channel and his Brain Food Show podcast. But this is one heck of a story. A producer goes and pitches this idea to Showtime. He wanted to do a documentary called Reversal of Fortune where he'd give a homeless guy a million dollars. Showtime liked the idea, didn't like the amount.
load it to 100,000, and then, well, that's when Ted comes in. And that's when the story really starts. What'll happen? And who will get the money? And of course, Ted had spent his twenties in prison.
We learned about his alcoholic mom and very odd upbringing, parties, it sounds like, all the time at the home. He'd learned to drink, well, when he was 13 years old, he had spent 20 years of his life, essentially the last 20 years. On the streets, adapting, hustling, and working whenever he felt like it. That was an interesting thing, he said. About being homeless.
Nobody tells me what to do. I have nobody. answer to. And then he finds that $100,000. And then of course he meets the financial advisor.
And well, doesn't take the financial advisor's advice. We're going to find out what path Ted does take. I think we know where he's headed. When we come back, more of this story of what would a homeless person do if he was given $100,000 when we return here on our American Stories. People don't listen to radio ads.
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Complete disclosures available at public.com/slash disclosures. Mm-hmm. And we return to our American stories and Simon Whistler telling the story of what happened when Showtime and a documentarian gave a homeless person, Ted, who you're hearing from. $100,000. Let's pick up.
Where we last left off here's Simon. Being a generally nice guy, Ted kindly obliged, paying off many of his friends' debts and providing for them financially. Around this time, Ted also met a woman who magically became attracted to him the moment she found out he'd acquired $100,000. And she certainly wasn't the only one. The women were just flocking all over.
I mean, the women were just flocking all over. You know, I'd walk out to the bars, you'd wake up there with any follow me out there. It's not about me, it's about money. I know that. I'm not stupid.
You know, if I just walked in there normally. I'd be lucky to get one. You know? But No, I I know the game. Though he did spend lavishly on the women as well, including buying one of them, who he would later marry, a car.
He bought his young friend Mike a car as well, but he did not end up marrying him. I've never in my life even Dre. that I could ever do something like this for somebody. You like it? Yeah?
Let's go by it.
Next up, Ted left Pasadena to visit his friends in Sacramento. Previous to his windfall, he'd stated his mother had long since stopped talking to him and his relationship with his sisters was somewhat strained. My family, I have a couple of sisters. I just don't ask for nothing because I think they all look down on me. Because I actually do miss being my family.
However, unlike most people in Ted's life at this point, his family showed genuine concern for his well-being. He's spending a lot of money And my biggest concern is That you marry is just about gone. You know. Let's not. You're spending a lot of money you know, trying to entertain girls.
And they're taking up a lot of your money. And rather than just asking him for any money, they invited him to stay with them in Sacramento and encouraged him to save the money and get a job. We need to sit down with him. I put him on a budget. before he screws off all his money and he's not gonna have Jack Today, he's been talking about wanting to go get another car.
Yeah, see, that's stupid. He needs to work on getting a job before he needs to work on getting another car. His sisters even made phone calls on his behalf to find him work doing something that he liked, but Ted didn't appreciate their efforts, not liking them trying to meddle with his life. They can sit here and think they're doing me a service, and I'll let them talk out their a mm. See ya.
They're not going to change what I'm going to do. He brushed off their concern and even refused to continue meeting with his financial advisor, believing that he just wanted his money like everyone else. He's got a place to live, he's got a car, he needs to get a job. And I'm afraid he just might. BOVE.
Of having No responsibilities, no having to make choices. And all of a sudden it's everything all at once. All these people, everybody wants something out of me. And at the same time, I'm trying to get my back together, plus, dealing with everybody else's. shed emotions about how I should live my Why?
I like to see you get $100,000. What the fk you do with it. Speaking of which, it was eventually revealed that Ted wasn't interested in finding work as he believed, or at least he said, that he thought $100,000 was enough money to live the rest of his life. This, he said, after buying a $34,000 truck and spending several more $1,000 renting and lavishly furnishing a luxury apartment. This said, the documentary shows that while Ted is perhaps quite undereducated, he's certainly no idiot, and it's more likely that this was just talk, and he knew well that the money wouldn't last forever.
Thus, having lived so much of his life day to day, never thinking about tomorrow, as he said, If things don't go my way or I get pissed off at a boss. It's too easy for me to say the hell with you. And move on. Because that's what I've done all my life. Once again, this may all seem amazingly short-sighted and even moronic of Tet, but if big ticket lottery winners are others who suddenly come into a lot of money or any indication, even the most intelligent and previously financially stable of people tend to do pretty much the same thing, spend it wildly on themselves and everyone they know until it's not only all gone, but generally they'll continue from there and drive themselves into massive debt.
You need to go grocery sharpened.
Okay. Nothing in the freezer at all. Hopefully. And as for those who spend frugally and save the rest, not giving any away to friends and family, according to the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, many end up ostracized from their loved ones over their unwillingness to share and have a much higher risk of suffering from depression, drug abuse, divorce, and suicide than many of their peers. This has led to the dark joke among those who work at the Board of Standards: if you really hate someone, buy them a lottery ticket.
As Ted summed it up, you never think that the money's going to run out sooner or later. I know that his money's running out.
So he needs to quit doing what he's doing and get out there and look for a job. A mere few months after Ted was given the $100,000, the filmmakers became concerned with how much of the money Ted had left, causing Ted to become more paranoid about his financial situation and ceasing to share his bank statements with them. About a year later, Ted appeared on Oprah in an episode entitled, Are You Ready for a Windfall? that dealt with various individuals who had acquired massive amounts of money very quickly, whether by winning, being given, or earning it by their own hard work, with the overarching connection being that all of them went from meagre means to great means overnight. In the cases of those who appeared on the show, they saw their lives go on a downward spiral because of the windfall.
It was on this episode that Ted sheepishly revealed that he'd spent or given away all $100,000 within six-day months of receiving it, and that he was once again homeless. Curiously, Ted appeared resentful about the whole thing and expressed that, while not happy with his situation, he was at least very content to once again be homeless and back where he started. I don't know if I'm looking for something or if I'm learning from some. But they've been stuck too long in this chronic homelessness and Not carrying me. And just being a loner.
I've been doing it too long to change. That's why I hate f ⁇ ing societies so much. If being in society is living like that, then I don't want to be in society. I'd rather just be who I am. Because I'd I I couldn't live like that.
It should also be noted that as soon as the money ran out, Ted's marriage fell apart, and all of the friends he'd made and helped abandoned him. He did not mention whether his one former friend Mike, who had bought a car, had also left. To top it off, due to his splurging, Ted revealed that he was now in debt, though he did not specify by how much. Ted's current whereabouts and situation aren't known. The most recent update we could find on him is from 2007, two years after the documentary.
At this point, he was still homeless and recycling cans and bottles for money. Powers noted of all of this: it was a frustrating process, in a way, because I think that there were a lot of opportunities sent Ted's way. And while you're with someone, and the closer you get to someone, and the more that you kind of root for them and understand them, the more frustrating it gets when those opportunities are passed by. I think that it shows from a personal story: people that are homeless, there are certain demons inside them. I think alcoholism plays a part of that.
I learned that in providing somebody with the necessities to be able to turn their life around-a car, a telephone, a roof above their head, a driver's license, all the things that we hear is what somebody needs to be able to turn their life around. It's still, unfortunately, in this particular Particular case was not enough.
So, to answer the question of what happens when you give a more or less drug-free, reasonably psychologically sound homeless person $100,000, pretty much the exact same thing that often happens when you suddenly give a non-homeless person a relative fortune compared to what they're used to. As with many big-ticket lotto winners, they often end up worse off or in the same state as before they got the cash, perhaps with a little depression added in for good measure, something of a flowers of algonon effect. And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by our own Greg Hangler. And a special thanks to Simon Whistler, who's a frequent contributor here on the show. And you can find him on the Today I Found Out YouTube channel of his.
or its sister, the Brain Food Show podcast. And this story, my goodness, well, it's not a happy one. But it's an interesting one, and there are deep moral lessons here as well. I mean, sometimes you just can't help or change people, try as you may, and we all know it. We've done it and experienced it in our own families and with loved ones.
But then, of course, he goes from no responsibility to all these choices. Everybody wanted something from me, he said. And of course, his ethos about life, it was still there always. I want to do what I do when I do. He said, if things don't go my way, it's always been too easy to say to hell with you and move on.
And this of course is what's really led to Ted's problems in the end.
sort of a philosophy of life. And in the end, this is not our usual fare at our American stories. Usually it's uplift and usually there's redemption. In the end, a life well lived is a life well lived. Money won't solve your problems.
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