I invested a lot in British banking and engineering stocks.

Lost a lot of money during the subprime crisis.

I once invested money to set up an Irish pub in Phuket, it had some very healthy returns and I mostly got back my money by the 6th month. Myself a Brit and a Thai who was the local partner. On the 8th month the local partner shit the place down by deregistering the company and then selling the assets and operations to another company he owned and hired another British expat to be the pub manager. The premise and the owner perished during the tsunami.

Well you learn to pick up the pieces and move along while keeping a straight face.