Einstein lost most of his Nobel Prize money in bad bond investments on Wall Street

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/07/11/einstein_letters_reveal_a_turmoil_beyond_science/

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Einstein bequeathed his personal papers to Hebrew University when he died in 1955. The letters released yesterday were an additional bequest added to the collection by his stepdaughter Margot Einstein on condition that they be sealed for 20 years after her death. She died in July 1986.

The letters reveal how Einstein lost most of his Nobel Prize money in bad bond investments on Wall Street ...
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The newly released papers reveal that he invested three-quarters of the money, about $24,000, in long-term bonds via the Ladenburg and Thalmann Bank in New York. ... But the value of the bonds was wiped out in the Depression of the 1930s