A friend of mine finally was able to retire last year, albeit quite a few years later than he had planned on. He was a tech engineer in Silicon Valley who, like many employees, was rich on paper with company stock options he was relying on for his retirement.
At that time with the technology boom, investors were more concerned about missing out on future gains than they were with possible market losses. I remember him telling stories of people selling stock to buy a car or a boat which later became the butt of office jokes: “There’s his million-dollar car!” They smiled smugly thinking of their stock option values continuing to grow.