Charles Ponzi

Social Security's trust fund is in the long, slow process of collapsing because it won't have enough funds to pay its promised benefits. Sound like a Ponzi scheme? Perhaps, but at least this "scheme" is one in which you can come out ahead -- especially if you start preparing now.

In his heyday, Bernard Madoff was famous for his love of travel. In addition to his homes in Manhattan and Montauk, Palm Beach and France, Madoff and his wife owned a collection of yachts; every summer, the pair would decamp for six weeks to Cap d'Antibes. In 2008, they set a personal record for...