My 30% or Their 30%?

My parents would be nauseatingly dizzy except for the fact that they cannot literally spin in thier graves despite the quaint expression about doing so. They would be saying things like, "I TOLD you to spend that and not give it to that idiot!" "Hunh! College degree! What good did THAT do him? He's still an idiot!"
Fortunately, none of those things can physically happen as far as I know, but every time I get a report from the investments I've made with the money they left me, I get the feelings of inadequacy so familiar to me from my younger days. It's not easy being the white sheep in a family, I'll tell you! Anyway, upon perusing the nearly 30% drop in holdings recently, I figured that their strategy of just keeping it in CDs and savings accounts was FAR smarter than my decision to try to invest it and make more. Yes, I thought I was smarter, and I was not..OK? Still, I have not lost billions as some have, according to the BBC.
In a report issued today, the BBC notes that the youngest group of billionaires lost as much as 30% of their holdings over the last year due to the same kind of investment strategies I employed. Here's a partial list:
Prince Albert von Thurn und Taxis (age 25 and the youngest billionaire of all) was worth approximately 2.9 billion dollars, but his fortune has shrunk by 10% over the last year to 2.1 billion. His money is "old" money--he did not earn it, he inherited it, just ass I did. His family made money investing in real estate and forest land (not in the taxi business as I had guessed). Mine made it working hard in the auto body shop and on the night nursing shift.
Google founders (and Stanfortd dropouts)Sergey Brin (35) and Larry Page (36) lost 6.5 billion dollars last year as their stock prices suffered a 30% decline. And, if you haven't heard this by now, Google is being lambasted by environmentalists for the amount of CO2 released by their computers every time a search is instituted, contributing mightily to ozone depletion. They're losing on ALL fronts!
Jarry Yang, founder of Yahoo, suffered a 55% share loss and is left with a measly net worth of 1.1 billion, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has fallen OFF the list of young billionaires this year after heading the list last year.
So, the question involves whether the 30% hurts easch of us equally, or if one of us suffers less. I say 30% is 30%. They might be giving up caviar, pedicures and Ferraris while I'm giving up bi-monthly haircuts and ice cream, but I rather think a serious change in lifestyle is the issue.
Of course, my broker Rick continually reminds me that it's not REAL money at this point.
Sure, Rick, it's not YOUR real money.