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What we can learn about money from the world’s richest celebs |
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I can already see you rolling your eyes while reading this title.
But I for one love a bit of pop culture, especially when it comes with a money lesson (also makes for a great conversation topic).
Let’s look at the 10 richest celebrities according to Forbes. Put your detective hat on - I feel like you’ll soon see a pattern there of how they accumulated their wealth: |
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1. George Lucas - Net worth: $5.5 bn |
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The Star Wars director is the richest celebrity thanks in large part to his production company LucasFilm, which he sold to Disney in 2012 for more than $4 billion in cash and stock. |
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2. Steven Spielberg - Net worth: $4.8 bn |
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A significant portion of the fortune of the director behind Jaws and Jurassic Park comes from Amblin Entertainment, a production company he founded in 1984, and DreamWorks, which he co-founded in 1994.
Spielberg's ownership of these companies allowed him to earn profits not just from directing, but also from producing and owning the rights to numerous successful films and TV shows. |
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3. Michael Jordan - Net worth: $3.2 bn |
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Jordan became the first billionaire athlete in 2015, but it wasn’t from his legendary basketball career or gambling winnings.
Instead, Jordan has raked in more than $1.8 billion from brand partnerships, most famously Nike’s Jordan brand.
He also made a very wise investment in 2010, buying the Charlotte Hornets NBA team for $175 million. He sold the team in August 2023 for $3 billion. |
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4. Oprah Winfrey - Net worth: $2.8 bn |
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The daytime talk show host became the first black female billionaire in 2003.
In the years since, she has built her brand into a media and business empire, including investments in real estate and her own production company. |
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5. Jay-Z - Net worth: $2.5 bn |
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Hip-hop’s first billionaire sold a 50% stake in his champagne brand, Armand de Brignac, to luxury goods giant LVMH in 2021 for at least $300 million, and a majority stake in his cognac label D’Usse in 2023 for a reported $750 million to Bacardi.
He also owns stakes in Uber and Block. |
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6. Kim Kardashian - Net worth: $1.7 bn |
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She has become a billionaire from her beauty and clothing brands.
Her shapewear line Skims was valued at $4 billion in a 2023 funding round, and she sold 20% of KKW Beauty to Coty in 2020 for $200 million. She has since shut KKW Beauty down. |
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7. Peter Jackson - Net worth: $1.5 bn |
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The director behind the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit franchises made most of his fortune from his visual effects company, Weta Digital, which sold a portion of its assets to game maker Unity Software in 2021.
That deal netted the New Zealander nearly $1 billion in cash and stock. |
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8. Tyler Perry - Net worth: $1.4 bn |
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I’m not gonna lie, I’m not familiar with him, but Perry has brought in well over $1 billion in pretax earnings over a three-decade career creating and acting in TV shows, movies and stage plays.
He also apparently lent one of his Los Angeles homes to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle when they stepped down as senior members of the British royal family. |
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9. Rihanna - Net worth: $1.4 bn |
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Rihanna has stakes in two billion-dollar brands: cosmetics company Fenty Beauty, which she owns alongside luxury goods giant LVMH, and lingerie business Savage X Fenty. Both are named after her, as her real name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty. |
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10. Tiger Woods - Net worth: $1.3 bn |
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The five-time Masters’ winner has earned over $1.7 billion in his career, the bulk of it from endorsements.
His most notable brand deal, a nearly three-decade partnership with Nike, came to an end in January. Woods soon announced his own clothing line, Sun Day Red. |
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The overwhelming majority of these celebs didn’t make their wealth from the salaries they got from their day jobs - be it singing, acting, directing or playing sports.
They made their wealth by owning assets - either by investing in businesses or starting their own.
As business owners or part-owners, they had a claim on the companies’ cash flows and profits - and when the companies did well, they cashed in.
But you don’t need to be a celebrity to become a business owner yourself!
You don’t even have to start a business.
Instead, you can just invest in companies.
By investing in a company, you are effectively buying an ownership stake in that company, and so, you become a part owner of the business!
You can then benefit from the company’s stock going up in value, or from any other rewards that the company might give to shareholders, such as dividends. |
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But wait, there’s more!
You don’t even have to invest in individual companies - there are things such as mutual funds and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) which you can buy and gain exposure to lots of different companies all at once.
Those funds will usually represent a segment of the stock market (say the 100 largest companies in the UK or 500 leading companies in the US, or even all of the listed companies in the world).
If you need a little refresher on how you can start investing, have a look at a past edition of our newsletter where I explained how I’d start investing in 2024. |
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That’s all for this week! |
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I hope you found this edition of the newsletter interesting! I’d also really appreciate it if you had any feedback for me regarding the newsletter. Is the newsletter too long, too short or maybe just right? Are the kind of topics we write about interesting to you? Are there any other things that you’d like us to talk about? Am I asking too many questions? Maybe…
Anyway, feel free to reply to this email with your thoughts!
And if you enjoy our newsletters and find them helpful, share them with other people who want to improve their finances and start investing, so that we can all build wealth together.
They can find our full newsletter archive and details on how to subscribe here: https://www.stocksandsavings.com/newsletter
Please know that this is not financial advice, this is for educational purposes only. When investing, your capital is at risk and your investments can rise and fall.
Enjoy your weekend and we’ll see you again next week!
- Andreea & Jamie |
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