They might be well-known, wealthy, and talented. However, this does not imply that celebrities are better at managing their money than the rest of us. As the saying goes, “More money brings more problems,” and it’s hard to disagree when you witness the difficulties some renowned people experience when becoming rich and famous.
Even still, you’d think that many of these people can afford to hire an advisor because not everyone is concerned about their client’s well-being. And the more you have, the more you have to guard – even from your family members and friends.
Celebrities are no different from the rest of us regarding financial missteps. A disastrous investment, falling prey to fraud, or just overspending can ruin even the most powerful and well-off. You may see for yourself by looking at these instances. So, let’s discuss the celebrities who lost all their money and what famous actors are broke.
1. Lady Gaga
After declaring bankruptcy in 2009, Gaga said, “Its true money has not worth in my eyes.” She’s not worried that she doesn’t profess to be a financial expert.
After spending all of her money on her artistic ambitions, she was forced to declare bankruptcy. She spent nearly all of her money on the Monster Ball tour on which she had no idea she was embarking on.
2. Bernie Madoff
The Bernie Madoff story is well-known to most people. It was a long-running Ponzi scheme inside which Madoff pilfered money from numerous individuals. This year’s crop includes several famous names, as well.
Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, John Malkovich, Steven Spielberg, and Zsa Zsa Gabor are well-known attendees. Celebrities, on the other hand, aren’t usually conned in groups. Like former members of a boy band, some people make disastrous business decisions on their own.
3. MC Hammer
MC Hammer spent more than $70M in just five years, according to AfroTech. Mr. was willing to spend any money, even if it meant having gold-plated toilets. “It’s too good to quit.”
We can say that the investment from MC Hammer was the mother of all the wrong financial decisions that celebs made. Although, the Hip Hop legend “MC Hammer” stated that it would not change a thing for him. Since he owns a share of Twitter, it is safe to say that this decision has not affected him much.
4. Rihanna
According to a well-publicized lawsuit she filed against her former accountant, Rihanna was instructed to spend lavishly. At the same time, he mismanaged her assets, filed her taxes wrongly, and kept an unjust percentage of profits. Over a year, her fortune shrank by more than $9 million.
Peter Gounis of Berdon LLP, Rihanna’s lawyer during her 2010 “Last Girl on Earth” concert tour, is said to have failed to tell her that she was losing money.
5. Justin Timberlake
Most people under 30 will look at you like you’re crazy if you bring up Myspace. People who remember Myspace will recognize it as Facebook’s forerunner. It all came to an abrupt end when Facebook took off.
That didn’t stop Justin Timberlake from taking a 35 million dollar interest in it back in 2011. A year later, in 2015, he sold all of his remaining shares for a paltry $1. It’s one thing to make a lousy investment. However, what if you racked up overdraft fines of $500,000?
6. Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick is a well-known Twitter auntie. When it came to her finances, Dionne Warwick was even more of a “Heartbreaker” than she was on stage.
With more than $10 million in debt, she was forced to file bankruptcy due to poor financial decisions made by her financial advisors. According to her official website, she was recently cleared and pardoned, allowing her to maintain her assets.
7. Bono
A rock star’s name being the worst American investor indicates a lot about their character and principles. Even if Bono has a wide range of skills, this does not mean he can manage financial investments.
To help “media and entertainment companies in the development and marketing of remarkable material,” he invested in Elevation Partners, the company he started.
Poor decision-making led to them being in a terrible situation. The most notable of it was their investment in PALM. It was hard for this unsuccessful smartphone company to compete with the well-known names in the market.
8. Toni Braxton
Due to their dislike of costs, millions of Americans avoid using banks. Most individuals fear overdraft fees, especially if they’re on a tight budget.
In 1997, singer Toni Braxton racked up overdraft fines of more than half a million dollars. Even though Toni Braxton was a Grammy winner with millions of albums sold, she couldn’t avoid falling into arrears with her bank.
9. Allen Iverson
At the peak of his career, Iverson ran through even more than $200M in income, leading him to declare bankruptcy after failing to repay an artist who created a unique piece for him, ClutchPoints said.
We can say that this investment helped him learn his lesson. To this day, Allen Iverson is well-known for his numerous assets in Black-owned firms and other diversifications of his holdings in his portfolio.
10. Nicolas Cage
In the film “The Bourne Supremacy,” he played Jason Bourne. As one of Hollywood’s most costly buyers, Nicolas Cage eventually found himself in a financial jam due to his spending sprees. On top of the many expensive properties he purchased, he also splashed out on some of the strangest items.
Items he purchased include an enormous burial chamber, an octopus with shrunken heads, a $150,000 comic of Superman, and a 70 million-year-old dinosaur skull. However, he had to return it because it was stolen. Nicolas Cage was among the celebrities in debt 2021.
11. Ryan Lochte
Who can forget Ryan Lochte? He’s the Olympic swimmer who lied about a highway robbery at the Rio 2016 games. Like his endorsement deals, he’s gradually fading from the public’s consciousness.
A “non-revenue sport” like swimming makes it difficult for Lochte to make a profit from his swimming career in the future because of his deception. But Lochte isn’t the only athlete whose reputation is below average due to careless behavior.
12. Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson’s disastrous bets in the stock market went down in history as one of the most infamous. News previously reported that Tyson squandered his fame and fortune, even going so far as to purchase rare exotic tigers as pets!
It’s safe to say he was the “Tiger King” long before the term was coined. Since becoming a large investor, “Iron Mike” has expanded his portfolio to include candy and cannabis.
13. Betty Gilpin
She’s appeared on shows like “Nurse Jackie” and “GLOW,” but she started the industry as a shampoo commercial when she was just 20 years old. When she got her paycheck, officials told her to put some money aside.
Cab rides and Marijuana in New York accounted for every penny of her inheritance, Glamour said. “The money could have gone toward a lot of other things.” She is among the celebrities who lost it all to drugs.
14. Wesley Snipes
For decades, Wesley Snipes was a household name because of his high-profile tax fraud case. According to People, he was sentenced to three years in prison and fined $5 million for willfully delaying paying his tax bill to the IRS. According to Celebrity Net Worth, in addition to starring in films like “Coming 2 America,” Wesley Snipes has a net worth of $10M today.
15. Kanye West
In 2016, West revealed on Twitter that he owed millions of dollars after using his own money to create his clothing label, Yeezy. Since then, you cannot see the tweets on the platform.
According to West, to launch his fashion business for its first “season,” he borrowed $16 million and demanded creative control and the staging of lavish fashion presentations.
16. Derrick Coleman
Derrick Coleman was drafted first overall in the NBA draft in 1990. Coleman’s career lasted until the mid-2000s when he decided to hang up his cleats after spending time with different teams. Before the financial crisis hit full force, Coleman agreed to invest money and time in Detroit.
Coleman suffered a significant setback as the value of its real estate plummeted. Despite his best efforts, he was forced to file for bankruptcy in 2009 after spending $89 million over his means. Coleman is not the only athlete who has blown through his money in a short period.
17. Heidi Montag
The “star” of the reality TV show The Hills has spent $10 million of her own money to prepare for the Mayan apocalypse in 2012. Heidi allegedly gave her friends tens of thousands of dollars on their pre-apocalyptic shopping trip.
She paid people $200 to open doors as part of her end-of-the-world survival plan, which makes sense. Their money ran out the day after the asteroid missed Earth on December 21, 2012, and they were forced to move back in with their parents.
18. Johnny Depp
A luxury lifestyle Johnny Weir enjoyed before the split with Amber Heard has left him in a financial predicament. Thompson’s ashes were fired out of a cannon by Johnny Depp for $3 million as a memorial to the author.
Johnny Depp, star of Pirates of the Caribbean, is strapped for cash due to these and other lavish expenditures. Management claims that the actor is short on money because of his spending habits, which they are now suing him for. Johnny Depp was also among the “Celebrities who are broke 2021.
19. Beyonce
Even Beyonce was not immune to the economic downturn and the ensuing financial crisis, which affected millions of individuals. So much so that on one Miami beach condo she bought, Beyonce suffered a 75% loss.
When she purchased the 195-square-foot property in 2002, she paid $465,000. She later sold it for $110,000 in 2011. What a price for such a small area. She didn’t buy an entire town. At least that’s a plus. Right?
20. Kim Basinger
Kim Basinger is the celebrity who purchased an entire town. More than 1,700 acres in Braselton, Georgia, were purchased by Basinger and a group of investors in 1989.
Basinger, a native of Georgia, envisioned turning the town into a tourism destination. She sold the town in 1993 for $1 million after things didn’t go as planned. She ended up losing $19 million in the end. Bernie Madoff defrauded a slew of celebrities, including Kim Basinger.
Conclusion
You may think they’re not that smart by looking at these celebrities. This article discusses the celebrities that made terrible financial investments and got much heat due to it. Some suffered a lot, and others managed to pull everything together. That’s it from our side. If you want more informative articles on “celebrities,” Stay Tuned!