Michael Jackson, what happened to his wealth (a tribute.)

Cafe Society
1

Howdy!

Today is the one year anniversary of the death of Michael Jackson.

I would like to know what in the hell Michael Jackson could of spent money on that at the time of his death he was “broke”* and was living in a rented mansion, having to do concert tours to raise money for his lifestyle.

Michael Jackson’s Thriller is the best selling album of all time. Every one of those songs were hits. Every one. Even if Thriller was never made, he had his first album, “Off the Wall” and all the stuff he did as a kid. But Thriller was made and then his subsequent albums, etc.

My question is again, how did he possibly go “broke”? Now I use the " " over broke because the man was never going to be what we consider poor in his lifetime. He was never going to end up as an old man working as a Wal Mart greeter living in a subsidized studio apartment for the aged.

He had his property “Neverland” that he loved, and all the luxuries he could possibly want. He was making money every single day from music sales, and the usage of other media? Over his life, Michael made a BILLION dollars. Billion. No rock star has equalled the amount of money Jackson made in his career. And he died only at 50 years of age. An incredible achievement for a poor black kid from Gary Indiana.

Mike Tyson, Ed McMahon and Nicholas Cage are two other examples of people who pissed away their fortunes. But even those guys paled in the vast fourtune that Michael had. Could a bad financial manager be at fault? Being too generous? Paying ridiculous money for crap out of boredom from living in such as insular life?

Maybe is, how much money is enough money? If I was super rich (not super famous), I would have several homes furnished nicely, take trips all the time. Eat out everyday. Go to bars and party. Smoke lots of pot. Have a collection of pinball machines. Yeah, I would piss away some of my fortune, but not all. However, even if I was as rich as Bill Gates, I wouldn’t pay $5,000 dollars for any kind of a meal, that’s stupid. However, a lot of rich people do this everyday.

I miss Michael Jackson because he was so damned weird and his story was really cut short. I wanted to see him 80 years old working in a Wal Mart living in that studio apartment back in Gary Indiana:D. However, I doubt that would of happened. It’s just shocking to me that someone who made over a billion dollars in a lifetime can end up poor. Makes no sense.

2

He was never broke. On a 20/20 news report, they said he made over a million dollars a month from royalties on his songs. The problem though was that he spent a million dollars a week.

3

As Nell “Gimme A Break Carter” said, “I made $20,000 an episode and spent $25,000 of that on coke.”

Maureen “Marcia Brady” McCormick writes in her autobiography one time she got real catty (her words she said she was being unfair) and called her husband names, and he replied. “Yeah well at least I didn’t put $250,000 up my nose.”

MC Hammer was reported to have an entourage of over 100 people. C’mon who needs 100 people following you around. Anyway all those people had to be paid, and you can bet they weren’t making minimum wage.

4

Did you never see that thing with Bashir? Dude could SHOP. He spent something nutty like $400 K in about 2 minutes just by pointing at stuff and saying ‘put it on my tab’.

Obviously he was never broke; however, considering how much money he brought in, you would think he would have more lying around I guess.

5

Wait a minute, though – didn’t we just learn that he left mega money to his kids, and the money will be portioned out to them in a very sensible manner, a little bit at a time, until they’re about forty, through a professional management company? I don’t have any clue, really, but I think he wasn’t broke, exactly. He had debt that future earnings would pay off, and then the future earnings would accumulate for the kids? I don’t know…something like that.

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Little boys ain’t cheap.

7

I believe Elton John has the same problem - money pouring in, but money pouring out even faster.

8

He was following in the footsteps of his father-in-law Elvis. He was on drugs a lot and spent extravagantly on himself and his entourage.

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The problem is that at times he made $x and spent $x+$y, other times he was only making $x-$z and was still spending $x+$y. Happens to stars, happens to lotto winners, happens to business people. the money does not always flow at the same rate all the time, but the lifestyle still has to be paid for.

10

I know. I love how with all that money he still managed to choose the most ridiculously tacky things…which he thought were artful and tasteful.

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Keep in mind his music might have earned a billion dollars but that doesn’t mean Michael Jackson saw it. Record contracts are notoriously biased against the talent. The guy who wrote and sang the song is doing well if he sees a tenth of the income from the sales.

12

Or worse; he made a million dollars a month from royalties but he had already signed it over to pay off a loan he had borrowed the year before. So he would borrow more money for this month and sign over next year’s royalties. Half his money probably went to interest payments.

13

They said he owed something like $50M - he’d mortgaged off the Beatles catalog to guarantee those loans. Yeah, watch the Bashir thing where he goes into some tacky “Arts” shop in Vegas (??? Art? Vegas? huh?) and blows big bucks buy schlock. That’s what he did.

He had a full zoo and amusement park in Neverland; salaries and elephant feed alone had to be tens of thousands a week. He had accountants and lawyers and bodyguards too. he would stay at the Venetian or whatever in Vegas, where the rack rate was probably $1000+ per room per night with a room for everyone and several more for the bodyguards and gofers. When he went anywhere, he rented a private jet so any trip probably cost $20K to $50K.

His mind made no connection between reality and money, since he probably never had to worry about it.

These guys don’t spend like you and I. The money flows like water, and even Niagara Falls can run dry if you try.

the funny thing is - his death has inspired som much extra sales… I saw an article the other day, how many more millions he got from air play and record sales this year ($25M and $20M). The movie grossed $250M and a decent chunk of that is his, plus DVD and album sales. Sony and others have signed deals over his future releases, as apparently there are hundreds of songs and collaborations recorded but not released.

And of course, except for minimal rent on a mansion or two, and some minor living expenses - it is not being spent any more except to pay down dbts. His estate will be debt-free pretty soon. The children of his dermatologist and Debbie will be rolling in the dough.

14

That was staged and the store never shipped anything to him. I take that back, I think I read that he did actually buy a few things, but then ended up returning them a few months later. Interesting, for years, that store has had video monitors up in their window, showing Michael’s shopping trip. Since he died, they changed it to see something like, in memory of our friend. Which is extra funny, because before he died, they were going on the news and talking about how it was all one big set up, he didn’t buy anything, blah blah.

The store does have some cool shit- cool in that, man, if I had a billion dollars, I’d totally buy this sweet XYZ way. Not anything practical of course. I have no idea how that store stays open, actually.

I know on Bashir’s documentary, they try to play it off like he’s in “his favorite shopping mall”- but that shit’s in the Venetian, I’ve been there a million times. It’s particularly funny that the Bashir documentary tries to pan away from the casino floor, but you can see it in a few shots. I think his intent was to play it off to folks who have never been there as this lavish, golden ceilinged shopping mall, when in reality, it’s just a four star hotel. Personally, I’ve never seen any of these $250,000 urns they show on that Bashir clip when I’m in that store- it’s expensive stuff, but not that expensive. Also something to the whole “set up” point is that they go upstairs in the store, which is an employee only stock room if you look while there.

All that said, Michael clearly had no sense of money’s value. When you grow up being given whatever you want in an instant, having accountants and managers handle everything for you, why would he? Not that I’m justifying his ignorance, because the man could have certainly taken a little initiative in controlling his finances, but yeah.

15

Oh, and this? Really? :rolleyes:

His son has the same rare, genetic skin disorder that Michael says ruined his life. Now, wouldn’t you think that someone so wasteful with their money would have done a genetic analysis on whatever sperm donor he was getting, so as to make sure his children didn’t suffer from the same ailment?

Or does that skeezy dermatologist have vitiligo, too?