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Frugal or EREesque celebrities you are aware of?

Posted: Tue May 12, 2015 3:55 am
by fiby41
Since most celebrities(1) resort to flaunting wealth to maintain their position in the social pecking order, generally only people who are secure in their knowledge of their competence and skill could be frugal openly.

If you know any frugal celebrities, mentioning them here could help people by providing social proof, inspiration and maybe even as role models to emulate.

One such example I can think of is Eminem. Now this is not exactly limited to relatively frugal living w.r.t. to tax bracket but any aspect that is relevant ERE wise (It is not meant to encourage risk taking in rock-star careers(2) where skill may be loosely correlated to success.) So this may read like a lifetime journaled here in brief in third person.

Transportation:

He still drove his second hand old car (Lincoln) which had 100k miles on it when he bought it, even after having mainstream success, until Dr Dre (his producer, record label owner) bought him a new one (Mercedes Benz.)

Although he did gift his best friend a car (BMW) then. So if it wasn't flaunting wealth, it must be increasing social capital?

Housing:

Lived in the same house in the same neighbourhood he grew up in even after signing a deal with Aftermath Records.
But had to move twice after release of second album when lunatic fans started pulling into driveway asking for autographs and jumping over and breaking fences (If you never stole a gate/ You can take off fence (offence)/), which made it unsafe for his child to play outside.

Once he couldn't afford to shop at K-Mart, now he lives in the house of the former CEO of K-Mart. It has better security in place. Physical security before financial security right?

Not a careerist:

He won an Oscar for his song but didn't attend the ceremony saying 'It isn't my metal.' He was at home watching cartoons and colouring drawings with his daughter.

DIY skills:

Cooking and plumbing: Worked as a cook and did other odd jobs of a handy man.

Frugal skills:

Most of the time he held a minimum wage job or was unemployed but managed to raise a child and keep saving enough for studio recording and mixing sessions, renting instruments, producing beats, buying samples, pressing CDs, vinyls, mixtape cassettes, and selling them.

Bootstrapped enough to release one album (pressed 1000 vinyl record copies) the same year his daughter ways born and an EP (extended play) two years later.

Passive income streams:

7 solo albums.

Own record label named Shady Records: Total 15 acts signed alltime. Currently has 9 successful acts. And a T-shirt brand of the same name.

Nest-egg:

According to Neilsen SoundScan he is the all time best-selling artist of hip-hop and fifth highest among all music genres with sales totalling 100 million in the US alone.

Celebrity Net Worth estimates are $400 million.

(1 celebrities=people who are well known in their respective rock-star professional circles: poets, bloggers, authors, business people, athletes, scientists, programers, military, artists: carpenters, sculptors, musicians, etc.

2 Rock-star professions= high risk, high reward, winner takes all. Where skill is not correlated to success. Career progression is not inclined linear but positive or negative exponential )

Re: Frugal or EREesque celebrities you are aware of?

Posted: Tue May 12, 2015 9:22 am
by jacob

Re: Frugal or EREesque celebrities you are aware of?

Posted: Tue May 12, 2015 10:38 am
by Dragline
Farnoosh Torabi interviews a fair number of those people, mostly from the small business world, but also some actors, authors, motivational speakers and other types. See http://podcast.farnoosh.tv/

Everybody from Tim Ferriss to Mr. Money Mustache to Sandra Bernhard.

There are transcripts there that can save you some time.

Re: Frugal or EREesque celebrities you are aware of?

Posted: Tue May 12, 2015 10:24 pm
by TopHatFox

Re: Frugal or EREesque celebrities you are aware of?

Posted: Wed May 13, 2015 6:45 am
by tommytebco
daryl hannah lives simply if not cheaply.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q ... vl6kdxtYJA

Re: Frugal or EREesque celebrities you are aware of?

Posted: Wed May 13, 2015 7:40 am
by fiby41
Your URL is not working?

(I'm on mobile.)

Re: Frugal or EREesque celebrities you are aware of?

Posted: Wed May 13, 2015 8:08 am
by henrik
The original link to what @tommytebco meant

Re: Frugal or EREesque celebrities you are aware of?

Posted: Wed May 13, 2015 11:36 pm
by billc
not sure this counts as famous (400k youtube subscribers) - but Matthias Wandel of woodgears.ca lives simply. He was early employee at Research In Motion and retired in 2006-2007 range. Now makes stuff out of wood he finds in the garbage.

Re: Frugal or EREesque celebrities you are aware of?

Posted: Thu May 14, 2015 1:18 am
by Noided
This guy has an amazing philosophy of life. I really enjoyed watching his interviews. And it is funny that in South American countries many people live happy as they are, even if by the rich countries standards, they don't have enough material goods.

Re: Frugal or EREesque celebrities you are aware of?

Posted: Thu May 14, 2015 10:26 pm
by JamesR
No one mentioned Warren Buffet? :P

Re: Frugal or EREesque celebrities you are aware of?

Posted: Sun May 17, 2015 1:17 am
by slimicy
Keanu Reeves qualifies:
Reeves gave US$80 million of his US$114 million earnings of The Matrix sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, to the special effects and makeup staff. He is quoted as saying ″Money is the last thing I think about. I could live on what I have already made for the next few centuries.″
http://us.hellomagazine.com/celebrities ... es/matrix/

Re: Frugal or EREesque celebrities you are aware of?

Posted: Mon May 18, 2015 2:59 pm
by GandK

Re: Frugal or EREesque celebrities you are aware of?

Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2020 9:46 am
by Jason
Not so much celebrity, but part of the culture. Author of The Graduate (book).

https://chicago.suntimes.com/entertainm ... obituaries

Re: Frugal or EREesque celebrities you are aware of?

Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2020 12:56 pm
by RFS
fiby41 wrote:
Tue May 12, 2015 3:55 am
One such example I can think of is Eminem. Now this is not exactly limited to relatively frugal living w.r.t. to tax bracket but any aspect that is relevant ERE wise (It is not meant to encourage risk taking in rock-star careers(2) where skill may be loosely correlated to success.) So this may read like a lifetime journaled here in brief in third person.
In the music business, each artist has a set of "obligations" the venue must fulfill for them to perform there. Some of them are ridiculous- chocolate fountains, incredibly expensive sushi, massage therapists, etc. Eminem's is allegedly comprised of two 30 lb. dumbbells.