When he was still a child, Michael Jackson honed his performing skills as a member of the Jackson 5 alongside four of his brothers. Even though there are lots of former child stars who go on to fade away from the spotlight as they grow up, that would never happen for Michael. In fact, Jackson would remain famous throughout the rest of his life.
Since Michael Jackson remained was for roughly forty years, it almost began to feel like he was never going to exit the spotlight. Then, in 2009, the world was shocked to learn that Jackson had passed away at the age of fifty. If that initial news wasn’t shocking enough, a lot of Jackson’s fans later learned that he was broke after the pop music legend lost his life. Of course, that begs an obvious question, how did Michael Jackson go broke?
A Money-Making Machine
When Michael Jackson decided to launch a solo music career, it was a huge risk for the talented young performer. After all, he was already enjoying a lot of success as a member of the Jackson 5 and there was no way to know if he would have the same appeal without his brothers. Of course, at this point it is abundantly clear that Jackson’s gamble paid off in a huge way, to say the very least.
Throughout his life, Michael Jackson would release so many hit songs that it would be foolhardy to try and list them all here. Of course, Jackson’s music was so influential that people like Snoop Dogg continue to cover songs like “Thriller” to this day. As a result of all the beloved music that he recorded during his life, Jackson is the 7th best-selling musician in history according to businessinsider.com. Despite that and all of Jackson’s other money-making ventures, including owning The Beatles’ music library, Michael reportedly was $400 million in debt at the time of his passing.
An Incredible Lifestyle
Since Michael Jackson made so much money during his life, it makes a lot of sense that he felt like he could spend money without worrying about it too much. However, there is a difference between leading a lavish lifestyle and treating money like it is an endless resource that can never run out no matter how quickly you fritter it away. Unfortunately for Michael Jackson’s bank accounts, he definitely seems like he believed that his money could never run out. Either that or Jackson couldn’t stop himself from spending no matter how quickly his funds were being depleted.
In terms of the ways that Michael Jackson spent his money, there is no question that a lot of his cash went toward buying his home and turning it into the Neverland Ranch he envisioned. After all, according to reports, Jackson spent somewhere between $17 million and $30 million to initially buy his home. From there, Jackson spent a fortune turning his home into an amusement park complete with a zoo, Ferris wheel, theater, train station, and its own fire department among other things. As a result of all that spending, Jackson built a home some people believe he haunts it to this day because he loved it so much.
On top of the money he spent on Neverland Ranch, Michael Jackson frittered away a huge portion of his fortune on several unique pieces that most people could never afford. For example, Jackson loved owning pieces of memorabilia that related to some of his favorite films including the gloves Johnny Depp wore to play Edward Scissorhands. Jackson also owned expensive recreations of Michael Keaton’s Batman suit and E.T.’s head. On top of that, there are all the life-size figures Jackson bought of Superman, Yoda, Spider-Man, C-3P0, and Darth Vader among others. If all of that wasn’t enough, Jackson reportedly paid $1.5 million for the Academy Award statue that Gone With the Wind won for Best Picture.
Of course, Michael Jackson bought a lot of pieces that had nothing to do with movies. For example, Jackson bought several castings of his own face, a robotic replica of his own head, a full arcade with loads of games, expensive paintings, and mindblowing gold fixtures. All of that is to say nothing about Jackson’s car collection and the insane amount of jewelry he owned. For anyone who truly wants to understand how Michael Jackson went broke, all they have to do is watch a clip of one of his wild shopping sprees which was filmed when he was in Las Vegas. Once you see that clip and understand that kind of thing went on all of the time, it becomes easy to understand how Jackson’s earnings couldn’t keep up with his spending.
