Celebrities Are Just Like Us

Source:www.commencementbank.com

Throughout all of my research, I have focused really focused on celebrities and how exactly some of them have financial troubles. Why exactly are some celebrities prosperous and some fall into such deep financial trouble that they are forced to file for bankruptcy? As simple as it may seem, it all depends on what the specifically does with their money. If they take measures to ensure that at least some of their money is saved, they won’t go bankrupt. But, if they are careless with their money and don’t do anything to save it, they will end up bankrupt.

For the first part of my research, I decided to look into exactly what kind of celebrities go bankrupt and if there is a correlation between a certain profession in the “celebrity realm” and going bankrupt. Based on the article “13 Celebrities Who Went Bankrupt”, the majority of the celebrities that were profiled were in fact in the music industry. People such as MC Hammer, Toni Braxton, and Marvin Gaye had at one point gotten into extreme debt and had to file for bankruptcy. After reading this article, one might think that all celebrities have a greater chance at becoming bankrupt. But, after synthesizing all of my evidence, I believe that this is in fact just a coincidence. The profession that one is in does not determine if you will go bankrupt or not; it is based off how how one manages their money and saves.

In the second part of my research, I decided to look specifically at one individual and the events that occurred to make them lose so much money. In the article “Everything MC Hammer Blew His Fortune On”, it zeros in on MC Hammer and his rise (and fall) to fame. It describes Hammer spending millions of dollars on cars, houses, helicopter, entourages; pretty much anything that you can imagine, MC Hammer spent money on. The one thing I learned about this is that Hammer was just stupid with his money and didn’t save any of it. He was making of millions of dollars, so he thought he could just buy whatever he wanted and it wouldn’t matter because his income was so high. Even though one’s income can be extremely large, that doesn’t mean you just stop saving money. You need to make sure that you preserve at least some of your money so you can sustain a great life forever.

In the third portion of my research, I decided to look at the celebrities that actually save and the measures they take to ensure that their money will last them their entire lifetime. The article “Stars Who Save: What We Can Learn From These Modest Celebrities”, the reader learns that there are in fact numerous celebs that actually save their money in great ways. Countless celebrities do things such as save a majority of their income and put it in bank accounts, have their kids wear hand me downs, spend a conservative amount of money even though they make millions; some of them even cut coupons. Most would think that celebs would never do things such as this, but in actuality, they are just like us. Just because they make more money than Americans doesn’t mean that they are any different. A majority of celebs take drastic measures to ensure that their money is saved.

In the final section of my research, I decided to take a different direction and focus more on the high taxes celebs have to pay and how they then try to conceal their money from the government, getting them into even more trouble. In the article “5 Lessons From Celebrities Who Cheat on Their Taxes”, it describes celebrities such as Nicholas Cage who fell into deep trouble with the IRS because they did things such as concealing money, falsely filing for bankruptcies, and many other things. This article calls into question:is having more money more of a burden than people who don’t have as much money? There really is no way for celebrities to get out of paying such high taxes because they make so much money, but even with taxes they still have a greater amount of money than most people in the US. As long as they save and are honest, they will not fall into troubles such as issues with the IRS and bankruptcies.

Overall, I learned a lot about celebrities and why some go bankrupt and some do not. The key is for us all to remember that celebrities are just like us. They need to make good choices and save their money in order to ensure that they will have a prosperous life forever. The people that go bankrupt are also just like us; they due to the fact that they spent their money carelessly, they wound up in deep debt and had to file for bankruptcy. If everyone is the US saves money and uses their money wisely, we will not fall into such troubles.

I really enjoyed learning about this topic and I am positive that I will continue to research in the future because I truly find it interesting.

Sympathy for Celebs and Their High Income Taxes

Source:www.mobileecosystemforum.com

Throughout my blog posts,  I have researched celebrity bankruptcy and how it affects their lives. I have also researched celebrities that do in fact take several measures to make sure that they save their money. In one of my final blog posts, I have researched other ways that celebs get into trouble with law due to their money: tax evasion and bankruptcy fraud. In the article “5 Lessons From Celebrities Who Cheat on Their Taxes”, Megan Elliot discuss exactly how celebrities try to get out of paying taxes. This calls a key idea into question:because celebs have to pay such high taxes, is this what leads them to trying to get out of paying such a high income tax? Hopefully in this blog post, I will break this question down and answer it.

According to Elliot, in 2006 (which is the latest date she has information from, “the IRS reported a “tax gap” — the amount of owed taxes that weren’t paid on time — of $385 billion”. To say the least this is quite a big number. A majority of this number, “376 million” to be exact, comes from under reporting income. Millions of people are now being investigated and convicted of crimes such as false bankruptcies claims, tax evasion, and not reporting to correct amount of income one makes. Many people do this today, but the most profiled people who are accused of such crimes are celebrities.

According to this article, there are 5 things we can learn from celebrities; basically 5 crimes that celebrities commit that most normal people do not in fact do. But, some of these things are actually quite interesting. For example, Wesley Snipes was convicted and sentenced to 3 years in prison for failing to file tax returns, which cost and estimated 7 million. Other celebrities have tried to hide some of their income in other countries so that they have to don’t to pay high taxes on it. Nicolas Cage got in trouble with the IRS for being “14 million dollars in debt” due to “improperly writing off numerous personal expenses”. These are just a few examples how celebrities try to avoid paying such a high tax rate due to the amount of income they make.

When looking at how celebs try to conceal their money, it seems to me that they would go to major lengths to try to avoid paying high income taxes. Of course, not all celebs do this. Many of them just “bite the bullet” and pay it because for now, this is how the tax system works. Obviously, I agree with the the punishment of celebs who try to cheat the system. If they are going to break the law, they need to pay for that. But, I think this shows a much bigger flaw in our system. If celebs are going to such length to try to get out of income tax paying, then maybe the tax is too high. I believe that they should be taxed at a higher rate that other people who make less money, but I think it should be a reasonable number. They shouldn’t be paying a huge chunk of their income to taxes just because they make so much more money that most people do.

I’m not really sure how to fix this, but in the future I think the government needs to cut back on the amount they tax on celebrities. I think this would decrease the amount of celebs who try to hide money and commit other crimes based on their high income tax. For future research, I would definitely look into any celebs who are trying to fight back on these high taxes and if there are people who are trying to lower such taxes. This would be really interesting and I will definitely pay more attention to this in the media.

Yes, Stars Save!

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

For the past few blog posts, I’ve researched a lot about celebrities that go bankrupt and why exactly they have to file for bankruptcy. In this blog post, I’m going to turn my attention to the celebrities that do actually save their money and what they actually do to have savings and not go bankrupt, like so many others. In the article “Stars Who Save: What We Can Learn From These Modest Celebrities” that was published online at the Huffington Post Living Canada, there are in fact numerous celebrities that save money. The key to their success is simply the way that every other American saves money: they try to cut costs in their everyday lives and also put away money that can be used for their future use.

Let’s take a look at some specific celebrities. Many of them take the majority of the money they make and save it. For example, Zooey Deschanel, according to her divorce documents, saves about 76% of income a year. Jay Leno is also a very good example of this; he makes about 15 million a year and puts most of it in his savings. Warren Buffett, one of the richest people in the world, lives in a 4-bedroom house that he bought for $30,000. This ensures that when they retire from acting or hosting tv shows, they have enough money to be able to provide for themselves. Many other celebrities live this kind of modest life style.

Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, is known for re-wearing dresses (for a princess, this is quite the shock), which saves thousands of dollars. Numerous other stars such as Carrie Underwood and Sarah Jessica Parker save money by cutting coupons and making their children wear "hand me downs". These are just some examples of how they cut costs to ensure that they are not only spending less money, but also saving it.

When I read this article, I was shocked to read that these everyday things that all Americans do to try to save money is also done by celebrities. It never really occurred to me that celebrities take such measures and really try to make sure that they don’t blow all of their money. Because they are celebs, we assume that they becasuse they have so much money they just spend it on whatever they want and whenever they want to. In reality, most of them are just normal people like us; the only difference is the amount of income they make. I now see that a majority of celebs do in fact save their money. There are just a few that are so careless with their money that they go bankrupt, which gives a bad rap to all of the other celebrities.

This article has really made me open my eyes and made me realize that I shouldn’t judge all celebs based on the bankruptcies claims I see in the news. They make more money, but so what? They really aren’t different from the rest of us because they do try to save as much money as possible where they can.

Now that I have researched both celebrities that have gone bankrupt and ones that put a huge effort into saving money, I want to focus more on what taxes do to their income. How much does taxes affect their income and effort to save money? What is this like compared to the average American who is considered be in the middle/upper class today? Hopefully I will learn more about this in my next blog post.

How "Invincible" Celebs Go Bankrupt

Source:http://onlyagame.wbur.org

Before I get into the details of exactly how celebrities try to spend their money, I’ve decided to look at what celebrities do to actually make them go bankrupt. To do this, I have looked at arguable one of the most famous and potentially the worst celebrity bankruptcies of all time: the bankruptcy of MC Hammer, which has been chronicled in the article “Everything MC Hammer Blew His Fortune On”. MC Hammer is just one of many celebrities who all do the same thing; they get so much money that they start to feel “invincible” and spend it on items that they really don’t need. This then leads to extreme debt and therefore filing for bankruptcy.

MC Hammer had the success that so many people dream of. One of his most successful albums, Please Hammer, Don’t Hurt ‘Em, was “the first hip hop album to sell over ten million copies”, which was a huge step for not only himself, but it also paved a way for hip hop music. During the year of 1991, what most say was the peak of his career, MC Hammer was “earning upwards of $33 million” and continued to make that for a few years after that. It seemed like MC Hammer had everything:fame, money. How could all of this just vanish in matter of years?

One of MC Hammer’s major downfalls what the amount of money he started spending on things that he really didn’t need and that were honestly quite excessive. For example, according to my article, Hammer had about 200 people working for him. He also had an entourage with 40 people in it! Total money lost during this time? About $500,00 PER MONTH. He also spent over $30 million in his lavish house with a “17-car garage”, pools, a tennis court, home theater and more. He also spent millions more on helicopters. As one can see, that can put a “slight” dent into one’s savings.

Looking at the big picture, one can clearly see that one of the major reasons MC Hammer became so in debt was because he was overspending so much; he couldn’t keep up with all of the money he was dropping. When I read this article, I was astonished to see what exactly he was spending his money. I couldn’t believe was dropping ½ a million dollars on an entourage. What is the point of that?! He was spending money on things that he clearly didn’t need! Just because you are a celebrity and make a lot more money than most people do, that doesn’t mean you can just go crazy and spend your money on anything and everything. There has to be a balance:yes, you have the ability to splurge, but you still also need to save your money.

Clearly, Hammer is like the worst case scenario of losing an entire fortune and having to file for bankruptcy. Celebrities are people just like us; there has to be ways that they make sure that they save their money and ensure that they have money to live off of for the rest of their lives. From this article, I’ve learned that if celebs don’t spend their money on things that they really don’t need, then they probably won’t fall into bankruptcy like many celebrities have because they spend their money unwisely.

In my next blog post, I will research what “frugal” celebs do to save money. Do they cut coupons? Do they buy stuff on sale? How do they exactly save money? This will allow me to see celebs on both sides of the bankruptcy spectrum.

Coincidence that majority of celeb bankruptcies are musicians??

Source:http://www.muzu.tv

We all have seen that many celebrities go bankrupt during some point in their lifetime, but we all wonder, is there a specific type of celebrity that has a bigger chance of going bankrupt? According to an article in TIME online labeled “13 Celebrities Who Went Bankrupt”, the majority of the most famous celebs that have gone through high profiled bankruptcies are in fact musicians.

Some of the biggest musicians known to the world have gone bankrupt: 50 cent (who is the most recent musician to file), Toni Braxton, MC Hammer, and Marvin Gaye. These musicians filed for bankruptcy for a variety of different reasons: Cyndi Lauper supposedly filed due to her “first group flop”, and Mick Fleetwood filed due to his “debts of $3,697,163”. There are a variety of different reasons why they claimed to have filed and their only alternative was to file, but they all have one thing in common:all these people are musicians.

While this may seem like a direct correlation of type of celebs to bankruptcies, I believe that this is merely just a coincidence. I don’t think musicians have a more likely chance of filing for bankruptcy during their career; every celebrity has an equal chance of this. It all depends on how wisely they spend their money and how much money they actually save/put away for future use. The bottom line is that there isn’t a specific type of person that has a greater chance that goes bankrupt. It truly depends on what a celebrity does with the wealth that they are given and how well they manage it.

In my next post, I am going to research more about exactly what celebrities do to make sure that they do not have to file for bankruptcy. How do they manage their money? Do they have savings? What makes them able to prosper for such a significant time period? Hopefully, this will all be learned in my text blog post.

Celebrity Bankruptcy

Source:https://40.media.tumblr.com

• Briefly explain why you are interested in studying your topic:
• I want to study this topic because ever since I was little, I have been fascinated with celebrities and how they can make so much money. 
• As I have gotten older, I have seen in magazines and online the growing number of celebrities that go bankrupt. This really puzzles me because how can these actors musicians,ect.. make millions of dollars a year, but then file for bankruptcy only a short period of time later.
• I want to learn more about how this exactly happens and what some celebrities do to make sure that this doesn’t happen to them.   

• The overall question I plan on answering by the end of the project: 
• Why are some celebrities prosperous when others become poor?

• Sub questions I will need to answer in order to answer the overall question:
• What kinds of celebrities typical go bankrupt (actor vs musician, type of personality)?
• How long does it typically take for celebrities to go bankrupt? 
• Do celebrities try to conserve their money? If so, how? 
• What are the consequences of celebrities filing for bankruptcy?  

• My plan of research (what specific Library Databases, specific websites, names of authors, people, etc. will I pursue to find the answers to the questions above): 
• I have created a google alert about my topic to inform me on the most up-to-date information.
• I will use google news to find creditable resources such as http://time.com/3956059/bankrupt-celebrities-50-cent/ , to find research about which specific celebrities have gone bankrupt and why. 
• I need to make sure not to use resources such as TMZ because they are not very creditable. 
• Databases: Britannica School, Clobal Issues in Context, Gale Virtual Research
• I will try to find videos and clips on celebrity bankruptcies-Youtube.

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