The following is a guest post by Buck Inspire, who’s living a fulfilled life within his means while delving into personal finance sprinkled with dining, entertainment, pop culture, technology, and travel.
Since Squirrelers broke down a player potentially giving up money for a shot at an NBA championship in another post, I figure he’ll enjoy my take on another celebrity’s money adventures. Justin Bieber made waves recently when he vacationed in Hawaii with his girlfriend Selena Gomez. I don’t know about you, but at 17, I had a minimum wage job so $10,000 would be closer to a year’s salary than accommodations for one night!
Bieber Stimulus Package
From another angle, he is stimulating the economy. The beautiful ocean front luxury hotel provides tons of jobs for Maui. Hawaii’s primary industry is tourism and without big whales coming through, five star hotels like the Four Seasons Maui at Wailea could collapse under all its expenses.
It’s All Relative
According to Forbes magazine, the Biebs raked in 53 million dollars. Using simple math, the Biebs makes about 1000 times more than the average US household. Taking his hotel rate $10,000 and dividing it by 1000, his vacation getaway translates to us mere mortals as $10/night. Don’t average Americans spend more than $10/night for vacations? After the year he had, Justin deserves some rest and relaxation. Mind boggling as it may be, he was actually being cheap!
Relationship Expense
Selena Gomez is no slouch either. Since both of them are young Hollywood, if he didn’t spend at least that much, wouldn’t he risk losing her because he wasn’t cool and too frugal? Too frugal, not cool?!? Ah, to be young and in love. Who wants to think about retirement plans, buying a home, and controlling debt? Actually, with all that money, he really doesn’t have to worry. So why not spend $10/night, by his standards, frolicking on the beach with his girlfriend?
Final Thoughts
Who knows, money changes everything. I’m still gunning to be a Guru Gladiator. But since I am only a personal finance blogger with average income, I would max out my IRA, save for a house down payment, or fatten my emergency fund with that $10,000, thank you very much. Maui is a beautiful place, but not for $10,000/night. I would stash that cash on myself. It’s too bad I didn’t take more singing and dance lessons!
If you strike it rich, would you upgrade your accommodations? Why or why not?
Stay Inspired!
Buck
Editor’s Comments: $53 million in one year, at that age? Kudos to the kid. With that start, retirement before college is possible. How about that!
Nice going for the Beebster. I hope he manages to hang on to and grow his fortune, as teen idols don’t have a good track record for career longevity. I’d hate to have to hear about his money troubles in later years… that would be a Bie-saster.
101C – Bie-saster? Lol. And yes, hope for his sake he makes smart decisions going forward.
Put in perspective, $10/night is a relative bargain. However, I just hope that he is more financially savvy than most celebrities otherwise he will be the subject of the next celebrity bankruptcy post.
You know what’s funny. What is that saying, “We like to build them up and tear them down?” When he turns into an adult, the story that sells more newspapers would be him blowing his fortune or getting into trouble. Would the general public want to hear how he was savvy and turned his fortune into billions or maintained it all? Train wrecks sell. If he did maintain or grow it bigger, I would actually want to hear and learn about his successful methods. Only time will tell!
Buck – yeah, I agree that train wrecks sell, but I’m also with you on having an interest in hearing about how he succeeded financially later in life…if that happens. Time will indeed tell, and hopefully we won’t read about another total career crash but rather someone with a good head on his shoulders who made sound decsions!
We can only hope. Speaking of train wrecks, wonder how traffic would be if we wrote “train wreck” type articles. Don’t want to be Perez Hilton or TMZ, but if traffic was your goal, one might have to think about this.
cashflowmantra – hopefully for his sake, he has some appreciation for how hard he would have to work for that $10,000 if he didn’t have his talent(?) and marketing backing. This train won’t run forever!
Agreed. Teen idols don’t have a good track record. But at 53 mill, he would have to screw up big time to squander all of that. That really would be a Bie-saster? You’re firing on all cylinders today 101C!
Buck – yes, it would have to be a big screw up to squander that kind of money, I agree. Of course, many highly paid athletes lose their fortunes through horrendous decisions and being disconnected from reality. Hope for his sake he’ll avoid that. Wouldn’t that be a nice story someday?
That would be a nice story. Sadly, I would say, more people would want to read about his failures than his success. What does that say about people in general? Deep down we are all catty and jealous?
It is good to see he is setting a better example than others but I still think he is spending too much. He could still stay in a place that is actually $10 a night.
Miss T – $10,000 seems like a lot, doesn’t it. Maybe if he ‘cut back’ to a place that was just $1,000 per night, it would work out well enough. Think of what he could do if he then took that $9,000 and invested it in stocks with an 8% annual return….oh never mind:)
Haha, a true personal finance blogger!
Years ago I stayed in a hostel for $8 a night. Memorable, that should be a post one day. How do you think his fans and the general public would react if he did spend just $10 a night?
This is crazy, $10,000 per night at 17 years old is insane in my opinion. On the other hand I do agree with other people that maybe he is setting a better example than other celebrity teenagers. I can’t see him spending all of his cash, I’m sure he has plenty under the bed for his emergency fund!
I’m sure he has a pretty nice emergency fund. I wonder what his handlers are doing with the excess cash. Investing? Would be interesting to find out.
There is no way I would pay those hotel rates. It is a waste of money. I would rather stay longer than go through a lot of money for a short stay.
$10,000/night is pretty insane. So I take it $10,000/week is more your cup of tea? I’m kidding. The number is pretty mind boggling.
Good for him! He recently shared his opinions on the healthcare system – despite the politics behind how and why, I like the fact he says it as he sees it: “Canada’s the best country in the world. We go to the doctor and we don’t need to worry about paying him, but here, your whole life, you’re broke because of medical bills. My bodyguard’s baby was premature, and now he has to pay for it. In Canada, if your baby’s premature, he stays in the hospital as long as he needs to, and then you go home.”
Can’t argue with that!
Seems like he has a good head on his shoulders. Maybe he’ll be one of the rare teen superstars that actually makes good as an adult. More power to him!