right, cause ted nugent only buys necessities and never, ever spends on comforts above and beyond the bare minimum.

Because disaster could strike and you could end up having your mansion forclosed like is happening to these ex-rich folk now!

At least if you buy in cash, it's yours. Then you only have to worry about feeding the tax man.

IMO, if you have the cash on hand to buy something outright, it rarely ever makes sense to finance. I hate debt. I buy everything in cash when at all possible.

Now he does. I also remember the interview where he said his advisors lost all of his money in the late 70s' early 80s on "investments" like Clydesdales and mink farms and lavish expenses. He fired tham all and rebuilt his wealth through constant touring and is now once again financialy stable.

What blows me away about Ed is how visible he was for so long and how he still has money problems--Tonight Show, Publishers' Clearinghouse, Star Search, Tv's Bloopers/practical jokes--where did all the $$$ go??

What do you suppose Ed's alimony payments were like every month?

I'm sure that's where a MASSIVE chunk of it went.

Odds are, the money he paid in alimony alone in his lifetime could reasonably support every active poster on this forum for the rest of our lives.

LOL.

I would have NEVER, ever married Ed and I don't care how loaded he (or I) was :)! A fool and his money...

Lack of a prenup = more lack of planning.

I get what you're saying but as I said before, that's a point of view driven by emotion rather than sound financial goals (i.e. "highest return over time").

I don't particularly like debt either but the way I see it there are some things worth borrowing for and some things that aren't. The former ("good debt") things are assets and investments. Investing in yourself, your education, etc. Buying or starting a business. Research. Things like that. The latter ("bad debt") is stupid frivolous stuff that's going to depreciate (cars, boats, plasma TVs, 22" chrome rims, crap like that).

"Debt" is not necessarily bad. It's a tool like any other - it can be used and it (potentially) can be misused. Using it properly allows you to leverage tremendous power - look at Donald Trump. Using it poorly will quickly land you in deep trouble, holding a bunch of valueless crap while owing a huge debt burden for it.

Ed McMahon was incredibly stupid because he bought frivolously and didn't protect his assets. There's insurance available both for medical coverage AND to pay one's mortgage in the event of injury, illness or incapacitation. It's flabergasting to me that these people that control so much money have such little financial common sense when it comes to things like this. As I said before, I'll be lucky to control 10% of the wealth Ed McMahon does in my lifetime. But I'll sleep a lot easier at night knowing that what I do have is protected and in a "nuclear scenario" I'm not going to lose my shirt like him.

I bet Ed's done a lot of partying in the last 85 years. He's got that.

Apparently he has done pretty well. They showed his "crib" on MTV recently, he has a large number of acres and a nice house on it in Michigan, where he has hunting trips and things. Also he has some business that he created that sponsors hunting trips, merchandise for hunters etc. His wife is still pretty hot, 20 years ago she was absolutely smoking hot on Det. TV and radio.

Sammy Hagar has also done very well...he has a nice crib in Mexico and at least one in the US...he sold that Cabo Wabo tequilla company for hundreds of millions to add to his rock and roll millions.

not all rockers piss it all away...

McMahon's problem is nobody is buying expensive houses right now. He needs to drop the price on his house if he wants to sell it--and take a loss.

I saw the show about Sammy Hagar too. I thought his wife would look different. Don't get me wrong she is hot. But looks like she should be driving and SUV and going shopping on Rodeo Drive. Thought she would be a little more "earthy" not made up like a Barbi doll.

Here is an example of good debt:
I have commercial income property, tenant is there for 10 years, paying me, my loan, and expenses. Lease expires, I renew for another 10 years, they renew or I get a new tenant. Said loan has been paid down considerably. The real estate has risen in value, I re-finance, raise the rent, take out a chunk of cash, tax free (legally) and reinvest the cash, or if I had the "Ed" brain I would piss the money on stuff and/or a bigger house.
The key is the $$$ I take out is tax free.

Just doing a little research on Sammy Hagar... he recently sold 80% of Cabo Tequilla for $80 million and kept 20% of ownership.

Here is a cool article about how he started the whole thing... members of VH invested at first but dropped off after a couple years and Sammy kept on going with it. It shows a couple of things: looking ahead/forward and sticking to an investment until it bears lots of fruit.

http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/apr2007/sb20070402_845711.htm

I can't believe Sammy Hagar is 60 years old!

he doesnt look it or act it... 60 is the new 40... :)