Are there any poor major talk radio hosts?

[westfield60]

I was thinking aboutthe post about Brian Phelps starting up his podcast with his wife in their home and thinking it must be nice to not have to worry about money and just do something to pass the time. This then led me to think that most of the major talk radio hosts are multi-millionaires and yet they always seem to be telling the average guy what to think. Some examples:

John and Ken always seem to yell the loudest about any increase in taxes and yet John moved from a palace in Beverly Hills to a similar palace in Santa Monica in a so called recession. I hardly think he is having any challenges on paying for his mortgage, his cars, his kids or food.

Rush Limbaugh like many talk radio hosts want no government involvement in the Health Insurance industry and yet when he had his heart problem in Hawaii he was able to pay the 300 plus thousand dollar bill on his credit card. How many of his listeners do you think are able to do that?

Tom Leykis has a beautiful Santa Barbara ranch and now decries the million or so he spent on his podcast and yet he sat around for 3 plus years collecting a generous paycheck which I'm sure paid for the podcast in a few months.

Geraldo Rivera loves to ask other people to show sympathy for the poor migrant while he lives in a secluded mansion, is limoed around town and his kids attend private school. I hardly think he has ever experienced one of our So Cal emgency rooms, or the ever growing traffic of packing more and more people into a limited land area or the increasing taxes needed to pay for public services.

 

[MC]

Rusty Humphries said he had to file BK on his deceased wife' medical bills. A fill-in host for Randi Rhodes said she was in foreclosure in FL. I think it depends on the person's situation and how adaptable they are.

Some have other careers and businesses. I heard one host a he lost allot of money on dot-com stocks.

Dave Ramsey said:

1) have medical insurance
2) have disability insurance
3) Invest and save in a conservative fashion
4) Have another career or a spouse that works
5) live below your means
6) Avoid buying a house till your established
7) if laid off, do not drain your assets, even if you have to deliver pizzas

Be debt free!

 

[davideduardo]

Tom Leykis has a beautiful Santa Barbara ranch and now decries the million or so he spent on his podcast and yet he sat around for 3 plus years collecting a generous paycheck which I'm sure paid for the podcast in a few months.

You are totally ignoring how hard it is to accumulate any significant amount of money today.

Without knowing the specifics of Mr Leykis' background a million bucks is likely a significant percentage of his life savings.

It takes about $2.2 million to get a million, net, in today's American and California tax environment when that income comes from a salary (taxed at ordinary income rates) such as what Mr Leykis had with KLSX. Let's say, for argument, that he was making $1 million a year... he would net less than $500 k, and from that take living expenses and save the rest. So saving $1 million could take five or six years, easily. And if he had pre-recession investments, much of that could have been erased.

It's quite possible that the cost of the podcast has cost this person much or most of their savings, as well as mad paying for "the ranch" and other things much more difficult.

Geraldo Rivera loves to ask other people to show sympathy for the poor migrant while he lives in a secluded mansion, is limoed around town and his kids attend private school. I hardly think he has ever experienced one of our So Cal emgency rooms, or the ever growing traffic of packing more and more people into a limited land area or the increasing taxes needed to pay for public services.

Unless you inherit, most of us start with low incomes and few luxuries. In California. we are all are hurt by increasing taxes directly, and as an effect of employers reducing payrolls or moving to other states or countries where businesses are treated with greater respect and encouragement; NY state and NYC are almost as bad.

Geraldo Rivera obviously did not start at the top, and did go through the equivalent visits to ERs in Brooklyn where his parents were a cab driver and a restaurant worker. I'm sure his cab-driving father knew all about traffic and his mother knew all about minimum wage food service jobs.

Similar things can be said about John and Ken and Rush; all started at the bottom and endured hardships.

We don't forget our formative adult years, even if we are successful later in life.

 

[AM FM listener]

It is so difficult to consistently earn a lot of money over a working career, which is usually 40 or more years. Some have spurts where they make a lot of money but then the temptation is to spend it on a lifestyle they think they can keep up for the rest of their career. Saving money during the good times is key because for most, the good times are temporary. Of course, the savings must be invested prudently too. I often think these 60- or 70-year old rock stars keep doing "comeback" concert tours because they either didn't save or didn't invest well when they were in their prime so the money runs out. I wonder if that happens to some old radio pros too.

 

[radio-darn]

I was thinking aboutthe post about Brian Phelps starting up his podcast with his wife in their home and thinking it must be nice to not have to worry about money and just do something to pass the time.

Sounds like the battle cry of class warfare.

Howard Stern's a multi-millionaire for sure, but it's hard to imagine too many other talk hosts have the principal to enable them to live high on the hog for the rest of their lives without working. How much do you need to have in savings/investments to get say, $250,000 a year after taxes?

 

[davideduardo]

Howard Stern's a multi-millionaire for sure, but it's hard to imagine too many other talk hosts have the principal to enable them to live high on the hog for the rest of their lives without working. How much do you need to have in savings/investments to get say, $250,000 a year after taxes?

Assuming about a 3% to 4% return on capital, and investing in some things that are tax-free (bonds that don't appreciate) and others (stocks that can keep pace with inflation) you'd need around $5 to $6 million if you planned not to touch the capital and live off the income.

Of course, if one had been a big earner, somewhere over $24,000 a year would come after age 65 from Social Security, too.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Assuming about a 3% to 4% return on capital, and investing in some things that are tax-free (bonds that don't appreciate) and others (stocks that can keep pace with inflation) you'd need around $5 to $6 million if you planned not to touch the capital and live off the income.

Of course, if one had been a big earner, somewhere over $24,000 a year would come after age 65 from Social Security, too.

A little over 20 years ago I was quite enamored over my acquired skills as a developer of Excel Spreadsheets so I built one with my 401ks and my anticipated Social Security income and projected me on out to age 91... just in case. ;D

I was able to predict a future that had me surviving financially... but one that met the criteria of a quote from Warren Buffett. "Plan so that the last check you write will be to the undertaker.... and that will be the one check that bounces."

My spread sheet had formulas and macros so that I could change anticipated appreciation of capital by just changing one number up or down, and I factored in anticipated inflation which could also be adjusted very easily.

1. I know for a fact that many of the people giving political speeches today have not done a similar thing... or they could not make some of the statements that come out of their mouths.

2. After the crash of 2007-2008, I threw up my hands and said "To hell with it!" It is what it is. I have had almost 20 years to shape up my meager, pitiful assets, and almost 20 years to hone my spending habits and curb my taste for toys. (I didn't say CUT OUT toys.... just keep them under control. ;D ) My to-do list for the next six months includes: Get some spread sheets updated. Let's make sure no checks bounce before we get to the undertaker.

Now, back to the original topic of this thread: I don't think a major talk radio host could ever do what I did as a self directed project. You could never go on the radio and make some of the outrageous statements and ask the dumb-as-a-rock questions that are part of talk radio today if you had the facts in front of you that a personal financial plan throws in your face.

I don't doubt however, that some of the talk people turn that task over to some good financial managers who have the good sense to never tell the host the truth about how they are building wealth for them... lest it dilute the host's ability to be colorful on the air.