Fenzo

Kevin Costner’s wife asked for $248,000 a month in child support. In court, she said she didn’t know how she’d afford groceries. They had a prenup. It gave her 30 days to leave his house after she filed for divorce. A judge had to order her out. They married in 2004 and had three children. In May 2023, after 18 years, she filed. The house was his, bought in 1988, before the marriage. The prenup paid her $100,000 on the wedding day, $100,000 on the first anniversary, and $1 million after she filed. He offered about $51,000 a month. A judge set $129,755 for now. She asked for more. She moved into a $40,000 a month rental and said it wasn’t enough for the kids. That summer, she was photographed on vacation in Hawaii with a family friend, Josh Connor. In September 2023, the judge decided: $63,209 a month. In the video below, Kevin arrives at court: “We’re talking about somebody I love on the other side.” Then listen for what she says is in the kids’ DNA. She later married Josh Connor. The case for Christine: 18 years, three kids, and a husband who made over $1 million a month on Yellowstone. The case for Kevin: she signed the prenup, and their oldest son drives a 15 year old truck. Was $63,209 a month for three kids fair, or did she ask for too much?

Robert Kiyosaki’s wife told him “I’m out of here. I don’t need you anymore.” They had been married for 35 years. He built the Rich Dad empire. She became a wealthy woman in her own right. He says he stopped chasing excellence. She never did. One day she looked at the life they had built and decided she no longer needed him. In the video below he says it still hurts. When you have as much money as she does, she doesn’t need you anymore. She is a rich woman. He calls himself a “big fat beta” for what happened. He stayed loyal. He never cheated. He built the nest. Then she left. They still work together in business. He says she’s still his best friend. But the marriage ended because the money removed the need. In the video he adds: a lot of marriages are about survival. You need each other. Once the kids are gone and the money is there, people start leaving. Was the real problem that he stopped chasing excellence, or that too much money made her realize she no longer needed him?

Steve Jobs was worth over a million dollars at 23, over ten million at 24, and over a hundred million at 25. In the video below, he explains what that actually felt like. He said it was not that important because he never did it for the money. The most important thing was the company, the people, and the products they were making. He never sold any stock. He just believed the company would do well over the long term.

Steve Jobs started NeXT with his own money after Apple forced him out. The company was 90 days old. In the video below, he explains what he was building. He left Apple in 1985 after losing a power struggle inside the company he had grown to $2 billion. In September he started a new computer company with his own money. Most of the team were former Macintosh people who left secure jobs at Apple to follow him. They were building a powerful computer aimed at colleges and universities. He said the goal was not just another product. It was to change how learning happens in the next five years. The company had no revenue yet. The burn rate was already high. Apple later bought NeXT for roughly $429 million. Jobs went back. The computer almost nobody bought became the base for Mac OS X.

Ray Dalio had to borrow $4,000 from his dad in 1982. He had calculated that American banks had lent too much money to emerging countries. Mexico defaulted that August. He thought the stock market and the economy would fall hard. He was right about the debt crisis. He was wrong about what the market would do. Stocks went up. He lost money for himself and for his clients. He had a small firm then. He had to let people go. He was so broke he called his father for $4,000 to cover family bills. In the video below he calls it one of the most painful experiences of his life and also the best thing that ever happened to him. It changed how he thinks. He went from “I know” to “how do I know.” Would you rather be right and go broke, or be wrong once and keep the ability to come back?

50 Cent has spent $24 million on legal fees in his career. He does not have a manager. He has general counsel. In the video below, he explains why. He said when people agitate him he sends the lawyers. He does it for recreational purposes. He spends a million a year easily on legal fees. He has already done every deal a hundred times. He does not need someone taking a percentage to manage him. He said they all want to work at a percentage. You want a percentage of me? You did not build this. I built it. The same structure that lets him control the business also lets him use lawsuits as a tool. The $24 million is the cost of keeping that control.

Dolly Parton’s nephew was ordered by a court to stay away from her estate. The company that controls her empire says he threatened to destroy the brand. In the video below, the fight is laid out. Parton’s estate was valued at about $450 million. Her longtime manager Danny Nozell runs the company that protects her business. Her nephew Bryan Seaver was her head of security for nearly 20 years. He was the one who announced her death. After she died, he was fired. The company filed for a restraining order. Court papers include texts and emails. In one he wrote he would start a podcast dedicated to ruining her brand partnerships “or effing pay me.” In another he said “I’m not an entertainment person. I’m a killer.” Seaver says the messages were taken out of context. He says Dolly used to call him “her killer” as a joke. He calls the restraining order a publicity stunt. Was this a grieving nephew fighting for his place, or someone trying to leverage threats against a $450 million estate?

Thor Bjorgolfsson lost 99% of a $4 billion fortune in 18 months. In the video below, he says how it felt. In 2007 he was worth about $3.5 billion. Iceland’s first billionaire. Ranked 249th in the world. Then 2008 hit. His bank, Landsbanki, collapsed. The government seized it. His companies owed billions. He had personally guaranteed about $1 billion of the debt. He says the years from 2002 to 2008 were too fast. Deals came too easy. His net worth went from $100 million to $3.5 billion. Then the other way. After the collapse he was in the gray area. Somewhere near zero. Or below it. He did not declare bankruptcy. He spent years negotiating with creditors. Bricks were thrown through his window in Iceland. He was treated like the man who had helped bring down the country. He is a billionaire again. The 99% did not come back the same way. Was the loss the price of building a bank in a country too small for the bets he made, or proof that a man who can lose $4 billion and sit there talking about it was never playing with money he could not replace?

Bob Duggan sold Pharmacyclics to AbbVie for $21 billion. When he took it over it was worth $6 million. In the video below, he says what he told the people inside. The company was worth $15 million when he walked in. Then it dropped to $6 million. He stood in front of the employees and said he would make sure they all got their checks. The back door was wider than the front. Everybody stayed. Everybody worked. Five or six years later AbbVie paid $21 billion. Pharmacyclics owned half the drug. The whole thing was valued at $42 billion. He had no drug background. No college degree. He had sold a stitchery kit company before that. His son died of brain cancer. He kept buying the stock when it was under a dollar. Was the $21 billion the reward for a man who promised checks when the company was worth $6 million, or proof that a cancer drug is only worth that much the day someone else decides they need it?

Stephen Baldwin sued Kevin Costner for $3.8 million. He says he lost $4.5 million personally. In the video below, he says what the deal was really worth. Baldwin filed for bankruptcy at 43. He lost a house to foreclosure. The next year he was part of a group trying to sell oil-separating technology to BP during the spill. Costner’s brother had invented it. The group was chasing a $50 million deal with BP. BP told the group they only wanted to talk to Costner and his lawyer. Baldwin sold his shares back to the company for $500,000. He says he did not know they were worth $5 million. He says no one showed him the paper from BP that said the deal was happening. The jury sided with Costner. Baldwin got nothing. Was the $4.5 million the cost of not seeing the letter, or proof that an actor who thought money grew on trees was never the one holding the paper when the $50 million was on the table?

Aaron Carter said his career grossed over $100 million. At 18 he got hit with a million dollars in taxes and filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy. In the video below, he explains where the money went. He said before 18 the money went into his parents’ pockets. They were supposed to handle it. It went to cars. It went to boats. It went to a lavish lifestyle. It went every which way except into a trust fund. He said he was just a little kid that went on stage and performed. When he turned 18 the money was already gone. He filed bankruptcy to protect his parents from going to prison for mismanaging his finances. He is sitting in an apartment because he can’t keep money in his bank account. The $100 million never reached him.

Snoop Dogg has a net worth of about $160 million. His accountant once told him they should just file for bankruptcy. In the video below, he explains why he said no. He said there were times it got so bad his accountant said we should just do bankruptcy. His pride got involved. If he said bankruptcy, he would look like he fucked off everything. They started naming other artists who had done it. He said none of them were Black. You ain’t name nobody that look like me. They can do that and get back in the game and it won’t look crazy. He said when he does it, they say that n-gga fucked off his money, he ain’t shit. So now he has to start three feet behind the line again. He took the wrong deals for years. He used his name and likeness for the wrong reasons. He learned from the bad business. The pride that stopped the filing is the same thing that kept the money.