My Hero: The Teenage Witch
Posted on March 8, 2005 6 Comments
I was watching 20/20 on Friday night when a feature about celebrity spending came on. “Oh great,” I thought, “another segment on The Fabulous Life of Nick and Jessica!” (Why is it every time I watch The Fabulous Life of… on VH1 everything I own suddenly feels inadequate?)
Much to my surprise, however, the segment featured young celebrities who have managed to save their earnings amidst a growing backdrop of Hollywood excess. In my disdain (or is it jealousy?) for celebs’ seemingly out of control materialistic appetites, I never thought about how saving could adversely affect one’s career. What would J.Lo be without her expensive clothes, rock-hard body (produced by top-earning trainers), her entourage and all her sparkley diamonds? I’m pretty sure she’d probably be a very driven back-up dancer (sorry J.Lo, can we still be friends?).
After running past all of Hollywood’s best-known spenders, 20/20 took a look at two who choose to save: the blonde kid from 7th Heaven and Melissa Joan Hart, best known for her work in ABC sitcom Sabrina the Teenage Witch, but who also was one of my favorite teen stars in Clarissa Explains It All. She’s also done a few movies, and even shot a video with the Crazy (literally) songstress Ms. Britney Spears.
According to 20/20, MJH has done such a good job of saving her cash that she’ll never have to do a project she doesn’t want to. It sounds like she’s made smart investment decisions while avoiding splurges. When she does buy expensive items, she buys art, which she says she can sell if times get tough. Now that’s our kind of girl!
If I gave out awards, and maybe I will, I would give one to MJH for being such a super (and smart) saver. In the meantime, I plan to try contacting her publicist for an interview with her. I’m sure everyone would like to know what’s behind her great savings discipline and how she manages to keep everything in order, right? Of course I know it’s not realistic! I don’t care! She’s my new hero!
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6 Responses to “My Hero: The Teenage Witch”
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March 8th, 2005 @ 4:08 am
Savings is for people who NEED to save. If Jessica and Nick buy a $200,000 car they will not go broke, you probably will. Therefore it is irresponsible to buy such items for someone in your position, not theirs.
Celebrities do not always have “Out of control material appetites,” they simply have the means to afford such luxuries.
I’m sure if you had $40 million pouring in each year, you wouldn’t be living in your same house or driving your same car. I wouldn’t
!!
If you are bringing in $40 million a year and spend only 30% and save the other 70%, that’s $12 million a year, approx $38,000 a day. Put that into perspective, and a $2,000 treatment at a day spa actually doesn’t sound so bad.
-Cheers
March 8th, 2005 @ 4:52 am
Looks like J. Lo beat me to the comments here….
But I wanted to say I think the interview is a great idea. I think it would make an interesting read so go for it.
I am indeed interested to know what inspires younger people to save. I know I wish I had the same inspiration that many of the (mostly 10 years my junior) PF bloggers do.
Retiring early so i can stop “workin for the man” is my current carrot and it didnt really click until recently.
March 8th, 2005 @ 5:10 am
One caveat to the $40 million celebrity lifestyle, however:
The intelligent celebrities set themselves up so that they are ready if (when) it ends. Fame, after all, can be a fleeting thing.
One’s being accustomed to $2k day-spa treatments may, however, be somewhat more difficult to shed.
I have my doubts as to the number of high-profile, high-earning celebrities who save 70 percent of their income. It is not as if the pomp and circumstance of Hollywood necessarily “allows” for this.
March 8th, 2005 @ 4:15 pm
To respond to Anonymous, I think it’s clear I wouldn’t live the same life if I were loaded
I don’t know what celebrities make, or what percentage they spend, and I don’t pretend to.
My point was that despite all the big spenders out there who follow the “spend it if ya got it” philosopy, there are still some who shy away from the culture of spending.
I hope we can view these folks as inspiration to buck the trend of spending and focus on saving! After all, that’s what my site is about!
March 9th, 2005 @ 12:34 am
Holy cow. Sorry about trashing your blog with my 35 repeat posts, Nicole!
Every time I clicked PUBLISH, I got the wonderful 404 File Not Found page. Evidently it found SOMETHING, huh?
Again … sorry ’bout that!
March 10th, 2005 @ 3:47 pm
I am always interested in that — I remember seeing an MTV “Cribs” episode about Moby and just thinking it was wonderful that he still lived like a normalish person — none of the insane celebrity excesses we are used to seeing. I wonder what it does to children to see that sort of consumption touted everywhere?