Who Wants To Be A Billionaire?

People.com had this absolutely fascinating article today about Spencer Pratt, “star” of MTV’s hit education show “The Hills”. I don’t watch the show, but everyone I know who does absolutely detests him in a completely uninhibited way. Like, if they saw him on the street, they would actually walk up to him and beat him senseless. I didn’t find anything particularly compelling about him, outside of rivaling Adolf Hitler for lowest popularity rating. But today, I saw that he delivered the following quote:

“Well, I'm trying to be a billionaire before 30. Once you find an open market, that's where you can make billions to trillions of dollars. Every big product, from Proactiv to the Internet—these were things that were just ideas. And I'm a free thinker. There is no box. I'm thinking about ideas that people might think are crazy, and I'm like, this world is crazy, where do you think we are? You want to tell me there's a planet and there's a universe, and gravity holding us down? It's like, okay, I'm crazy then.”

Gravity is so crazy. My favorite part of this quote is that when attempting to name two big products, he named the Internet, which is not precisely a product, and Proactiv, which I doubt is even among the world’s top 25,000 products. But what really caught my eye was his lofty goal: to be a billionaire by age 30.

Those of you who follow the NBA are no doubt aware of LeBron James’ stated goal of becoming a billionaire. Back in 2005, LeBron gave himself 15-20 years to do so, meaning he now has 13-18 years left. Spencer Pratt, on the other hand, has only 6 years left to achieve his goal, so he’s going to need to work really fast. Let’s break down the expected wealth of each man along his defined time horizon. For the purposes of analysis, I am going to presume no one murders Spencer before he turns 30, which is admittedly a rather large assumption.

Existing Wealth

LeBron James: He just finished his 4-year rookie NBA contract, earning $18.79 million. His Nike deal is widely reported to have had a $10 million signing bonus – in total, I would guess he’s cashed on about $50 million of the $90 million deal. Other endorsements likely add another $35-40 million (I’m guessing to date he’s made $10-$15 from Microsoft, $8-10 from Sprite, $3 from Upper Deck, plus a litany of other “small” deals). I’ll also add in another $1 million he presumably made in under-the-table cash payments while in high school. Net of tax, agent and lawyer fees and purchases of depreciating assets (like 28-inch spinning rims), and assuming a reasonable investment return on his money, I’m going to peg his current wealth around $65 million.

Spencer Pratt: My guess is $1 million.

Dollars left till a billion: LeBron - $935,000,000.00; Spencer - $999,000,000.00.

Future Income

LeBron James: He signed an extension which will pay him $60 million over the next 3 years – assuming the NBA doesn’t experience a massive increase in the total revenue pie, I estimate the pre-tax present value of his basketball earnings to be $150 million. I have him pegged for roughly another $20-$25 million annually in endorsements. I don’t think the endorsement projection has that much upside (in fact I think it’s overly optimistic) – while generally performing from a basketball standpoint, it’s apparent that he is not a compelling endorser versus the likes of Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods, largely because LeBron doesn’t come across with that much charisma. Endorsement pre-tax present value works out to about $100 million. Do some more number crunching from there, and I’m guessing by the year 2020, LeBron is worth in the neighborhood of $250-$300 million. I happen to disagree that if he were traded to New York, he would be worth a lot more money – the market seems pretty saturated with LeBron as it is. Maybe one of his investments hits it big (like suddenly everyone decides to ride bicycles), but I’m going to guess $300 million in the year 2020.

Spencer Pratt: I would guess that his going rate for parties is $25,000 – if he whores himself out (in this specific way) 30 times a year, he’s looking at $750k. If he has some savvy, he can probably get two-three good years of this type of income. If he leaks embarrassing photos or videos to the tabloids of either himself or his equally useless girlfriend, he can probably drum up another $250k. His own reality show should net him another $500k, and a subsequent appearance on “The Surreal Life” ought to bring in $200k more. I would ordinarily also think he could get another $300k out of stunt casting in B-movies, but he doesn’t seem to think too highly of movies.

"It's so much cooler to have people come up to me and be like, "Spencer Pratt!" and know my name, than to be Orlando Bloom, who's famous for being some pirate."

Anyways, if he manages his money wisely, I estimate he could be worth as much as $3 million by the time he’s 30.

Dollars left till a billion: LeBron - $700,000,000.00; Spencer - $997,000,000.00

Marrying Rich

LeBron James: There’s no way he marries a rich woman, he has too much ego.

Spencer Pratt: He’s already set to marry someone who doesn’t have all THAT much money, but that marriage should be finished within 10 months, leaving him a good 4-5 years to marry into some additional money. Unfortunately, he’s so widely regarded as a sleazebag that he probably won’t manage to marry a rich woman without a prenup. He may be able to siphon off some money, but it probably won’t exceed a million.

Dollars left till a billion: LeBron - $700,000,000.00; Spencer - $996,000,000.00

You may have read all of this, and thought that this whole entry was very superficial. After all, there’s a lot more to life than being a billionaire. Fortunately for us, Spencer has realized as much, and has set out life goals for himself that extend beyond becoming a billionaire.

"Well, I definitely want to go into politics later in my life. I plan to be governor at least, and president if possible."

And president if possible. It’s possible, Spencer. Be a free thinker. There is no box. Gravity is like, so crazy.