A House for $469 - What It's Like to Have the Buying Power of a Movie Star

Johnny Depp earned $27 million,

Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, and Daniel Radcliffe earned $27 million,

Meryl Streep earned $24 million, and

Cameron Diaz earned $ 20 million.

With that much money and the accompanying lifestyle, it's easy to see how some movie stars could become out of touch with how the rest of us live. They certainly seem to have extravagant tastes and they shop, and travel, and drive luxury cars. While toiling away in your office cubicle, you might think them spoiled and wasteful. However, if your friend told you she had found the perfect house and it would cost $469 what would you think of your friend? Is she being spoiled and wasteful? Time to look at the concept of equivalent buying power.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live like a rich person? If you fall in the middle class like most of us, your one dollar would equal just .0018 of one dollar to a movie star (or star athlete making $25 million, if you prefer). That's about 1/5 of one penny compared to your one dollar! You would need to live in a country with an amazing exchange rate to have comparable buying power, but then you might not have the amenities you would enjoy.

What You Could Buy

If you earned what these movie stars earned, here is what your buying power would get you.

You could buy a $250,000 home for $469. However, if you are a movie star you'll probably want at least a $15 million estate, which would set you back $27,000.

Your mini-entourage might include a personal assistant - $125,000, bodyguard - $100,000, stylist - $70,000, chef - $80,000, public relations manager - $150,000. Movie star's equivalent cost - $925.

You could have a top of the line notebook computer for about $4.

How about blowing it out with a $1,000 romantic dinner for two? $1.80.

Do you want your toddler to be a mini fashionista like Suri Cruise? That will cost you $3 million, while it cost Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes considerably less. If they made only $25 million, it would cost them $5,400, but they made more so it likely cost them less than half of that $5,400.

If you had 110 days to spare you could take an around the world cruise in Crystal Cruise's Crystal Penthouse with Verandah for $504 for two - that's $279,895 for you and me.

Why do these stars travel first class? Because they can. A first class round trip direct flight on American Airlines from LAX to London's Heathrow and back costs them the equivalent of $35 (that's $19,346 for mere mortals).

Do you feel the need for speed? Want to go from 0-60 in 2.6 seconds, and reach up to of 253 mph? No problem. Go ahead and spend $3,060 for that Bugatti Veyron that costs the little people $1,700,000.

You could literally reach the stars! Just cough up a mere $360 for the three-day Virgin Galactic program. We, the little people, would pay a galactic (pun intended) $200,000 per person.

If you ever wonder what it would be like for you to have the buying power of someone who earns $25 million per year, just multiply anything you want to buy by .0018 for a good guesstimate.

One thing the $25 million crowd might be missing that we in the middle class get is the thrill of the hunt when bargain shopping and the joy of reaching a savings goal so we can finally take that trip or buy that new refrigerator. These things are somehow sweeter and more meaningful when we've invested some time and effort into getting them.

Source:

(1) http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/53/celebrity-09_The-Celebrity-100_EarningsPrevYear_3.html