Celebs & Money

By Bruce Watson
Daily Finance

How much is a lunch worth?

On June 7, the answer will become clear as Warren Buffett will place a meal -- and a few hours of his time -- on the auction block. For several years, the legendary investor has donated a lunch at New York's Smith and Wollensky steak house to the highest bidder, with proceeds from the auction going to the Glide Foundation, a charity that works with San Francisco's homeless. And, if recent trends continue, this year's auction will once again break a record.

Buffett's lunches are famously expensive: Since 2008, they have fetched a minimum of $1.6 million per meal, and last year's auction set a new record with a top bid of $3,456,789. Then again, while the prices seem astronomical, it isn't hard to see how they could prove profitable -- after all, who better to offer investing tips than the famed Oracle of Omaha?

When it comes to pricey dates, Buffett takes the cake, but he's hardly the only celebrity who can fetch a fortune for a few hours of his time. On the less expensive end of things, a meal with Minnesota Viking Chris Kluwe recently went for $4,050, and a dinner with teen heartthrob Josh Hutcherson went for a mere $2,250 -- a bargain for some deep-pocketed fan of The Hunger Games. And, like Buffett, Kluwe and Hutcherson have used their time to support their favorite causes: Hutcherson's time went to help Abby Marsh, a young woman who was injured in a car accident, while Kluwe's meal raised money for Vote No, a group that fought against Minnesota's anti-gay marriage amendment.

But if Hutcherson and Kluwe represent relative bargains, who takes the upper end? Charitybuzz, a New York-based fundraising group, regularly auctions off dinners with some of the country's highest rollers. Here are their top-earning meal companions:

By Michael Comeau
Minyanville

To say it's been a great couple of weeks for Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA) would be putting it lightly.

On Wednesday, May 8, the rapidly-growing manufacturer of electric cars became a Wall Street darling after its announced its first-ever quarterly profit, driven by significantly better-than-expected sales.

But even more importantly, the highly-influential Consumer Reports gave the Tesla Model S luxury sedan a stunning 99/100 score, making it the highest rated car of all time.

That wasn't the only source of praise for the Model S.

Motor Trend named it the 2012 car of the year (as did many other outlets), and extremely positive reviews have streamed in from everyone from Edmund's to Yahoo Autos to the Wall Street Journal.

So I'll get right to the point. I think Tesla is right where Toyota (NYSE:TM) was with the Prius hybrid at the turn of the millennium.

It's the largest book retailer in Canada and some even blame the demise of the independent bookstore in our country on the book retailing giant. It's core business is books and - to a degree - music, but the store also has become known for selling lifestyle products, including toys and decorative home accessories. It's become a haven for people who want to take their time browsing magazines and fiction and who might want a Starbucks latte while they're at it. But despite the obvious, there might be a few things you didn't know about Indigo's story and the top people behind it. Have a look at 10 things you didn't know about Indigo:

These days, it seems talent isn't enough. Celebrities have to get their name and image out there as well, hawking so many products with their faces on them that it can be utterly nauseating. Toys, clothes, fragrances, jewelry, food, drinks, accessories and more: the list goes on ad infinitum.

But some things celebrities lend their name and image to are downright dangerous, particularly when they get in bed with the credit and debit card companies largely responsible for so much debt around the world.

More and more the public is able to apply for credit and debit cards with their favourite celebrities face on them, but the fees and interest charges are often so high that only the rich and famous who endorse these cards can afford them.

​Ahead, we'll show you whose promoting what cards and pull back the curtain on what the card companies are charging you to have them.

By Dan Caplinger
Daily Finance

Real-estate developer Roman Blum wasn't famous during his lifetime. But when the 97-year-old died in 2012, he quickly became famous for something he didn't to do during his lifetime: write a will. Or, if he did write one, he neglected to leave it where someone could find it.

Blum, a Holocaust survivor with no living family members, passed away with an estate worth nearly $40 million. It is the largest unclaimed estate in the history of the state of New York, and unless the court-overseen administrator of his assets finds relatives through a genealogist search, every penny could end up going to the state government.

Legacies Left in Limbo

Millions of people don't have wills, never considering the consequences of their actions on the family members and friends who survive them.

Fortunately, getting a will in place doesn't have to be complicated; even a simple will is enough to express your intent for who should receive your assets after your death. Moreover, if you have minor children, wills allow you to name a guardian for them that will avoid any uncertainty about who you want to care for them if something happens to you. At the same time you get your will done, you should also consider some other valuable estate-planning documents. Living wills and health-care proxies can give doctors and family members more guidance on how you want your medical care handled if you're incapacitated, while a durable power of attorney allows a trusted person to handle your finances when you can't. Here's a rundown of the 10 important documents you should have.

You may not be as rich or famous as the celebrities below, but their lives -- and deaths -- offer a cautionary tale for what can happen when you die intestate. Making a will might seem like a chore, but getting it done will go a long way toward avoiding family feuds after your death and having your memory overshadowed by discord among your loved ones.
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By Justin Sharon
Minyanville.com

Wall Street hits dizzying heights as conspicuous consumption runs amok. New technologies utterly transform America. A country loosens its collective collar, in the mood to indulge again after emerging from a dire decade during which war was everywhere. And mixed in with the rampant materialism, much hand-wringing and anxiety over a loss of moorings and meaning amid all the empty excess. 1922? Yes, but arguably an equally apt description of 2013. Thus, with due respect to The Great Gatsby's unforgettable last line, there is actually no need to be "borne back ceaselessly into the past," for many themes of F. Scott Fitzgerald's iconic novel remain fresh as a Daisy, Buchanan or otherwise.

As the summer movie season is now upon us – it's also time to get ready for an onslaught of comic book heroes likely to dominate the box office.

We know that Superman (Man of Steel) and Iron Man 3 will be making appearances this summer, as well as X-Men's The Wolverine and The Avenger's buddy Thor (The Dark World).

Spiderman and Batman were last year's big screen faves – as well as the gang that made up The Avengers, like The Incredible Hulk and Captain America.

But who can add box office champ to also being the protector of the people and the last thing to stand between us and pure evil? According to Box Office Mojo, here are the box office champs that came out swinging:

By Sterling Wong
Minyanville

It was fitting that Robert Downey Jr., otherwise known as Tony Stark, rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange yesterday morning.

Downey's new film, Iron Man 3, which unofficially kicks off the traditionally lucrative summer blockbuster season, is set to provide Disney (NYSE:DIS) with a substantial revenue boost. While not likely to be the astounding breakout hit domestically that last summer's The Avengers was, Iron Man 3 is projected by box office sites like BoxOfficeMojo.com to gross some $400 million, which would probably make it the top-grossing film of 2013.

Thanks to the popularity of the Marvel superhero, Disney is likely to be the top-performing movie studio of the six major players this summer. The company is also releasing another much-anticipated sequel, Monsters University, which is likely to earn close to $300 million.

UBS is also positive about Disney's Marvel investments, upgrading the stock to Buy from Neutral earlier this week and lifting its price target to $72 from $55.

The biggest risk of the Mouse House this summer is its re-imagination of The Lone Ranger, starring Johnny Depp. With little buzz so far and an estimated budget of $250 million, the Western will find it hard to match its price tag domestically. Disney will have to hope that Depp's star power can boost the movie's international take.

By Matt Brownell
Daily Finance

Basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has a fascinating piece at Esquire.com this week in which he shares some of the advice he wishes he could give to his 30-year-old self. There are a lot of great nuggets of wisdom from the NBA's all-time leading scorer, including an admonition to learn French and to cook more often. What caught our eye, though, were his suggestions that he wished he'd become financially literate at a younger age.

"I chose my financial manager, who I later discovered had no financial training, because a number of other athletes I knew were using him," he recounts. "Consequently, I neglected to investigate his background or what qualified him to be a financial manager. He placed us in some real estate investments that went belly up and I came close to losing some serious coin."
As Abdul-Jabbar acknowledges, his experience is not unusual among athletes. Countless professional athletes have gone bankrupt after making tens of millions of dollars over the course of their careers; baseball star Lenny Dykstra and NFL quarterback Mark Brunell, for instance, were done in by unwise investments.

Daily Finance


Just because you've attained wealth doesn't mean you'll keep it. In 2011, the number of millionaire households in the U.S. dropped by nearly 2.5% (from 5,263,000 in 2010 to 5,134,000 in 2011), according to The Boston Consulting Group, a global management consulting firm.

Even the richest of the rich aren't immune from sudden -- and complete -- plunges in net worth. The big names we've rounded up here, from Elton John to Dorothy Hamill, all filed for bankruptcy at one point, falling into the same money-draining traps that can cost us all: poor budgeting, loose spending habits, failed business ventures, even extending too much financial support to friends and family. They've managed to rebuild their professional and financial lives.