Making a lot of money before you’re old enough to drive can easily go very wrong, yet somehow, some child stars managed to deal with their finances a lot better than most people might expect.
A little house by the ocean
11-year-old Eve Plumb appeared in The Brady Bunch, and she put a lot of that early TV money somewhere practical. She bought a small oceanfront cottage in Malibu for $55,300 in 1969, or around $503,151 today, with her parents.Â
They held onto the property together for decades. Then, in 2016, Plumb sold the 850-square-foot property for $3.9 million. She clearly knew what she was doing with her money, which makes sense since she played goody-two-shoes, Jan Brady.
Paychecks went straight into savings
One of the major benefits Ron Howard had as a child actor was that his parents didn’t treat his salary like family spending money. Yes, he was famous as Opie on The Andy Griffith Show and as Richie Cunningham on Happy Days, but his home life was pretty normal.Â
His parents, Rance and Jean Howard, put most of Ron and Clint Howard’s earnings into savings accounts. They also had U.S. bonds held in their names. Aside from what they were legally required to protect, they pretty much just left a lot of the money alone.
The family paycheck came from Jodie
The thing with Jodie Foster’s childhood finances was that they weren’t simply pocket money for her. No, she was supporting the household with her paycheck. She worked in commercials, television, and Disney films like Napoleon and Samantha.
She later went on to appear in Taxi Driver as one of the 1970s’ most popular actresses. Her mother managed her career while Foster herself stayed in school and eventually attended Yale. Her money may have come in early, but Foster was careful. She knew it had a job to do.
Ranches became serious assets
Ricky Schroder was a child actor by every definition of the word. He was only nine years old when he started. He appeared in The Champ in 1979, and then in Silver Spoons just a few years later. Schroder went on to put most of his money into property rather than wasting it on cars and short-lived toys.Â
Together with his former wife, he owned several valuable properties, including a roughly 30-acre ranch in Topanga, California. They bought it in 2005. They sold it in 2019 for $9.3 million. That’s not all, however, as he also owned ranch property in Colorado.
Losing millions changed the rules
Donny Osmond’s story is slightly different because he didn’t get everything right. At least, not at first. His family, the Osmonds, made enormous amounts of money during the 1970s, when Donny was recording hits and starring on Donny & Marie. But the family ended up losing a lot of it through poor investments and financial decisions.Â
These issues taught Donny a lesson, though, and he began dealing with his money much more carefully. He took a financial education course and worked with an accountant and financial adviser. He also stopped blindly handing financial decisions to other people. It was a tough lesson, sure, but it was one he definitely learned from and needed.
Her parents wouldn’t let her spend it all
Life for Valerie Bertinelli seemed difficult when she was 15. She was a star on the hit sitcom One Day at a Time, yet her dad was very strict about what she could and couldn’t buy. It seemed pretty unfair. Except, her father was actually handling much of the business side of her career.
He put portions of her earnings toward taxes and representation, along with a trust. They limited her funds so heavily that she was able to continue living on money from the show long after it ended. It was annoying at 15, but at 50, it seemed much nicer.
A quarter of every check was protected
Melissa Sue Anderson was well aware of where chunks of her paycheck were going. She was only a teenager when she appeared on Little House on the Prairie in 1974, and by 15 she was pretty open with her finances. 25% of her earnings went into a trust fund, for example.
Another 10% went to her agent, and other expenses came out as well, including costs for her fan club. She didn’t treat her TV salary as some giant pile of spending money. No, she was careful with it, and she made sure that it would last.
Hamburger money paid for college
You might recognize Rodney Allen Rippy for his Jack in the Box commercials. He was the kid trying to eat a hamburger that looked almost as big as his head. His mother made sure that he didn’t simply burn through all those earnings while he was still a kid.
She got a trustee to handle the money, to start with. It helped Rippy a lot years later because the trust paid an allowance for rent and living costs while he attended college. That’s right, his childhood hamburger ads literally helped cover school.
She didn’t have to keep chasing television
Susan Dey played Laurie Partridge on The Partridge Family when she was just 17. She had almost no acting experience. Yet she managed to build the kind of television résumé most actors spend years chasing. She didn’t stop there, either.Â
Dey starred in L.A. Law and won a Golden Globe for her role. She continued to receive enough income from her long television career that she was able to eventually walk away from acting entirely in 2004. You can’t do that if you’ve mismanaged your wealth.
The money wasn’t sitting in a teenager’s checking account
Brooke Shields earned serious money long before most kids even had their first summer job. She appeared in Pretty Baby and earned around $27,500 for that film, though later offers were closer to $150,000.
She didn’t see it as simple spending money, though. She had a company created in her name to handle the money and hold onto it until adulthood. She continued bringing in money from modeling and advertising before heading to Princeton. All that before freshman year.
His father stayed on the business side
Scott Baio was only a teenager when he started to make a career for himself in Hollywood. He first appeared in Bugsy Malone in 1976, and then as Chachi on Happy Days. He also starred in Charles in Charge. Bao’s father, Mario, took on a management role for his finances when the family moved to California.Â
That way, Scott didn’t have to deal with contracts and career decisions by himself. He could focus on acting. That’s exactly what he did for decades, to the point where he had enough money to own multiple expensive properties around Los Angeles.
He bought a house with television money
There was a point during the late 1970s when Shaun Cassidy was earning as much as $2,500 a week from The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries. Yes, that was on top of the records he was selling and tours he was headlining, too.
But he refused to blow every check immediately. Cassidy instead decided to buy a house, with help from the family business manager. Later, however, he admitted to spending a bit too freely when he had grown up, but still.
Peter Brady moved into technology
Most people probably weren’t expecting Peter Brady from The Brady Bunch to go into computers. But that’s exactly what his actor, Christopher Knight, did. He co-founded Visual Software using his money from the show, and later started Kidwise Learningware.
He also founded Eskape Labs in 1998, which Hauppauge Computer Works bought in 2000. Beyond computers, Knight also invested in the Dr. Tattoff laser-removal business. He owned real estate and rental property as well.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
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