Video: Ashton Kutcher Gives Good Advice

It's rare to see celebrities offer profound insights. But American actor Ashton Kutcher seems an exception, as shown by his talk at the the Teen Choice Awards.

The background from screaming groupies, who seem hardly listening, have partly muted Mr. Kutcher's talk (hat tip Professor David Henderson), so you have to turn on the volume

Mega-Success, Downfall and Sentimentalism

Libertarian columnist Robert Ringer writes,

Seems like we’ve been here before … many, many times. Whitney Houston’s tragic death is the latest in a long string of drug- and alcohol-related celebrity deaths, going back to Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin in 1970, Jim Morrison in 1971, Elvis in 1977, Andy Gibb and John Belushi in the eighties, and, of course, Michael Jackson in 2009. And these are just a few of the names that come quickly to mind.

When a show-business icon dies prematurely, we tend to focus on his/her death rather than the life that led to that death. In the case of Whitney Houston, her travails were in the news so much over the years that even I — not a frequent showbiz reader — was aware of them. Anyone who watched the evening news couldn’t help but know about her bouts with drugs and alcohol, and, perhaps even worse, her fifteen-year marriage to a man who physically abused her.

Mr. Ringer says that immaturity (from youth) compounded by loneliness, rather than mega-success brings about the typical downfall of many celebrities.

In my view, mega-success and too much expectations of one’s value to the world can exacerbate ‘immaturity’, aside from inability to adjust to realities. In the average person, wisdom usually supersedes immaturity as people age. So if age doesn’t usher in maturity, then there must be something else wrong.

And possibly intractable egotism bloated by mega-success can be a factor in one’s downfall (not necessarily limited to celebrities). Again the inability to adjust with changing times could bring about loneliness and frustrations.

Of course, all the above depends on the individual’s value scales. This means that while some celebrities fall for the above traps, many others don’t.

But there is another factor I would like to point out. While I lament the loss of many artists of my generation, I usually get miffed at the excessive sentimentality expressed by many to recently deceased celebrities.

For me, this represents an action inconsistent compared to when the celebrity lived. Then, nobody seems to given a whit to what the celebrity did (most especially when they were down). Somewhat like schadenfraude, death becomes an opportunity for credit grabbing, promotion of shows and for social signaling.

Yet this seems part of how public opinion gets molded.

Learning from the Financial Mistakes of Sports Celebrities

Ron Lieber of the New York Times offers 3 lessons to the financial blunders of sports celebrities (bold highlights mine)

Michael Vick will take the field on Sunday wearing the uniform of the Philadelphia Eagles, who took him in after his imprisonment for helping to run a dogfighting ring.

But thanks to his personal bankruptcy filing after he went to jail, he will also be playing for BMW Financial Services, Dodson Pest Control, Summertime Pool and the Monticello Woods Homeowners Association. They are not sponsors. Instead, they and many others have a claim on his future earnings.

Bankrupt professional athletes are a sad fixture on the sports scene, and Mr. Vick isn’t even alone among quarterbacks who have hit the financially injured reserve list. The former Cleveland Browns star Bernie Kosar and the current New York Jets backup, Mark Brunell, have had their brushes with bankruptcy, too.

Sports stars may or may not mess up more often than the average person who earns a lot of money really fast, but their troubles seem outsize because of their fame and the pathetic schemes they fall for. The stakes are high for football players in particular, since their average professional career lasts just four seasons or so and may leave lingering injuries and the health costs or physical limitations that come with them.

Mr. Vick is the rare athlete who is getting a second chance. His lucrative new contract with the Eagles should allow him to pay all of his creditors in full.

Read the rest here

Mr. Lieber’s lessons can be summed up as: avoiding “questionable schemes” of investments, limiting “outsize financial gestures” or largesse and seeking “professional financial help”

It is true that throwing money to businesses or to financial assets, where insufficiency of knowledge or comprehension to the undertaking dominates, does not represent investments, but gambling.

Also, it takes a lot of introspection to manage the ego. This would be the most difficult part, self-control. As Confucius once said, he who conquers himself is the mightiest warrior.

And lastly, professional help represents an option but not a prerequisite.

That’s because as I have previously stated

financial success depends on a simple equation:

Income – Expense = deficit or surplus

If spending is greater than income where constant excess spending is financed by drawing from future income (debt), one ends up consuming wealth…

It would need or take only common sense and self-discipline to observe this rule.

And common sense says that self-education should account for a vital part of the action to achieve self-discipline or emotional intelligence.

Only after financial goals and limitations have been established, is when the need for professional help arises. That’s because carte blanche delegation of personal finances would signify as high risk proposition, for the simple reason that a fund manager’s incentives may not align with those of the client.