Market Report: Tobey Maguire's Divorce, Sia's Music Catalog, and the Homeowner vs. Renter Debate

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Visit Ernesta.com and order five samples for only $10 and you will get $50 toward any rug of your choice. That is E-R-N-E-S-T-A.com. This is Financial Tea. What's up rich people? It's me Healy aka Mrs. Dow Jones and this is The Market Report. And this is basically going to be a 15-minute episode that we release once a week to your podcast feeds where I go over what's going on in the market and what's going on in the market and what's going on in the market. And I'm going to be talking about the top three or four stories in financial pop culture. And today the stories are piping hot. So sippers, let's not waste any time. Let's jump into it. So the first story I want to cover is about our favorite Spider-Man, JK, Tom Holland, obviously you have stolen our hearts, but a Spider-Man, Tobey Maguire. And Tobey in recent years, you might know him from being Leonardo DiCaprio's friend. He's often with a 20-year-old of his own on a boat with Leonardo. But you know, 20 years ago, Tobey was king of the box office and king of Jennifer Meyer's heart. Yeah, Jennifer Meyer is his ex. They were married. And they have been trying to divorce for 10 years. And this week, it finally went through the divorce went through hallelujah. And they are now separated. I will say it is not fully done. It seems as though they have hired a quote unquote private judge to figure out some remaining matters, which I've never heard of before. But we are going to take the W for them and be excited that they are finally split in a way. I have to say when I first heard this story, though, it confused me, because I thought maybe that they had one of those rich person divorce arrangements. I don't know if you guys are privy to this. But there's this thing that happens with rich people where, you know, they're like, they don't want to actually get divorced because it's so expensive to get divorced. And so they will just like separate from their partner. And they both live separate lives. They can have relationships, but they never actually like divide their assets and stuff and deal with lawyers. Warren Buffett famously did this. He I think separated from his first wife in the 1970s. And then they were legally married until 2000. 2004 when she died, and he fully had another woman that he was living with. The three of them were friends. And then the moment that the wife died, he married the other woman. So he never had to go to divorce court. Oh, and you know, who else did this is Eric Schmidt, who's one of the founders of Google. And he is not together with his wife, Wendy, but she is still his wife. And fun fact, because you guys love tea, Eric, I know a girl that he was dating, and she was like, in her 20s. And it was the craziest, like six months of her life. She'd be like, yeah, I'm at Buckingham Palace for Thanksgiving. Like, what are you up to? I'd be like, okay, I'm a loser. I'm just like, with my family eating turkey, but you're with Kate and Will and your married billionaire boyfriend. Okay, baddie. I mean, all adventurous women do, right? But anyways, I thought that Toby and Jen were maybe having one of those sort of things where they just weren't splitting up for so long because they were being, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, savvy financially, but it actually turns out that they were actively trying to split up. It just wasn't going through. This is a great example of why you need a prenup. Also a good example of not being jealous of people's finances, because even if you think they're really rich, you don't know what their obligations are. But yeah, Toby and Jen, congrats. 10 years later, you are getting divorced and mostly congrats to your lawyers because it seems like they really ate it up on this one. Our next story is also a little bit about the fact that, you know, there's a lot of prenup-y, like, financial relationship-y, because, you know, I love that flavor. I think you guys do too. But Sia, you know, the famous singer who always wears a wig, who's always, like, swinging from a chandelier, she sold her music catalog, half of it, for $180 million. First of all, like, we should just talk about selling music catalogs in general, because this is such a hot thing that people are doing. Justin Bieber just did it. Sting has done it. Nickelback did it. And basically, the idea is that, like, when you're a singer, your songs are assets. So, like, All I Want for Christmas is You, amazing song, but that's also an income-producing asset. Like, every year around the holidays, Mariah Carey is making bank from that song. And so, she could make that bank every year off the song, or I could be like, can I buy that song from you now for a billion dollars? And who's to say that the lifetime earnings of All I Want for Christmas is You will maybe be more than a billion dollars? But if she takes the check right now, she doesn't have to wait for it, and she'll just have that liquidity right up front. So, that's what a lot of artists are doing. They're selling their catalogs, and the investor that's buying it is basically buying a claim on that future income. Okay, but back to Sia. Let's go through what happened, because there's a lot of crazy fine print. Obviously, $180 million, it sounds amazing, but according to the court documents, $165 million of the sale relates to music she created before she was married to this guy named Dan. And so, he was like, okay, you can actually have that portion of the money. I'll waive my claims to it. Just give me a million dollars. Crazy. But then, there's $15 million of the sale that relates to music created during their marriage. And that money is reportedly being held in escrow, which means that she's going to have to pay for it. And so, she's going to have to pay essentially parked. No one can touch it. While they work out how to divide it. And this doesn't mean that Dan automatically gets $15 million. It just means like that portion hasn't been allocated yet. And I don't know, this guy that she married just seems like such a dirtbag. Like, she also has to pay him $42,500 a month in child support, which is $510,000 a year. Like, what? And by the way, child support and dividing assets are separate obligations. So, like, paying one doesn't settle the other. He doesn't have to pay the other. And so, he is taking her to the cleaners. But again, this is an example of a crazy headline that tells you what she sold something for, how much she's getting paid, but it doesn't tell you what she's getting to keep. But also, this is just another example of why you need a prenup, especially when there is a big financial gap like Sia had with Dan, because you need to understand what happens to what you're building while you're together if you split up and to what happens to what you're bringing in. And you don't have to have Sia money to need to do this. I'm just good financial health. I was thinking about this with Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey, because with their prenup, she apparently put into it all these stipulations around what happens to her catalog and to the music that she creates while they're together. Because like, I mean, Sia doesn't even talk about Dan in her songs. It's not like Chandelier is like, I want to swing from the chandelier with Dan. You know, he's not even in them. But Taylor's music is literally all about a claim to it. But she put into the prenup, no, you can't. So you really just got to think ahead on these things. And I don't know, I also think it's the same thing as asking for a raise where it's like, I own my own business, I have employees. And whenever I hire someone new, I like think it's a green flag when someone, you know, negotiates their salary or asks for a raise. Like, I'm excited for them. I'm proud of them. I think that's just like good financial health and shows me that they're valuable, which is good. That makes me want them more. And I feel like the same thing can be said for a prenup. Like, it should just be something that's sort of like seen as cool and sexy and like that you like are an idiot for not asking for. So yeah, definitely got one if you are married. I'm definitely getting a prenup. I'm excited for mine, honestly. Like, a lot of girls look forward to their ring or their dress. I'm excited for that nup, you know what I mean? Okay, and for today's last story, just because I already ruined marriages for you, I wanted to also ruin buying a home. Just kidding. But story number three is that buying a home just became more expensive. Apparently, the housing market felt like we weren't being humbled enough. And the average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage jumped from 7.03% to 7.28%, which is the biggest weekly increase in four years. And meanwhile, in September, we added just 29,000 jobs and 4.2%. So if you are looking at all of this thinking, how am I ever going to buy that home. I really want to pick out a faucet. I would like to go to a marble yard and customize a bathroom. I get it. But I also feel like we need to take a step back before we spiral about being behind. Because remember, I am a millionaire who rents like renting is where it's at. I literally teach people how to build wealth for a living. And I send my landlord through built a check every month. So these things can coexist. You are not a failure if you do not own real estate. And I think somewhere along the way, we just confused owning a home with having our financial lives together. But I have to say holistically, like, not even looking at the data, everyone that I know who owns a house is so cash poor. So I think it makes you really financially stressed. And I feel like when you rent, you can be a little bit more serious about building wealth, because you're not always like repairing an HVAC machine or having to buy a new dryer. So I just think that like, it's not a report card. And we need to retire. This renting is throwing money away thing because it's so expensive to own. Like, my rent buys me somewhere to live a neighborhood I love flexibility, like I want to move again in two years. And it also lets me make expensive problems. My landlord dogs problem like literally this year, he's replaced my dryer and my dishwasher and he's paid for my apartment to be repainted. I love that when something major breaks, I just call him there is a person contractually obligated to deal with it and pay for it. Meanwhile, all my friends who are homeowners, they're paying mortgage interest, they've got property taxes, if you spilled their house, they have a heart attack because they have to pay for it to be, you know, clean insurance closing costs. And you do not get all that money back. Trust me, like, the bank is not putting your mortgage interest into a little savings account for you. Like, yes, paying down your loan builds equity, but the mortgage payment is only part of what the house costs. Like, Zillow shows you an estimated monthly payment. But owning a house is so much more than just that. And that monthly payment does not show you the emotional journey of like replacing a boiler. It's a lot. So before buying, just ask, can I afford this home and still invest? Like, can I make the down payment and still have emergency savings? If something breaks, am I paying for it? Or am I going to be financing it? Because getting approved for a mortgage and then being comfortable with that mortgage are two very different things. And so don't just jump into owning a home because you feel like you need to. And that's like part of the American dream. Make sure that you can actually live your life after closing. Now, I'm not saying never buy. Like, I probably will buy a second home first and then keep renting in the city. Like, I know buying gives you stability, gives you control, the opportunity to build equity. But a good life decision still needs to work. And I think that's what I'm talking about. I think that's what I'm talking about. I think that's a financial decision. And like for me, renting just means I can keep money invested that would otherwise go towards buying a home and I'm going to get a bigger return on it. I don't really think about owning a home as an investment strategy. Stocks are an investment strategy. They basically come with guaranteed returns. Whereas when you buy a house, there's no guarantee how much you're going to make on it. I will also say, I think that one of the reasons that people are so obsessed with home ownership is because they love customizing. Like we all grew up on HGTV. And like you guys, I don't know if you saw the Arc Digest article about my apartment, but like I have customized my apartment so much. I painted everything. I've replaced handles. I really made it my own. You are allowed to make your rental nice. It's not a waste of money. Change the lighting. Paint. Don't live in a rental like you're waiting for your real life to begin. Live in your rental like it's your home because it is your home. That being said, renting has trade-offs. Of course, I have been locked into my lease. It's eight thousand dollars a month. I paid that for the last four years. It's been the pride and joy of my life that I negotiated no increase. But now it has come to bite me in the ass. And my landlord is trying to get 10K a month starting in March. And so I'm negotiating with him. So, I mean, no matter what, we're paying a lot for housing, whether you rent or buy. I just think that I prefer to live somewhere where I am not responsible for all the upkeep. And I like having my money in the stock market so much more than in the real estate market because it just feels more steady and reliable. So, yeah, if these rates are making you rethink buying, keep rethinking it because there's a lot to rethink there. And also, if you want to get in the comments and you're a homeowner, let me know what was the expense that nobody warned you about? Because I feel like there's so many hidden things that come up with homeownership that I want to know about. Also, make sure that you subscribe to Financial Tea. And I hope that you loved our first episode of The Market Report. We will see you next week. And thanks so much for listening. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe. Stay rich. Thanks for listening. Stay rich. Stay rich.