Do high-profile athlete marriages even last anymore? In mid-December of 2011, Pilar Sanders and her former NFL beau Deion Sanders filed for divorce. From that moment onward, crap hit the fan, with no end to the ridiculousness in sight. However, we’re not in the least bit interested in discussing the sordid details of the relationship. What depressed us the most was that Pilar claimed that she was a “financial hostage” and that Deion has financially withheld funds from her unless she’s willing to perform sexual favors. Could this get anymore pathetic on both sides? You bet.

The two are still bitterly living in the same house. Why one hasn’t become the bigger person and moved out for a peace of mind puzzles us like nothing else. Either one of two things are going on: they’re both struggling financially to the point that they cannot leave the house, or they’re foolishly stubborn. Pilar might have the best “excuse” for not moving on. She’s claiming that all access to money has been restricted by her ex.

TMZ reports the details:

In the docs, Pilar claims, “Since [Deion] filed for divorce on December 21, 2011, he has given [Pilar] $300.00 and offered her money in exchange for sexual favors.”

She then notes, “Pilar turned down the money.”

Pilar is begging the court to force Deion to give her money stat … claiming “The children and I have lived in survival mode for several months, and the emotional toll on all of us is palpable.”

Pilar also claims Deion has canceled her cell phone and has “engaged in a pattern of systematically removing my belongings from the house and haphazardly throwing them into piles in the garage of the residence.”

Pilar claims Deion still rakes in more than $1 million per year … and she NEEDS a cut of his income to survive.

Men and women have to wake the Hell up.

Men, you marry a doll with little financial net worth or education, then expect to be used for your financial security. You’d better realize that you’re only getting the time of day because of the amount of zeroes sitting in your bank account. Instead of dating someone comparable to you in success, you chose someone who will fight you to the bitter end should the relationship dissolve for a big payoff.

Women, let this serve as an example. Learn from Pilar. Don’t expect to find a lifetime of freeflowing income from a man. Don’t risk having your life being dependent on your man. Being a housewife is perfectly fine. No one would knock such a noble, sacrificing position. However, being a housewife with no financial dependence is like a house of cards. It’s a house until one card falls out of place. Likewise, you’re ok until the spouse pulls the plug on you.

The Forever Housewife Plan Myth

Not many women in this lifetime will find a Kobe Bryant, Tiger Woods, Bob Johnson, Allen Iverson, Michael Jordan, etc. to marry. Even if one does, the game has already been written a billion times. The odds are against the marriage lasting forever. Then you have to hope that you have a guy who won’t spend his way to the poorhouse with his money. So, why aren’t women in these vulnerable situations planning for this possibility?

If you find yourself divorcing from the breadwinner, you face losing everything. For the first time (or tenth) in your life, you have to worry about supporting yourself, possibly getting a job, and/or moving back in with your parents. It’s a situation no one should want to find themselves in.

Pilar should have saved for a rainy day. Money should have been tucked away in savings accounts, investment fund(s), and real estate. Instead of taking money intended for personal expenses and only using it towards things like shopping, clothing, salons, and more, it should have gone at least partially to “rainy day” or “just in case” accounts.

Everyone needs an emergency account period. There’s nothing backhanded about this. It’s financially solvent thinking. Would you rather be eating ramen in your ex’s house and struggling while waiting for the judge to award you some assets, or would you rather be calling in professional movers to move ASAP to a place that you know is yours until a judgment passes? We’ll let you decide.

We certainly hope this was Pilar and Deion’s wakeup call.

Terrell Owens is broke. Nothing new there. The newest angle to the ongoing story of T.O. is that he’s currently friendless. To us, that’s the most interesting thing to dive into here. Once your money dries up, the fake people stop associating with you. It’s a sad state of affairs to not have a couple of close friends in your corner in the midst of a dark time in your life. There’s the saying “choose your friends wisely”.  T.O. never got the message.

The former NFL star referred to his current life as “hell”, as reported by News One. He blames his situation on debt, baby mamas, and backstabbing friends. He alludes in the article that he has little responsibility for his current situation. It simply rests at the feet of bad investments in real estate and evil, gold-digging baby mamas, whom he had no long-term relationships with.

It just doesn’t work like that, Terrell. Sometimes, we have to look within.

Lesson 1: Like attracts like. The easiest shortcut to decipher a person is to look around at the company they keep. Terrell kept shallow, hardly wealthy people around him because he too carries a poverty mindset and is vain. There’s no one to blame for overlooking women who were successful and on his level financially. There’s no one to blame for his choice in women who mostly saw dollar signs and took advantage of the generous child support checks that they knew would be coming. There’s no one to blame for his not using protection. There’s no one to blame for choosing friends that bled you dry. You should have allocated your money for yourself, parents, children, and spouse. You should have remodeled your social circle once you escalated into a lucrative career. Your social circle should reflect your identity or that of which you aspire to be.

Lesson 2: Take Responsibility for Your Investments

Real estate hasn’t been the hot investment for a minute. We’ll assume that T.O. held these properties well before the subprime crisis hit. Either way, it is never wise to double down on multiple investments when the following is true: A) You don’t know anything about the sector B) You won’t be 100% involved in the investment. C) You don’t have a contingency plan in place on how and when you will make your money back and how you will respond if you do not. From the sounds of it, T.O. had invested in several properties. Bad, bad decision since he clearly knew too little about real estate to dive in like he did. Too many assume real estate is the de facto way to invest money. It’s actually the de facto way to lose money. It’s a serious investment with a steep learning curve. If one is going to invest in real estate, they absolutely must personally study the trade. It is NEVER acceptable to hand this responsibility off to anyone else. However, we’re willing to bet that this was just partially where his money went.

Lesson 3: Contentment

It sounds so simple, but it’s the one thing every human being wrestles with their entire lives. Contentment doesn’t have a price on it. It can’t be achieved through monetary means. Terrell Owens earned an estimated $80 million during his NFL career. If T.O. had simply spent $1 million annually or less in personal and investment expenses, he would have had enough and more to live on, should he live for another 50 years. We always show concern when we see celebs who spend more than $1 million a year, as they already have a fairly brief career. Not many will be fortunate enough to earn anywhere near $80 million in their lifetime. The 99% lives comfortably off of $250,000 a year or less. There are families in the world that live of $365 a year and manage to find happiness. The power of contentment is finding happiness in having less or nothing. If a man has to blow through $80 million in a decades time, he’s lacking something serious. Time to discover yourself, or you’ll blow through everything you ever encounter throughout your life. However, there’s hope as News One reveals the following:

T.O. has landed a gig as a player and part owner of the Allen Wranglers of the Indoor Football League, which is based in Allen, Texas.  While it isn’t the fame and fortune that he is used to, it’s still a paycheck, so things may in fact be looking up for Owens after all.

T.O. must learn these three lessons if he’s ever going to get out of the “Hell” he’s living in. It’s shortsighted to blame your problems on everything and everyone but yourself, as you create your financial outcome and choose your friends. We create our own destiny. Remember that, and you’ll never find yourself in the situation Terrell is facing.

Kobe Bryant is probably somewhere crying right now. News about the settlement is out, and the clear winner out of this whole thing would be Vanessa. Speculation had been building over how the division of assets would occur. We had assumed that it was a real possibility that Vanessa could walk away with half, and lo and behold TMZ reports that Vanessa was awarded $75 million of their $150 million assets. Can you say jackpot?

Here’s the details:

TMZ previously reported several transfers of property earlier this year between Kobe and Vanessa. It turns out, based on the property settlement, Vanessa scored a clean sweep, snagging ALL THREE of the former couple’s mansions in the Newport Beach area.

Vanessa gets the estate the couple was living in, the estate her mom is living in, and she gets the new estate that had been under construction for 2 years and was just completed. We were told Kobe was moving into the new estate, but that’s not true. It’s Vanessa’s crib, lock stock and barrel.

Vanessa just scored 3 … where it counts.

While Vanessa did indeed gain a massive amount of assets and Kobe lost a great amount, quite frankly, we’re still a bit concerned over these two. So, we’ll impart a bit of advice for them:

For Vanessa:

Congrats on the boatload of money! However, if you’re a woman of high tastes, $75 million could be gone well before your time. You now have three properties under your care. With maintenance and property taxes, these properties alone will be eating into your assets, so it’s important to keep this in mind. We have no idea what your relationship with money is like, but we’ll encourage you to leave as much of the money untouched as possible. The biggest mistake hardly wealthy celebs make is leveraging their solid assets, money, in exchange for depreciating items. Do not start throwing caution to the wind and spending like it’s going out of style. You’ve been in the NBA scene for over a decade. You should know better than anyone else that $100 million can be spent in less than a decade, as industry peers like Antoine Walker and Allen Iverson have demonstrated.

Get recommendations from wealthy friends and associates on a good financial advisor. However, NEVER give anyone the full responsibility of managing your money! Learn from Nicole Murphy. People will come out of thin air, promising to double your money or “invest” it in a business goldmine. They’ll prey on the fact that you’re a vulnerable woman with loads of money. Men will definitely be coming to you for a come-up. Be smart. Keep a closed circle around you and only use the services of those that are vetted.

You may be inclined to continue or even up your lifestyle, but please at least understand the basics of cashflow. If you have more going out than going in, you will inevitably have a problem. Best of luck.

For Kobe:

Take the L and learn the lesson. It probably really sucks that half of your hard-earned money went out of the window to someone who hardly contributed to its manifestation. However, at the same time, you married her and chose to live in California without a pre-nup. Couple that with possibly cheating, and you had to have known that Vanessa would have major upside in filing.

Love is a tricky emotion. It becomes even trickier if you’re a multi-million dollar athlete. You can’t seriously expect a woman who isn’t on your level income and/or education wise to not be partially drawn to you because of what you could offer her. We can’t tell you not to date these kinds of women because it seems to be all the rage with wealthy men to date the model types with little to bring to the table. Perhaps it’s something to keep in mind should you find yourself ready to commit to another woman again. At least protect your assets.

Now that you’re left with half your assets, it’s important to manage your money wisely. While $75 million is a Hell of a lot of money especially for the 99%, it can easily be spent with a decade or two with a reckless spending behavior as many of your fellow peers have proven again and again and again. However, we’ll at least give you the benefit of the doubt because we have rarely heard of you living lavishly to the point of nausea. With your intelligence, you could be capable of generating the money lost or at the very least preserving what you have. Best of luck.

* Image courtesy of TMZ

Young Buck has been dealing with a sad state of affairs since leaving G-Unit in 2008. Unable to satisfy his debts, he filed for bankruptcy in the fall of last year. As 2012 rolls around, it appears that nothing has changed. The hip hop artist is still facing bankruptcy. What might be changing is the type of bankruptcy. Detroit Free Press reports the following:

“There was no deal finalized within the time frame that was necessary for the case to remain in Chapter 11,” Holmes said. “There are insufficient remaining funds in the estate to pay the ongoing administrative expenses that are due.”

Under Chapter 11, Buck would be able to craft a plan to repay creditors using future revenues. Under Chapter 7, his assets can be sold and distributed to creditors. Buck entered bankruptcy in October 2010.

Buck said the trustee’s move was shortsighted.

“I just wish the trustee would understand that I’m actually in a position to actually work again,” he said. “Either way it goes, you’re going to get paid. I’d be back working again. My income would only grow just by being a part of a company that’s as big as Cash Money and by being an artist as talented as I am. Cash Money provides me with a job to pay off the bankruptcy and creditors.”

If that isn’t bad enough, Young Buck is facing a federal criminal charge of “being a convicted felon in possession of a gun and ammunition”. How does a man who becomes blessed enough to gross a few millions and travel around the world return full circle to the exact situation he was probably in before he became famous? Broke again? Check. Crime? Check. Unemployed? Check. Some people just never learn. It’s sad that his children have to suffer because of his reckless actions, which we covered before.

Three Pieces of Advice for Young Buck:

1. You’re Broke: At this moment, you are broke. While you might wish that the courts would share what you envision as your future wealth, it hasn’t come for sometime now. Bankrupctcies aren’t fun, but it’s the consequence for spending out of your means. You couldn’t afford a fraction of the lifestyle you were living. You spent your career stuck in the future checks that were coming. All of it was gone in an instant once the industry chewed you up and spit you out, which will bring us to our next point.
2. No One Will Save You: You seem to have this delusional idea that a record company will have your best interests at heart. We hate to break it to you, but you’re a walking payday for any record company. You’re broke and desperate, which means they’ll sneak just as many clauses into your contract, just as 50 Cent with G-Unit did, and that’s if you ever can get out of your iron-clad contract that you still have with G-Unit. Doesn’t seem as if you’ve learned much about the industry if you think an advance with a new contract means free money. This is the mindset that’s gotten you into the mess that you are currently in. Also, if you haven’t gotten a clue and learned to hire an independent lawyer to overlook your contract if you should ever sign another contract, then you’re a bigger fool than we would have thought.
3. Grow Up: Not only are you dealing with financial issues but criminal ones as well. You’re going to have to pick your path, but you can’t adapt the behaviors of a thug and expect to live like a rich mogul and free man. If you’re declared innocent after your federal trial, think about your kids and act responsibly. At this point, you are your own worst enemy.

There’s always an opportunity to change, but Young Buck’s quotes have us fearing the worst for him. He’s a bit delusional, and if he doesn’t have a serious wake-up call he’s going to get the Lil Boosie package.

Happy New Year! It’s the year of the Dragon, and there’s endless potential for greatness in the financial journey. Let’s face it, whatever we had going on in 2011 could and should be better for the new year. Last year was filled to the brim with protests, civil unrests, revolutions, bankruptcies, foreclosures, tax evasions, divorces, economic instabilities, tech IPOs, Steve Jobs and Heavy D passing, political nominee mayhem, racist comments against the president, wars, and so much more. So, why would anyone want more of that in our new year?

We certainly cannot predict the future, but the only thing certain is change. We must live in the present but prepare for our futures in the best way that we can. We’ll keep doing our part with hopes that everyone, Minority Fortune readers and beyond, do their part. As last year demonstrated, a bunch of people around not doing their parts in personal responsibility and integrity leaves the world and those in it in chaos. Goes to show that things on a micro scale can truly impact things on a macro scale.

That said, we’ll highlight and bid adieu to the top posts that captured attention on Minority Fortune for 2011.

10. The diamond darling of the site for 2011 goes to none other than Terrell Owens. With this guy around, who needs ideas for blog posts? A rough year is an understatement, but he’s got more than that coming if he doesn’t massively downgrade his lifestyle and quit living off of credit.
9. Thus far, Tyler Perry has not disappointed and continues to break barriers in the film industry. This year, he earned the title of the highest paid man in entertainment. We love news like this, and what we love more is not seeing ridiculous money-flossing stunts coming from him!
8. When we saw the clip of Juicy J denting his Rolls Royce, we couldn’t have been more disgusted. Hopefully, Juicy’s Royce was been repo’d and safely removed from his possession.

7. Burning money is a hardly-wealthy, animal behavior that we hope was left in 2011. Floyd Mayweather has to show his butt and burn a hundred dollar bill in the club. Next time, Floyd, take the world “fool” on a piece of paper and burn that away.
6. No surprise here when Lil Kim hit the news with a foreclosure on her New Jersey home. Let’s hope she learns the power of ownership in the new year.

5. Baby’s been a staple on this site since its inception, and it’s been for the same exact thing: the extravagant, trying-too-much lifestyle. He claimed his Forbes valuation was too low, but we’d bet all of those fancy cars, jewelry, and purchases cancel out any net worth he may have.

4. There’s never been an artist more mysterious about his life and habits as Prince. He took us by surprise when his house was noted in a foreclosure. Let’s hope that was the first and the last.
3. Allen Iverson was a mainstay on the Grade F model list, as his gambling and bad financial habits came to haunt him before even properly ending his career.

2. New Money, Hardly Wealthy habits at its finest: Tossing Money in a Strip Club. Rick Ross and Diddy thought it would be cute to drop a million at a strip club. Enjoy spending your way to the bottom, guys!

1. This post brought in thousands of readers, and we’re still not sure why. However, it works for us! Xzibit failed to plan ahead for his once wildly popular show “Pimp My Ride” which fizzled just like every other popular TV series. What does he do instead? Blame MTV! Better not go to court over this one, buddy.

*2012 Image courtesy of Squidoo.

We’re at the onset of a new year. You would think that people at the end of the year would be making preparations to welcome in the new year in the best way possible. Apparently, people have a different way of celebrating the end of the year: avoiding debts, bitter divorces and child support cases, among other things. We’ll highlight a few of the stories that stood out. What’s the underlying theme? Fiscal irresponsibility. Who wants to bet that these individuals had an extravagant Christmas?

Nelly Neglects His American Express Debt

Nelly has been quiet on the music scene for awhile now. While there’s been alleged rumors all these years that the hip hop artist was having financial issues, no bankruptcies were ever filed. Now the media including TMZ reveals that American Express comes forth stating that Nelly has failed to repay his $20,403.64 balance. Now a lawsuit has been filed in hopes of recouping the balance along with an estimated $3,000 in lawyer fees.

Our Thoughts: Not a good look. There isn’t sufficient information on the situation around the case. Perhaps there’s a dispute regarding the payment. It’s definitely something that should be resolved, and if Nelly simply neglected to pay it because he wants a little more drinking, gambling, or strip club money, then he deserved the lawsuit. Otherwise, we’ll await further news before we fully judge. If he’s beginning to become financially irresponsible, the new year awaits many, many more filings to come.

————————————————–

Eddie Murphy’s ex-wife Cheated Out of $7 million

A year ago, news broke that Nicole Murphy was having financial issues. Well, Troy Stratos probably had a lot to do with that. TMZ  reported that the ex-wife of Eddie Murphy was conned out of $7 million by this scum. Stratos became her financial adviser, purporting to be investing her money overseas. Meanwhile, he was simply pocketing the money for himself. Then, it got worse. Nicole allowed Stratos to become responsible for selling a home that she wanted to sell. However, Stratos secretly lived there. He even had the nerve to ask for refinancing fees for the house that unsurprisingly ended up in his pocket for his own lifestyle.
Our Thoughts? Conmen are the worst. We’re always baffled by these types of individuals that expend all of their energy and talents on illegal, immoral activities when they have the potential to create legitimate businesses. They’re sociopaths that are good at connecting with people and pulling the wool over their eyes. We couldn’t be happier that he’s been exposed, and we hope his indictment will give his victims some comfort. However, this has to be a lesson, that no financial advisor should have complete control over your assets. Everyone should be responsible for their own money, regardless of how much assets they have. Take a page out of Oprah and Bill Cosby’s book and sign each check that is associated with your personal and business accounts. What happened to Nicole Murphy and his other victims is most unfortunate.

—————————————————————–

Antoine Walker Hasn’t Paid Child Support in 2 Years

The poster child of hardly wealthy behavior has defied responsibility once again. Antoine Walker hasn’t paid child support in over 2.5 years to his ex Donna Grant. That would indicate that he’s void of any income to meet the responsibility. However the Sun Times reports that “he got his court notice while partying at a local nightclub” and that his ex “had been trying to get him in court since May”. Our thoughts: It’s pretty pathetic that Antoine had to be flagged down in a club to be served. Even if Antoine doesn’t have a penny to his name, he should be responsible enough to reach out to his ex in order to reach a compromise in regards to the financial responsibility of his child. A man that doesn’t care to contribute to his child’s wellbeing emotionally, physically, and financially is a sorry man indeed. Being in the club when you can’t even pay child support is pathetic all by itself. How can you be so broke yet afford transportation and party money? We hope the courts give Antoine the rude awakening that he needs.

*Images courtesy of Mrs Grapevine, Jukeboxdc, & Las Vegas Sun.

Kobe will certainly earn himself a spot in the NBA Hall-of-Fame, but it looks like he will soon be a member of another prestigious group holding esteemed individuals like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Bob Johnson, and countless others. The only problem is that it’s a club for men who have lost significant assets to their ex-wives due to their scandalous behaviors. The plans had been set in motion earlier this month, yet news broke late on December 15th that Vanessa Bryant had filed for divorce. The Ibtimes reports, “sources told TMZ that Vanessa Bryant has decided to end the marriage because she believes Kobe Bryant has been unfaithful again.” The fact that the couple had been together for about 10 1/2 years in a No-Fault state like California without a pre-nup has the internet buzzing that Kobe could stand to lose half of his assets with this divorce.

Kobe should have taken a few notes from Tiger Woods’ messy situation. For an individual that took so much pride in carrying the “All Around Family Man” title, you would think he would have gotten his act together after the rape charge incident. To atone for his bad behaviors, he even ponied up a whopping $4 million dollar apology ring in hopes of keeping Vanessa after that debacle. At that point, Kobe should have understood that the behavior of cheating was costly to his brand and costly to his fortune. Apparently, that just wasn’t the case.

The only purpose of bringing up his behavior on here is to make a certain lesson clear: with every action, there are consequences. When you’re in a good place in your life, you have to protect that position with responsible behaviors in every aspect from financially to emotionally. In a super competitive vertical like professional basketball, there are so many competitors that could take your place at any given moment. The guilt and shame alone will hinder your performance in work and damage your professional relationships. Whatever it may be in life that you are going through, you must face it. If you want an aura of honesty and positivity in your life, you too must uphold it.

Cheating absolutely never works out well in any way, especially amongst wealthy men married to women of modest families. If Kobe’s marriage wasn’t working and felt that he could no longer be committed to his wife, he should have taken an ethical action. In this case, he knew what was coming since he took the low road. While there will be many legal things to settle, one thing will be for sure: Kobe, get out your checkbook.

Allen Iverson has had it rough these past few years. Aside from the massive personal issues, the basketball legend has already had his share of financial problems. So, it won’t come as a surprise that those dependent on Iverson will have to additionally deal with financial hardships. However, what is surprising is that Iverson’s wife who is currently filing for divorce claims that her husband is depleting their joint bank account for frivolous items like jewelry.

TMZ reports the following:

Allen Iverson’s divorce has taken a nasty turn — according to his estranged wife, the former NBA star went on a massive spending spree after she filed for divorce, leaving her completely penniless.

Tawanna just filed new docs in their bitter divorce battle — claiming ever since she filed for divorce in June, Allen stopped depositing money in their joint bank account … and then made several large cash withdrawals, including one for $20,000 … which he spent on diamond jewelry.

Tawanna claims the account was $23,000 in the red at the time she filed the court docs — and she’s been unable to pay the bills … or provide for their 5 kids.

According to Tawanna — who says she gave up her career to be a stay-at-home mom — Allen is worth over $20 million … and refuses to help her out simply out of spite.

Allen denies Tawanna’s allegations in the docs — and since they’re at a stalemate … the judge will have to play peacemaker. So far, no hearing date has been set.

This article represents a sad state of affairs. We’re sure Tawanna and Allen have their own set of issues, which we have zero interest in addressing. A few things do bring concern based on this article:

The 5 children: Remember those, Allen? While the money in the joint account may be currently abused by the ex-wfe-to-be, the fact remains that she is the primary caregiver of your five children. If money is being taken out for something as petty and useless as jewelry, we’re disappointed. First of all, with all the financial hardships you’re currently facing including an impending divorce, you don’t have the extra expenses to spend on more metal and diamonds. If this article proves to be true, we’ll be in utter disgust if you don’t prove that you’re assisting in the financial and parental responsibility of taking care of your kids. What your obligations will be towards your wife, the court can address those.

Net Worth: To have only listed Allen’s net worth as around $20 million is a troubling sign indeed. Once again, Allen isn’t even in official retirement yet. Once the checks completely cease, he’s going to be in epic trouble with his poor spending habits. The net worth probably includes homes, mortgages, cars, and other expenses. That probably leaves him with very little liquidated assets. Frankly speaking, it’s just “half-time”, and he’s got another half to go in life. Allen must have grossed over nine figures throughout his career. It’s painful to have seen him blow through over 80% of his earnings in such a little amount of time. There’s also five children that he’ll be responsible to financially support for decades to come. We can only hope that trusts and funds were put in place to secure the kids’ futures. They’re the least deserving of financially reckless parent(s).

So, it may sound crazy to say, but sometimes you can tell a lot about how a person will treat you based on how they treat their money. If a person is a slave to money, it shows where their priorities are. If they blow through money with no regard, if they always look to others to clean up their financial messes, it’s the sign to get far away from that person. If you’re lucky enough to see the warning signs at the onset of a relationship with a person, then you’ll save months, years, and decades worth of headache. Luckily Tawanna saw the light, but it took her many decades to see the writing on the wall. Hopefully, it’ll take our Minority Fortune readers a few days!