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Skateboarding legend Tony Hawk was barely a teen when he began making six figures as a professional competitor. As most youngsters would, Hawk blew by means of his $160,000 annual wage on leisure — enjoyable outings for his mates, the newest skateboarding gadgets, and cutting-edge tech toys, together with an at-home tanning mattress.
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“That was the most ridiculous purchase,” Hawk mentioned on SoFi’s Richer Lives podcast. “I live in Southern California. Why am I buying a tanning bed?”
Amid Hawk’s spending spree, his father suggested him to buy a house. Though Hawk, then 17, noticed the house as the last word image of freedom and an adult-free place to host events, it will grow to be his saving grace when his skateboarding revenue dried up within the early 90s. The star skater survived on $5 Taco Bell meals in an try to economize and preserve his dream house, which he purchased a number of years after his first.
“That first property I bought was my saving grace because I ended up buying another property and getting underwater with my expenses. I had a big ramp set up there. That was the dream, but I just really was in over my head,” he mentioned. “I took out a second mortgage on the house to start a skateboard company of all things, and then ended up selling the house for what I owed. I moved back into the house I bought when I was in high school with a new family because my son was born at that time.”
“That’s when I really started cutting back on all expenses,” he added. “It was definitely Taco Bell, Top Ramen, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.”
Hawk mentioned he started taking over a number of gigs to maintain his household afloat, together with modifying movies for skateboarding corporations, designing ramps and consulting for motion pictures and commercials. Though he hadn’t misplaced his skateboarding expertise, Hawk mentioned he was thought of “too old” to carry out, though he was in his mid-20s.
“In the early 90s especially, skating was considered just a youth sport. So if you’re over the age of 18, you’re too old,” he mentioned. “I was 24. I was way past what they thought was a prime or even allowable to be a pro skater. My name was on the radar of some Hollywood studios because I had done other work. But that’s what I had to do. It wasn’t like I was bitter. I was like, ‘Hell yeah, I’m getting paid. I’m still doing this.’”
Hawk mentioned his day trip of the highlight taught him to be extra financially accountable and deal with financial savings, simply in case consulting work stopped as nicely.
“I think the baseline was ‘Don’t live beyond your means.’ I thought that I wasn’t. I just kept kind of being in denial that, ‘Oh, I’m not making as much as I’m spending,’” he mentioned. “And then at some point, I definitely was not making as much as I was spending and I still had all these expenses. Back then, I had a water bill that I had to go make payments on it. That’s when things got really tricky and a little scary.”
“It was a wake-up call,” he mentioned. “You should always be living so that you know you have savings.”
Fortunately, Hawk’s star reignited in 1999 after he landed a history-making rating of 900 on the X Video games and launched the first-ever Professional Skater recreation on PlayStation. Since then, Hawk has maintained his standing as a skateboarding, popular culture and philanthropic icon. He will probably be headlining Inman Join San Diego in August.
“It wasn’t like I was preparing for my next comeback. I didn’t know it was going to happen,” he mentioned. “So when it did come back, I was fully prepared to live in a very responsible way.”
E mail Marian McPherson
