In a world where celebrity fortunes are readily amassed, they are equally challenging to retain. Senegalese-American musical artist Akon shared his pieces of financial wisdom regarding wealth management.

The musician who had the industry in a chokehold for nearly a decade, took an unconventional approach to managing his money; being stingy. Akon keeps to the old sage wisdom; a fool and his money are soon parted.

In an interview with Logan Paul on his podcast Impaulsive, Akon disclosed he has met music industry celebrities who have made millions from topping the charts. Often, these artists are in financial ruin shortly after the spotlight fades.

“What scared me was I watched a lot of people that I looked up to hurting. How do you make $200 million and you’re broke?” he quipped.

Akon says that most of these failures can be attributed to living an unsustainable lifestyle, that they cannot afford over the long term.

Most musicians tend to gravitate towards ‘If you don’t look like money, then you are not making money’. This is where they go wrong.

“So you spend money on all these cars, houses, jewellery to play this facade that you’re successful. The idea of success is fortune in actuality,” he remarked, adding that he has a different definition of success; freedom.

The musician asserted that if one wanted to stay rich, one needed to stay stingy. While stingy may have negative connotations, his strategy is far from frugal. It is all about smart money management.

Akon recalled how at one point he bought a jet. He realized that the jet’s maintenance cost was greater than the actual jet’s price. He resorted to selling it after 6 months.

“Any person of my calibre is not flying commercial jets all day. I attempted to own a jet; it lasted me 6 months before. I sold it so fast.”

He advised millionaires with ‘buying a jet’ on their bucket list to keep away from it. Instead, they could purchase charter flight hours, reserve it and only use it as a negotiation tool.

Akon pointed out that owning a jet would result in annual expenses of at most $3 million for upkeep.

“You spend more on maintenance than the actual jet cost…think about it like this, the money that you have now is supposed to last you a lifetime,” he stated.

“Even if I only had $100,000 in my account, I look at it like it has to last me a lifetime. The moment you think about it like that, you will never be broke.”