Tiffany Haddish once lived out of her car and survived on $500 a month; after a stranger told her to buy property with every movie paycheck, she now owns about 17 | English Movie News
Comedian and actor Tiffany Haddish says an unexpected conversation with an accountant changed the way she thought about money and property. Today, she owns about 17 properties, but her approach to real estate began after years of financial uncertainty.Haddish recently spoke about her property investments during a live recording of the podcast ‘Family Trips With the Meyers Brothers’, Realtor reported. Seth Meyers and his brother, Josh Meyers, asked her about the kind of holidays she enjoys. Haddish said she likes travelling in groups and still uses Groupon to find discounted trips.One such trip took her to China and Japan. It was during that group holiday that she met an accountant who gave her advice that stayed with her. The accountant suggested she read “The Weekend Millionaire’s Secrets to Investing in Real Estate: How to Become Wealthy in Your Spare Time”, by Mike Summey and Roger Dawson.The accountant told her “If you’re doing movies and you think you’re going to make it, when you start making money, buy a piece of property every year for 15 years. No matter what happens with your career, you’ll be successful. They can never cancel you or stop you,” Haddish recalled.
Haddish’s Real Estate Journey
Haddish said she followed that advice by buying property when she earned money from her acting career. She now has “like 17” properties in her portfolio and said she buys one whenever she stars in a movie.She also explained why she believes owning land can provide financial security. “If you have land, you’ll be a multimillionaire, even with 10 properties,” she said.Her current property holdings are a major change from the period when she struggled to find stable housing. Haddish has previously spoken about experiencing homelessness during the early part of her comedy career. She has also discussed spending time in foster care as a child.One of the people who helped her during that difficult period was fellow comedian Kevin Hart. Haddish spoke about this in a 2024 appearance on “This Life of Mine With James Cordon”.
Haddish says she remains careful with her finances.
Kevin Hart Helped Her Find Home
At the time, Haddish was performing sketch comedy shows with Hart at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles. Hart noticed that her car was filled with her belongings and began to suspect that she was experiencing homelessness.Haddish said she tried to avoid discussing her situation with him. She would arrive late because she did not want other people to see her car and realise that she was living in it.“I would show up late. I didn’t want nobody to see my car. I would park a little farther away, or I would pull up and let the valet take the car, but I would pull up late so nobody would see,” she said.Hart eventually confronted the situation. He gave Haddish $300 that night, which she used to pay for a hotel room. He then connected her with a real estate agent who could help her find a place to live.The apartment she eventually found was far from ideal. Haddish said it needed extensive work and described its condition as poor.“It needed so much work,” she said. “It was disgusting, and I looked around and I was like, ‘Wow.’ I saw roaches. It was bad.” Despite its condition, the apartment gave her an affordable place to stay. The rent was $500 a month, so Haddish decided to take it.“I still have that place,” she confirmed in 2024. “I still have it. I had to fix it up myself and I still got it.”
Paying Off Her First House
Haddish later used a similar focus on property when she started earning more from acting. In a 2022 interview with Cosmopolitan, she described how she bought her first house after appearing on “The Carmichael Show” in 2015.She said people around her advised her to wait before buying a house. Haddish chose to move ahead because she wanted to make sure she could support herself and maintain the property.“Before we even got into Season 2 of ‘The Carmichael Show,’ I bought a house,” she said. “Everybody told me I should wait, but I didn’t care. I just knew I was going to have to always make enough money to take care of me and the house, and that’s what I did.”Her next acting projects helped her pay down the cost of the property. Haddish said she kept her personal spending low and was able to live comfortably on $500 a month during that period.“Between that show’s next season, the ‘Keanu’ movie, and making sure I can live comfortably off of $500 a month, I was able to pay off half the house,” she said.The money she earned from “Girls Trip” then helped her finish paying off the house. Haddish said she had been advised to use the money in other ways, but she chose to put it towards the property.“The ‘Girls Trip’ check was the final check. People told me to spend it other ways, but I used it to pay off the house because I was always afraid of being homeless again,” she saidAlthough Haddish now has a surplus of money because of her success, she has said she remains conscious of her finances. She also told Cosmopolitan that she would eventually like to retire and buy a ranch in Wyoming.
