'Being real, I'm going to buy a car': NFL star Odell Beckham Jr. says $20M a year isn't enough. Could you make it last?

'Being real, I'm going to buy a car': NFL star Odell Beckham Jr. says $20M a year isn't enough. Could you make it last? Jing Pan Wed, May 6, 2026 at 7:15 PM GMT+7 7 min read Moneywise and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue through links in the content below. For most Americans, a six-figure salary equals financial security. So it’s easy to assume NFL star Odell Beckham Jr. has cemented his security with an eight-figure, $100-million, five-year contract. But on a recent episode of The Pivot Podcast, the 33-year-old suggested that living off $20-million a year is a challenge. “That’s a five-year span,” he said. “Can you make that last forever?” Thanks to Jeff Bezos, you can now become a landlord for as little as $100 — and no, you don't have to deal with tenants or fix freezers. Here's how Dave Ramsey warns nearly 50% of Americans are making 1 big Social Security mistake — here’s how to fix it ASAP The IRS usually taxes gold as a collectible — but this little-known strategy lets you hold physical bullion tax-free. Get your free guide from Priority Gold After all, Beckham argued, you have to remember that it isn’t really $20 million a year after tax — more like $12 million (1) “that you have to spend, use, save, invest, flaunt, whatever.” “Just being real, I'm going to buy a car, I'm going to give my mom a house. Everything costs money.” Judging by the backlash, his fans and even some multimillionaire NFL peers think Beckham may have lost touch with reality. “Getting paid more in one year than most Americans will earn in total over the course of their working lives and still making excuses for blowing it is wild,” one user posted on X (2). Ex-NFL safety Su'a Kristopher Cravens, originally drafted into the NFL for $4 million, questioned how anyone with a $100-million contract could run out of cash. Cravens noted that six years after leaving the NFL, he can “live the lifestyle I desire, while also saving money and putting my kids in the position to win later in life” (3). “These guys that touch over 10 million and blow through it sounds like pure user error on their end,” he posted. So is Beckham actually “being real” or is it just halftime pyrotechnics? Turns out one’s concept of a comfortable, secure life is subject to inflation, too. Read More: Robert Kiyosaki warned of a 'Greater Depression' — with millions of Americans going poor. Was he right? Some X users were quick to highlight some of the reasons they believe Beckham might be struggling to manage his multi-million-dollar paychecks. Several pointed out that the star wide receiver often wears a limited edition Richard Mille watch worth nearly $190,000 while playing (4) (5). They also shared media reports of his car collection, worth an estimated $2.4 million (6). Another user pointed out his two-year ban from Louisiana State University for handing out wads of cash to student athletes (7). Simply put, Beckham’s financial struggles may have less to do with progressive taxes and more to do with untamed lifestyle inflation. That’s a problem that many high-income earners face long before they enter the seven-figure club. Nearly half of Americans in a Bankrate survey said they’d need a $100,000 annual salary to live comfortably, with a quarter saying their threshold was $150,000 (8). But those who actually make $150,000 don’t necessarily feel comfortable. In fact, in 2024, roughly one in five Americans earning more than $150,000 a year said they were living paycheck-to-paycheck, according to the Bank of America Institute (9). It’s called lifestyle inflation. In other words, you can’t outearn bad spending habits. But streamlining your budget could give you a sense of financial security and freedom regardless of the size of your paycheck, whether you’re working with millions or not. Living within your means is challenging, especially when your income is rapidly expanding. But there are ways to resist the natural temptation of overspending. Perhaps the most effective strategy is to set a fixed and automated savings rate. After all, you probably want to beat out the rate of inflation on your cash — especially if it’s not actively making money in the market. A high-yield account like a Wealthfront Cash Account can be a great place to grow your uninvested cash, offering both competitive interest rates and easy access to your money when you need it. A Wealthfront Cash Account currently offers a base APY of 3.30% through program banks, and new clients can get an extra 0.75% boost during their first three months on up to $150,000 for a total variable APY of 4.05%. That’s ten times the national deposit savings rate, according to the FDIC’s March report. Additionally, Wealthfront is offering new clients who enable direct deposit ($1,000/mo minimum) to their Cash Account and open and fund a new investment account an additional 0.25% APY increase with no expiration date or balance limit, meaning your APY could be as high as 4.30

'Being real, I'm going to buy a car': NFL star Odell Beckham Jr. says $20M a year isn't enough. Could you make it last?

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