April 2, 2013, - 2:01 pm
Huh? She Can’t Afford to Live on $21,000 a Month
Most Americans would kill to make nearly $21,000 a month. And most Americans would be able to live well within that with a lot left over. With that kind of money coming in, all of their prayers would be answered, all of their financial problems solved. That’s why there are no tears from me for longtime Psychic Friends Network spokeschick and singer Dionne Warwick, who filed for bankruptcy for the second time, last week. Her absurd expenses compared with the amount of money she has coming in would make any average American’s jaw drop. She’s hardly destitute, just profligate.
Quite what she offered is unclear. In her bankruptcy filing, Warwick – who lives in a rented detached home in the village of South Orange, New Jersey – details monthly expenses of $20,940 and monthly income of $20,950, leaving her just $10 in float.
The monthly outgoings include $5,000 in rent, $5,000 for “housekeeping/sitting”, $4,000 for a personal assistant, $1,000 for electricity, $500 for the telephone, $500 for food and $750 for laundry and dry cleaning.
Most of her income comes from a $14,000 monthly pension, which is supplemented by $2,200 a month in Social Security benefits.
She also receives an average $6,250 a month in wages from Star Girl Productions, the company she lists as her employer. Successful artists commonly set up such entities – known as “loan out corporations” – through which to provide their services and reap legal tax benefits.
I looked at her bankruptcy petition, and Warwick also lists monthly expenses of $300 for a gardener and $200 for a driver to take her to New York. It’s hard to have sympathy for someone like this.
A number of jokesters ask why–as a spokesman for the Psychic Friends operation–she didn’t see this coming. But I’m asking something different: who spends $500 per month on phone charges anymore? And who makes $21,000 a month, but spends nearly half of it on housekeeping/sitting and a personal assistant? An idiot, that’s who. Her cousin, Whitney Houston, died of crack (and other illegal substances), and Warwick’s finances are whack.
Here’s a bit of advice for Ms. Warwick that she could have given herself: if you see someone with their hands out for half your income, Walk On By.
If she fired the maid/house sitter and the personal assistant, she’d be in the black. Maybe her friend, Jesse Jackson, told her that was a racist term. How long ’til he and her other circle of yes men start blaming “raaacism!” for her financial troubles? 3-2-1 . . . .
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One other thing I found interesting about Warwick’s finances is that, at one time, she was making $100,000, and yet, a court refused to award alimony or support to her husband. So much for equality, huh?
She tried marriage twice – both times with the same man, William Elliot, a television actor. They wed in 1966, divorced in May 1967, but then remarried three months later. “It was a case of can’t do with, can’t do without, so I married him again,” she later stated.
They had two sons, David and Damon – both of whom now also work in the music industry – but divorced for a second time in 1975. Mr Elliot revealed during divorce proceedings that his wife was, at that time, earning $100,000 a month – 200 times his own income. His demand for $2,000 in spousal support was denied.
Today, he would probably get something.
Tags: bankruptcy, Dion Warwick, dionne warwick, Dionne Warwick Bankruptcy, Jesse Jackson, Psychic Friends Network
Yeah, but she’s a sacred cow so you can’t expect her to make ends meat with a measly 21000 – that’s for the rest of us hoi polloi.
Hey if states can borrow beyond their means and then just file bankruptcy individuals can do it to can’t they?
Especially important people Dionne Warwick.
In fact important people like the Jacksons don’t even really need to obey the law anymore apparently so let’s just give it up for them.
Frankz on April 2, 2013 at 4:02 pm