5 Money Mistakes Billionaire Elon Musk Made

Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk is the world's third richest person, with a net worth of $190 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index. But it's not like Musk's life has been spot-free – the billionaire has made several major money mistakes, and one of them is worth nearly a fourth of his current net worth.

Here are five of Musk’s biggest money mistakes:

1. Musk's $44B Acquisition Of Twitter

Perhaps the biggest money mistake Musk has made so far is his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, now X. The social media platform's recent valuation by Fidelity shows the value has fallen to just $14.1 billion now, down from the $44 billion that Musk paid to acquire it.

2. ‘Funding Secured'

Another one of Musk's biggest money mistakes is his "Funding secured" post on X about Tesla which led to an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC,) resulting in a $20 million fine.

3. Musk's Multiple Divorces

Musk's multiple divorces have cost the Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder a pretty penny. He revealed that he pays an average of $20,000 to his first wife, Justine Musk, apart from having footed an average of $170,000 in monthly legal bills.

He then married and divorced actress Talulah Riley twice, which ended up costing $20 million in alimony.

4. Roadster Failure

Tesla's first car, the Roadster, proved to be a disaster for both the company and Musk. Tesla unveiled the Roadster prototype in 2006 and launched it commercially in 2008. The company spent $25 million on the car, and BBC's Jeremy Clarkson panned it for range and quality control issues. Tesla even sued the BBC over this but eventually lost its case.

5. Crashing McLaren F1

Fresh off his successful sale of Zip2 for $300 million, Musk purchased the McLaren F1 for $1 million as his daily drive. Then, in order to impress PayPal Inc. co-founder Peter Thiel, Musk went ahead to show off the sports car's power.

He ended up crashing the $1 million car after hovering about 3 feet in the air.

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