Kevin Barrett 
Almost everyone has heard of Nicolas Cage. At one point, the famous actor was worth $150 million. He starred in films such as Leaving Las Vegas and National Treasure.
Like many lottery winners, however, Cage managed to blow a literal fortune via ridiculous purchases. He bought things that few people would want, and almost nobody would need. Granted, he probably had a good time doing so, but he’s still a lot poorer than he could have been had he hired a proper financial advisor. He’s now only worth about $25 million, which is by no means a paltry sum, but only about 1/6 of what he was once worth.
So what did Cage buy?
Well, for one, Cage once owned over a dozen residences, which is a bit excessive. Most people need one, or maybe two, but fifteen? One of his homes, which was worth $25 million, was waterfront property located in Newport Beach. I have actually been to California’s Newport Beach. In Cage’s defense, it is a nice spot, but I wouldn’t spend that amount of money to live there.
He also owned a home in Rhode Island as well as one in Las Vegas. The Las Vegas home cost him over $8 million.
You only really need one or two houses, Mr. Cage. You, sir, got greedy.
Also, for reasons unclear, Cage purchased New Orleans’ LaLaurie, the mansion which is known to be haunted. Most people would pay very little for a property that is allegedly haunted by ghosts, but Cage paid over $3 million for the property.
He also bought two castles in Europe. Normal people should really be satisfied with one castle—but not Mr. Cage! He had to have two! One of them cost him $10 million.
He also bought a deserted island in the Bahamas for three million bucks. What he intended to do with that island is anybody’s guess.
Things get even weirder.
As most of us are, Cage is probably aware of his own mortality. That’s great, and we should all prepare for our so-called final expenses, so as not to be a burden on any loved ones we might have. Cage took things a step further and bought himself a burial tomb that is nine feet tall. It is shaped like a pyramid and may have been bought as a homage to his National Treasure movies. It is engraved with a Latin phrase that translates to “Everything From One”.
Unless you live in a major metropolitan area, you need a car, right? Cage decided he needed one, so he bought one—instead of buying a Kia Soul, however, he bought a Lamborghini. He’s a movie star, so that makes sense; of course, that said, even movie stars don’t need to buy a Lamborghini that once belonged to the deceased shah of Iran.
Expensive cars and homes are normal purchases for the insanely rich. Sure, the truly affluent could be donating their money to feed the homeless and hungry, but it isn’t our job to tell people how to spend their money. Also, everybody needs a final resting place, right?
We might want to start telling Cage how to spend his money, though, because he has bought shrunken pygmy heads. Rumor has it that he keeps his collection on display for reasons unknown.
He also bought a pet octopus. Allegedly, he bought it as an “acting aid”. Maybe he ran lines with his pet octopus?
Believe it or not, owning a pet octopus isn’t as unusual as you’d think. In case you’re considering buying one, though, do be aware that they have short lifespans and don’t exactly get along with other aquatic creatures. Get a goldfish instead, or maybe a puppy!
Cage seems to like exotic pets. He has also been the proud owner of a crocodile, a shark, and even a couple of albino cobras. The pair of snakes cost him over $200,000.
He also owns a dinosaur skull, which is definitely unusual. Cage considers himself a history buff, and he paid over a quarter of million dollars for the seven-million-year-old thing. He reportedly outbid the actor Leonard DiCaprio for it. Unfortunately for Cage, the skull turned out to be stolen, and he was actually forced to return it.
We can make fun of Cage for his spending all we want, but many of the things he blew his fortune on are actually pretty cool. For example, he had a pretty impressive comic book collection. It was, at one point, worth well over 1 million dollars. Cage reportedly owned the Batman comic book in which Batman’s superhero sidekick Robin was introduced back in 1937. More significantly, Cage owned a copy of a certain comic book called “Action Comics #1”, which just happened to be the comic book that introduced Superman to the world.
While it is a shame that Cage blew so much of his wealth over the years, at the very least he definitely seemed to have quite a bit of fun with the money he earned.
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