How Does Alex Honnold Make Money

Money Diaries

To Be the Best Rock Climber Is to Earn As Much As an Orthodontist

Alex Honnold, arguably the globe'south greatest climber, tells his story, from dropping out of the engineering program at Cal to finally moving out of his van.

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Concluding yr, I moved out of my van. I'd been living out of a van for 14 years. I bought a house in Las Vegas, a archetype cookie-cutter house in the suburbs. It's simply functional. In some ways, it's non different van life was. It's cheap, information technology's piece of cake, it'south close to the airport. Information technology'due south close to the rock. Holding there is really cheap. I didn't take whatever furniture at starting time, so I lived in the van in the driveway for the first couple weeks. It felt more like dwelling than an empty house did.

I think I'm the world's highest paid professional rock climber, simply the sport has a minimalist ethos about it. I actually value that nigh climbing. Buying the house was but an adult strategic maneuver. I did information technology because there'southward no income tax in Nevada, then I save enough on my taxes to help with the house payments. Then far, I think information technology was a adept decision. If the house burned down and information technology wasn't covered or something, that would exist a financial disaster. But I think it's covered through the mortgage?

When you add upward the house in Vegas and my family's cabin in Lake Tahoe that I bought and my other accounts, I might be worth not far off $2 one thousand thousand. My financial life has slowly gotten more steady as the climbing industry has really ballooned. A ascent tide raises all ships.

I grew up solidly middle-class. My parents were both language professors at the local customs college in Sacramento. I never felt like we wanted for anything, but I never really wanted much, either. Our family vacations were road trips beyond u.s. to visit my mom's family unit on the due east coast, my sister and I tucked in the back seat. We weren't the family unit that was flight to Europe on ski vacations.

At 14, I started working at the climbing gym, belaying birthday party kids and cleaning up, just doing scrub piece of work. I made minimum wage, if that. Equally soon every bit I had a job, my dad took me to the bank and opened a retirement business relationship. Information technology seemed a bit overeager, since I but had $400 or something. Just it was a good lesson.

I similar to say that I'm a moderately successful orthodontist. I'm still getting paid far less than the everyman member of the NFL.

When I was 18, I enrolled in an engineering programme at University of California Berkeley. Merely I was unhappy at school. That summer I placed 2nd in the youth division at the National Climbing Championships. Later on that, my dad died of a heart set on and some of the pressure level to stay in college went away. My mom consort a flake more than of a "follow your path" philosophy. I took a semester off to train for and climb at the World Youth Championships in Scotland. I never went dorsum.

I'd wound up with my mom'due south one-time minivan, and that was my base of operations. I'd use it to drive to Joshua Tree to climb or I'd drive to LA to come across my girlfriend. My orbit was tiny, and really cheap. I destroyed that van fairly apace; information technology died on me one day, and for the adjacent year I lived only on my bicycle and in a tent.

From 2004 to virtually 2009, I lived off less than a k bucks a month.

My first twelvemonth on the North Confront squad, I basically just fabricated gas money. Then, in 2009 there was a iii-twelvemonth contract that was small, only enough to drive around the state. My 2d three-year contract was bigger — by itself information technology wasn't six figures, but with other sponsorships it was. That was in 2012. I thought I should first a foundation while I'm in my prime, while my name means something. I started information technology that starting time year I made six figures, 2012. The Honnold Foundation mostly funds solar free energy projects. I think final year I threw in about $80,000 of my own money.

Every bit recently as 2007, I was going to Walmart and buying 88-cent pasta and 50-cent pasta sauce. Now I would never purchase the grossest pasta sauce. Now I don't look at the toll at the gas station quite as much. I just don't stress about information technology anymore. My daily breakfast is unsweetened muesli with hemp milk and berries. Hemp milk is kind of pricey, and half a carton of berries every morning, that's sort of extravagant. That'south not nutrient I could have eaten before. I like to say that I'thousand a moderately successful orthodontist. I'm withal getting paid far less than the lowest member of the NFL.

Most of my friends are scraping by at the poverty line. Pretty much all of them are ameliorate climbers than me in some way, but they're painting houses or whatever they need to do to fund their climbing. It's never gotten too awkward, though. I retrieve information technology's because I'm not out buying Rolex watches. I think the principal thing is that I nonetheless value beingness a practiced climber more than anything else. The kind of thing I'd splurge on is an developed tumbling grade. I'yard really bad at jumping and bouncing, and it would be fun to take a class similar that. Something I can do on rest days. That's possibly $100 an hour. In the climbing globe, that seems and so improvident, to pay $100 per session.

The guiding principle I attempt to live by is: don't spend money I don't have. I've never been in debt and I've never bought extravagant stuff. I spend money on gifts for my family unit sometimes. A while back, I got my sister a laptop. The one she was using was onetime, information technology was trash, so I simply sent her a laptop. Just I didn't buy any Christmas gifts for anyone this year. I spent half a meg dollars on my family's cabin in Lake Tahoe and so nosotros could go along it in the family. It'south this actually rustic motel that my Grandad bought in the 1950s. Both my grandparents and my begetter are cached nether the bird-feeder there. That could exist the closest thing to a potential financial disaster — information technology's relatively expensive and information technology's non generating any income.

I don't know how much money I spend every month exactly. I get all my gear through my sponsors. All my travel is covered through them too. I went on a trip to Antarctica in December that cost like $20,000. That's direct corporate — I don't pay for that. I eat out a lot more now, and I spend more on food and gas than I did before. I'm likewise largely roofing my girlfriend's nutrient. Peradventure it's a couple one thousand a month?

I think I define success as just being able to exercise the things I want to when I want to. Being able to fund the lifestyle. There'southward no number that makes that possible. A lot of it has to practise with how happy I am with what I'g doing.

As told to Katherine Laidlaw exclusively for Wealthsimple; transcript edited and condensed for clarity. Illustration by Jenny Mörtsell.

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Source: https://www.wealthsimple.com/en-ca/magazine/alex-honnold

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