Kim Kardashian's Net Worth is Beyond Reality
There aren’t many people who are neutral when it comes to having opinions about Kim Kardashian.
To thousands of young women across the country, she’s a modern Renaissance Woman – a model, TV star, actress, fashion influencer, and THE socialite of the early 21st century. She has her own lines of clothing, perfumes, and beauty products, and even her own mobile game app. Kardashian and her sisters seem to have so many reality shows going at once that it’s almost impossible to, um... keep up with them.
Detractors will point out that Kim Kardashian’s net worth is largely based on that most American of cliches – she’s primarily famous for being famous. Her real breakthrough into a celebrity and subsequent business success came with the wide release of a sex tape made of her with boyfriend Ray J, leading countless young women to believe that perhaps all this education, hard work, and good choices stuff was overrated. What you really needed was to, you know... with the right, um...
You get the idea.
Body Confidence
Setting aside some of her personal choices and the fact that most of us aren’t eager for our daughters to make famous sex tapes with rappers, Kardashian was a major factor in shattering some body image assumptions across the United States. We’ve long been obsessed with tiny waists and unrealistic measurements (for women – men have much greater leeway with their physical appearance, especially if they’re wealthy).
Kardashian wasn’t the only public figure to challenge this, but she’s arguably one of the most important. It’s hard to watch her doing interviews on E! Network or faking her way through one of her 187 “reality” shows and still argue that the modern American woman has to be petite to ooze confidence or sexuality.
What was your biggest accomplishment after your first sex tape was released? Mine was financing a bathroom remodel at a decent interest rate thanks to my improved credit score. I was pretty proud of that until I compared it to what Kardashian has managed.
Maybe I should make a better sex tape?
Kardashian has an estimated net worth is $1.7 billion in 2024. To her credit, she’s successfully taken what celebrity has handed her and transformed it into something of a fashion empire. Her cosmetics and fragrance company, KKW Beauty, is estimated to be worth around $1 billion.
Kim Kardashian has officially become a billionaire in 2021, according to Forbes
Her current focus (when she’s not doing damage control for Kanye) is on Skims, a shapewear company that had millions of dollars invested in it before it even made anything. Shapewear, of course, are undergarments you wear to help give you a more attractive shape once you’ve put clothes on (like Spanx, or a modern, comfortable corset). They help people – mostly women – feel better about themselves.
For as easy as it is to mock the Kardashians, you can’t fault this part of the package. And, if successful, it should help Kim Kardashian’s net worth go even higher.
Kim Kardashian, Social Activist
More recently, Kardashian has been in the news for her efforts to persuade President Trump to care about prison reform and gun safety (good luck with that). She’s also garnered some sympathy for her efforts to manage her ex-husband’s struggle with what she says is a mental illness, all while he was – no joke – running for President. She’s apparently also studying law in between accidentally starting conspiracy theories with her tweets and taking dozens of friends to the private island she rented to remember what “normal” life was like.
Kim Kardashian’s net worth places her among America’s richest celebrities in terms of dollars in the bank. Her life and media presence, however, arguably put her at the very top of America’s richest celebrities in terms of the material they give the rest of us for satire, commentary, admiration, or good old-fashioned bewilderment. And she’s just barely turned 42.
And, if I’m being completely honest, I don’t know if she’s any smarter or works any harder than you or I. She’s a bit of a punchline in many circles, and I completely understand why. It’s easy to argue, as I mentioned above, that she represents much of what’s wrong with modern American celebrity culture and the nightmare that is reality TV.
At the same time, I can’t help but admit there are things we could all learn from her story – not just as one of the world’s richest celebrities or as a woman with one of the biggest net worth totals of the 21st century. Maybe I’m projecting, but can we at least consider a few things worth admiring in Kardashian’s story? Maybe even worth emulating?
For example...
You Deal with Your Regrets, Then Move Forward
Kim has expressed to interviewers several times that she wishes she hadn’t done the sex tape. She thinks her life and career mean more than that, but of course, the tape is still what many people think of as her only real “talent.” She didn’t deny it or make excuses, but she also didn’t build her business success on making more porn. It’s part of her past, but she refused to let it define her present or her future.
Be You. Be You as Hard And as Well as You Can
If Kardashian and her sisters are melodramatic distractions from important topics or sex symbols who remind us of what carnal creatures we really are, they certainly own it and work it without hypocrisy or shame. (Some would argue, of course, that the lack of shame is a major part of the problem.) But you have to appreciate their unwavering commitment to BEING SUCH KARDASHIANS. All the time.
Work It
In this case, I’m not just talking about shaking what the good Lord gave you – although you’re welcome to do that as well. Whatever your opinions of Kim Kardashian’s style or talent, you can’t deny her work ethic. The woman is constantly pushing herself in new directions and trying new things. She’s not just a figurehead or “mascot” for these companies – she’s actually putting in the hours and doing whatever it takes to make them work. Did she start off with an advantage most of us don’t have? Absolutely. But she didn’t stop there and claim the credit. Put in the work.
Find Ways to Use Your Strengths to Help Other People Overcome Their Weaknesses
Kardashian is a beautiful woman who carries herself with enormous confidence. Her attitude is arguably just as much a part of her allure as her actual appearance. Rather than downplay that, she’s used that status to create products to help other women – of all body types – feel prettier, or sexier, or more confident.
Recognize Your Obligations to Others
Whatever Kardashian’s possible shortcomings, she is by all accounts a devoted mother. She seems to feel a substantial obligation to the cast and crew of her various reality shows and regularly acknowledges in interviews how important they are to the success of the show. It’s easy to belittle her social and political efforts as typical celebrity PR or whatever, but until this recent election, most Americans didn’t even vote regularly, let alone try to persuade the President or others in positions of power to change something for the better.
Conclusion
Most of us will never have Kim Kardashian’s net worth. That’s OK, though, because there are things we can do to better our condition now and down the road. Having millions would be nice, but it’s not entirely necessary.
If you’re looking to work your way out of overwhelming credit card debt or explore your options for refinancing a home, we can help you look at a few options. If you’re wondering how to invest for retirement when you can barely keep up paycheck to paycheck now, we have a few practical ideas about that as well.
Need help keeping your small business taxes organized? Determining the true value of a home you’d like to sell? Or maybe you’d just like someone to make sense of all that annoying terminology that gets thrown around every time you have to pick a healthcare plan at work.
We’re never going to tell you what to do with your own money. We can’t make it all easy or quick to get where you’d like to go. But it doesn’t have to be as hard as it sometimes seems, and you don’t have to do it alone. Let us know your hopes and needs, and maybe we can offer some options you haven’t considered yet.
And you don’t even have to take off your clothes.