MrBeast is pulling again the curtain on his funds — and the fact might shock followers who see him as one of many richest creators on the web.
The YouTube celebrity, whose actual title is Jimmy Donaldson, has constructed a large empire over the previous a number of years. In keeping with Forbes, the 27-year-old earned an estimated $85 million within the yr main as much as June 2025, whereas Fortune stories that his firm, Beast Industries, is valued at a staggering $5 billion. Nonetheless, Donaldson insists his private checking account tells a really completely different story.
“It’s humorous speaking about my private funds as a result of nobody ever believes something I say, as a result of they’re like, ‘You’re a billionaire,’” Donaldson stated throughout a video interview with The Wall Avenue Journal. “I’m like, that’s web price.”
The content material creator went on to elucidate that his wealth largely exists on paper, not in money he can truly spend daily. “I truly … I’ve detrimental cash proper now. I’m borrowing cash. That’s how little cash I’ve,” he stated. “Technically, everybody watching this video has more cash than me of their checking account should you subtract the fairness worth of my firm, which doesn’t purchase me McDonald’s within the morning, or no matter.”
Donaldson has beforehand shared that he retains lower than $1 million in his private checking account, describing himself as a billionaire “on paper” solely. Slightly than specializing in his personal funds, he says his consideration is absolutely on rising his model.
“I simply don’t actually consider it. I get up, I simply work. I’m simply so busy working. I don’t actually take into consideration my private checking account, if that is smart,” he instructed the outlet. “I’m simply laser-focused on making the best movies attainable and constructing the enterprise as massive as attainable.”
That stated, Donaldson admitted to at least one main private splurge — an expensive journey to see his now-fiancée, Thea Booysen, whereas she was finding out within the U.Ok. After struggling to make industrial flights work, he determined to constitution a non-public jet.
“One time, I used to be like, ‘Screw it, I’m simply gonna lease a non-public jet and fly to her,’” he defined. The eight-hour flight reportedly value $150,000. “I felt so dangerous, however I simply actually wished to see my fiancée,” he added.
In June 2025, Donaldson echoed the identical sentiment in a candid submit on X, revealing he was even borrowing cash from his mother to assist pay for his wedding ceremony. “I personally have little or no cash as a result of I reinvest every thing (I believe this yr we’ll spend round 1 / 4 of a billion on content material),” he wrote. “Sarcastically I’m truly borrowing $ from my mother to pay for my upcoming wedding ceremony lol.”
Regardless of the eye-popping numbers connected to his title, Donaldson has been clear that reinvesting is the important thing to his success. As he instructed TIME in February 2024, “I’ve reinvested every thing to the purpose of — you possibly can declare — stupidity… And it’s labored out.”
