According to reports, Fantasia Barrino is Losing One of Her Homes

that’s called BLOWING YOUR MONEY. no sympathy here.

hm, i wonder if i can buy it for like 100 bucks like it says on those infomercials…?

Woah. Sometimes I think it’s funny when I hear Archie talk about not spending his money on stuff except food and saving most of it, but things like this make me realize, hey this kid is smarter than most celebrities. You know it’s bad when even those who should have lots of money are having problems.

Too bad about Fantasia’s house. More importantly, what the heck has she done to her hair now? Did the shock of her financial trouble make her hair turn white in skunk stripes?

Sometimes you have money (not me but maybe other people) that needs to be invested. Sometimes decisions look good at the time. Hindsight is always 20-20.

Did she have the money and watch the economic crisis result in losing it, or did she spend beyond her ability? We’ll never know.

If you make your living in an industry where success can be as fleeting as the latest Dow Jones numbers, don’t you buy big ticket items like homes, cars, etc. in cash and then set aside a rainy day fund to cover property taxes for when you’re no longer earning the big bucks? Maybe I’m just making assumptions that I shouldn’t but I remember reading an article (maybe it was about Reuben) that said people in the music/entertainment biz have to spend/take care of their money as if they are thisclose to retirement so that the fleeting nature of fame is appropriately planned for and they don’t get caught leveraged to the point of having homes/other hard assets foreclosed upon the moment their celebrity dries up.

Ugh. How horrible for her. I understand that none of the Idols have MBAs or are certified financial planners or anything and that none of them have had any experience in running a business or having handled large amounts of $$ before, but I wish Rock Star Boot Camp (aka American Idol) would also give their Top Whatever contestants a class on wealth management, if only to open their eyes to the many issues that abound and to understand that their “family accountant friend” isn’t gonna be up to the task. But maybe that’s against 19E’s best interest since they have to negotiate against the winner and runner-up at the end of the competition. Don’t want your cash cows to get too smart.

I think she was an overspender. I saw a show on MTV where they visited her and she’s supporting most of her family. Her brother was there and he had about three motorcycles and a couple cars. The house was lavishly furnished, and I thought then she might be doing too much too fast. I hope she learns how to keep her career and finances under control and going strong. She really can sing.

I remember a long time ago I read an interview with Kelly Clarkson where she said that after Idol, she met with a financial planner and told him/her that she wanted to invest her money in a way that if her career crashed she would still never have to work again. Smart Smart Woman that Kelly Clarkson.

Often times you see people that had very little come into money and suddenly have to have it all…right now. How many lottery winners are now bankrupt or dead broke.

maybe she can apply for tarp funds like everyone else. Let’s bail Fantasia out too. I too think she can sing but after that last performance on idol, all I can remember is Simon’s face which was an understatement of my face.

It often happens that people who are poor and have little experience handling money, when they come into large sums of money, i.e. lotteries or other winnings, tend to end up broke again. I hope Fantasia learns from the experience and that someone helps her manage her money in a way to make it last. Good luck to her.

I guess I’m a little hesitant to make assumptions about what happened to Fantasia. Lots of people are losing homes since the banks fell into the recent credit crunch.

Maybe what happened to Fantasia is what happened to a lot of people, she got a bigger mortgage than she could actually handle.

It’s really hard to say without knowing the deets.

My understanding is, people are losing homes due to taking out mortgages that they could not afford. The mortgage companies were wrong to encourage people to do it. The people made the mistake of taking on more than they could afford. Blame on both sides. That’s just my meager understanding of it.

No offense, but Fantasia never seemed like the “good with money” type. She was 19 years old when she won Idol. She was naive, uneducated and borderline illiterate (according to her). A lot of those Idol kids are the same way (minus the illiterate part).

I’m not surprised this happened to her. Fantasia never seemed like the type to plan ahead or plan anything for that matter. Or to have enough wisdom the hire a financial planner to help her out with money. And I doubt anyone in her family advised her well either.

It’s sad but it happens all the time. To even bigger celebrities than Fantasia.

I guess Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m a little hesitant to make assumptions about what happened to Fantasia. Lots of people are losing homes since the banks fell into the recent credit crunch.

Maybe what happened to Fantasia is what happened to a lot of people, she got a bigger mortgage than she could actually handle.

Ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s really hard to say without knowing the deets.

That’s what I’m feeling too. It’s too easy to judge based on assumptions. I mean if Ed McMahon faced losing his home, there but for the grace of God……

Sounds like she bit off more than she could chew, but I’m not sure that reflects anything other than the current market. She may have realized it and tried to sell… not very easy right now. Hopefully, she can hang on to her other house.

Lots of people with education (and even in real estate) have lost their homes for various reasons. I’m not going to judge her, either. I wish her good luck.

Poor Fantasia. But I know just how she feels because I’ve had to cut down on the number of houses too. What is this world coming to?

LOL, Sparkles. I hope you didn’t downsize the one with the closet full of clown suits!

That’s really sad to see however she will still have a home worth almost 1mil. not too shabby.

In regards to the pic up top, why is it I can no longer look at Fantasia without picturing Simon rolling his eyes? :lol_tb:

Actually, during that last Fantasia appearance, I’m not sure that Simon was capable of rolling his eyes. I think that his entire face was frozen into a mask of horror.

I feel bad for her. On its face, it sounds like there was some seriously bad financial planning, but for most people who have run into their own foreclosure problems, at least they didn’t have to have the crisis become public. I know that you sort of accept that your life is public when you go on a show like this and win it, but….

Folk, here LOL. There are better ones out there but these two I found really quickly. Besides the pure shock, his eye movement was classic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmrF5mCHNjI

Here is another that has it on repeat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2o9lpH0ueI&feature=related

I stand corrected. Heh.

In an interview after winning Idol, Fantasia said she and her brother had made a pact that whoever made it would take care of their mother. Her mother and 2 brothers were living with Fantasia and her daughter in the first home purchased, which fantasia said was bought for her mother. I know her mother has since remarried so don’t know where shes living now. Fantasias brother is bodyguard and is her backup singer too. After the throat surgery, I’m sure she was off work for a while. Last I read, she was supposed to be working on her new album and Oprah had put the movie Color Purple on hold for a year until Fantasia was available. Fantasia is dating a rapper who is a local celebrity, no record contract that Ive heard of. She appears to not heed career advice per 19 Mgt and I know she argued over the last album out and won the battle and the album didnt sell well. With all the weird hair colors, etc., I think she needs to look elsewhere for advice instead of where shes been getting it. Shes a great talent but needs guidance.

If you need a mortgage to get it, you shouldn’t buy a mansion, especially if you have other homes. No sympathy here!

Well, at least she has anpther house.
I saw a picture of this house and It did seem a bit too much for someone who’s not exactly a big star.
I hope everything works out for her anyway.

dvls, that’s what I’m saying! In her line of business, you don’t buy homes with a mortgage — you pay in cash. She doesn’t have a 9 to 5 job where she’s got short term/long term disability, severance benefits and possibly retirement benefits. She’s in the fame business y’all. Everything could go poof for her at any moment so getting a mortgage to finance the purchase of the house is ridiculous because it implies a steady income for years to come. At the most, you finance some miniscule portion of the total purchase price, say, 15-20% of the total purchase price. The rest you pay for in cash.

The weird thing here is that the house isn’t even all that expensive — relatively speaking. $1.3M is the average price of homes in the neighborhood immediately south of mine (I live in Silicon Valley) and the houses here are your run of the mill 3-4Bed/2ba bungalows. She could have easily paid cash for that house when she was more flush with cash.

I dont feel sorry for her either. You have almost a million dollar home and you buy another We are in a society where people dont care what the fallout is they just want it. Your not talking about a typical family losing a 100,000 home. You dont buy houses that expenisve with a mortgage like stated above. I once heard a radio guy say he lives his life as if one day he cant do radio any more because of losing his voice ect. You dont spend what you dont have