What is Jim Cramer’s Net Worth?
Jim Cramer, 67, is an American TV personality, journalist, author and former hedge fund manager who is known for hosting “Mad Money” on CNBC and for co-founding the website The Street. Cramer, who is a never-silent stock guru and financial wizard, is advising investors to choose defensive stocks to protect themselves from the continuing recession.
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Here’s a closer look at Jim Cramer, where his money has come from, and why he’s both a celebrated and controversial figure to the American public.
Jim Cramer’s net worth is $150 million according to Celebrity Net Worth. That includes a significant fortune built up while he was the manager of the hedge fund Cramer Berkowitz, as well as money he’s made since leaving that fund in 2001 when he transitioned to a full-time job as a successful author, television personality and CNBC commentator.
Cramer is the author of “Confessions of a Street Addict,” “Jim Cramer’s Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World,” “Jim Cramer’s Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich” and “Jim Cramer’s Get Rich Carefully.
For his work at CNBC, he takes home a yearly salary of $5 million. He also currently earns money from his books and takes in between $30,000 and $50,000 per speech.
While running his hedge fund, Cramer and Berkowitz, he had a compounded rate of return of 24% over a 14-year period after all fees, an impressive return that beat the S&P 500 over that same period.
Cramer co-founded finance website The Street in 1996 with Martin Peretz, the former owner of The New Republic. Cramer’s current contract with CNBC bars him from owning any stocks in his personal portfolio save for The Street, General Electric and Comcast (the former owner and current owner of CNBC, respectively).
He sold TheStreet.com to TheMaven for $16.5 million in 2019.
Jim Cramer’s Career
Jim Cramer’s career is long and has taken him through several phases. The future millionaire actually made his first dollar selling ice cream at nearby Philadelphia Phillies games as a child.
He was born James Joseph Cramer to Louise and Ken in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, on February 10, 1955. He first took an interest in the stock market when he was still in grade school.
He graduated from Harvard University in 1977 after serving as the editor-in-chief of The Harvard Crimson and began a career in journalism, working at the Tallahassee Democrat and the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. Cramer also helped Steve Brill find the publication American Lawyer prior to returning to Harvard to attend law school.
After graduating, he decided to pursue his interest in the stock market and moved to New York to take a job with Goldman Sachs.
While working for Goldman, Cramer wrote about stocks for The New Republic. Then he founded his hedge fund Cramer, Berkowitz & Co. He found plenty of success but decided to retire from active trading in 2001 and transition back to journalism and commentary full-time. He ultimately landed at CNBC where his show “Mad Money,” which started in 2005, catapulted him to fame. Today he also serves as the co-anchor of the “Squawk on the Street” morning show.
Jim Cramer Controversies
Jim Cramer’s career has no shortage of controversies, either. In 1995, he was accused of engaging in market manipulation after writing about several smaller companies he held shares in. When the companies made major gains, he profited by around $2 million in less than a month, prompting the magazine that Cramer’s stories to alter its policies about conflicts for its editors and writers.
Then in March 2008, Cramer responded on-air to a reader’s question about the health of investment bank Bear Stearns by saying, “No! No! No! Bear Stearns is not in trouble. If anything, they’re more likely to be taken over. Don’t move your money from Bear.” That proved to be one of the worst Wall Street opinions in history as the stock dropped 92% by March 14 and wound up selling to J.P. Morgan for $2 a share, despite the stock trading at over $60 a share just a week earlier.
Although Cramer claimed that he was referring to brokerage accounts and not common stock, the clip found its way to “The Daily Show” where host Jon Stewart skewered Cramer and other financial pundits.
There have also been serious questions raised about Cramer’s prescience as a stock picker. In 2007, Barron’s produced an article that noted investors following Cramer’s recommendations would have gained just 12% over the two prior years compared to a 16% gain by the S&P 500.
Cramer’s recent track record isn’t much better. A 2016 MarketWatch article highlighted how his Action Alerts Plus portfolio was underperforming the S&P 500 since coming into existence in 2001, and that it had been getting worse since 2011, a year where the portfolio lost 11% while the S&P 500 held steady.
Personal Life
Cramer was married to former stock market trader Karen Backfisch from 1988-2009. The pair share two daughters. He remarried in 2015 to Lisa Cadette Detwiler, a restaurateur and real estate agent.
Now that he works for fun rather than to get rich, his primary residence is still near New York City, in Summit, New Jersey, but in 2021, he bought a home in Quakertown in his native state of Pennsylvania where he spends holidays and special occasions.
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He also owns a 65-acre farm in rural New Jersey and property in Quogue on Long Island. Jim Cramer can be seen on “Mad Money” on CNBC.
Joel Anderson contributed to this article.
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