Jim Cramer Early Life and Career
Before we start to Net Worth Of Jim Cramer, his fame and career; lets know a brief about his past. James Cramer was born to a Jewish family in Wyndmoor, a suburb of Philadelphia-Pennsylvania, on February 10, 1955. His mother was an artist and his father was the owner of International Packaging Products, which sold things like wrapping paper and boxes to retailers and restaurants.
Early on in the 1970s, Cramer sold Coca-Cola and ice cream at Veterans Stadium that used to host the Philadelphia Phillies baseball games. He went to Springfield Township High School and later on completed his Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College. During his time at Harvard, he served as the President and Editor-in-Chief of The Harvard Crimson, a premier publication.
In the follow-up to his graduation from college, Cramer started as an entry-level reporter at the Tallahassee Democrat publication in Florida. He became one of the first people to cover the Ted Bundy murders as he lived only a few blocks away. Later on, he worked at publications such as Los Angeles Herald-Examiner and an American lawyer. He even had a stint where he worked for the Governor of California Jerry Brown. Subsequently, he went back to Harvard to attend law school. While still a student, he used to invest in the stock market and used the money he made there to cover his tuition costs.
Net Worth Of Jim Cramer
Jim Cramer is an American television personality, a former hedge fund manager, and a best-selling author. Net worth of Jim Cramer is $150 million. He is the co-founder and chairman of TheStreet.com and is best known for being the host of CNBC’s “Mad Money.” For his various roles at CNBC, Jim earns an annual salary of $ 5 million. He also earns substantially from book royalties and advances.
From 1987 to 2001, Cramer ran the hedge fund, Cramer Berkowitz. The fund had an estimated $ 450 million in assets under management. It generated an average annual return of 24%. Around the year 2005, Cramer had a net worth in the range of $50-$100 million.
Thanks largely to his 15% stake in TheStreet.com, Cramer’s net was significantly higher at the height of the dot-com bubble. When it went public in 1999, TheStreet.com had a market cap of $1.7 billion. At that point, Cramer’s 15% stake was worth $255 million. Post the dot-com crash in 2005, the stake was worth around $15 million.
Professional Career – That made net worth of Jim Cramer in millions
Despite being admitted to the New York State Bar Association in 1985, Cramer did not practice law. Subsequently, his license to practice law in New York was suspended in 2009 because he failed to pay the registration fee.
Following the completion of his law degree in 1984, he landed a job as a stockbroker at Goldman Sachs. Later in 1987, Jim left his position at Goldman Sachs to start his own hedge fund, Cramer & Co. which was later known as Cramer, Berkowitz & Co. He was successful in raising $450 million in $5 million increments and received a fee of 20% of the profits he generated. The early investors in his hedge fund included Steve Brill, Eliot Spitzer, and Martin Peretz. In 2001, he retired from the hedge fund which was then taken over by his partner, Jeff Berkowitz. Cramer claims that during the period from 1988 to 2000, he had only one year of negative returns. He evinces that over 14 years he produced a 24% average annual return. Some of his claims, however, are disputed.
Other projects Cramer worked on include a stint at Smart Money magazine where he was “editor at large”. He was accused of unethical practices there when he made $2 million in personal gains as he bought stocks just before an article with his recommendations in it was published. In the year of 1996, Cramer and Martin Peretz partnered and launched TheStreet.com; financial news and literary website. It was later in 2019, sold to The Maven for $16.5 million.
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Jim Cramer on mad money
During the late 1990s, Jim would be regularly featured as a guest commentator on CNBC. Thereafter, he had his own show, ‘Kudlow & Cramer’, with Larry Kudlow. It aired from 2002 to 2005. Eventually, he moved on to the show “Mad Money with Jim Cramer” that first aired on CNBC in 2005. The show educated viewers with tools and knowledge to become better investors. Among the conditions for him to be on the show, Jim is required to disclose any position he holds in regards to stocks that are discussed on the show. He is not allowed to trade in anything he has discussed or spoken about on the show for five days following each broadcast.
Cramer, additionally, has authored and published several books. These include “Jim Cramer’s Get Rich Carefully” (2013), “Jim Cramer’s Getting Back to Even” (2009), “Jim Cramer’s Stay Mad for Life: Get Rich, Stay Rich (Make Your Kids Even Richer)” (2007), “Jim Cramer’s Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World” (2005), “You Got Screwed! Why Wall Street Tanked and How You Can Prosper” (2002), “Confessions of a Street Addict” (2002).
Jim Cramer Personal Life:
Cramer married Karen Backfisch and the marriage lasted from 1988 to 2009. Together they have two children. In April 2015, he married Lisa Cadette Detwiler, a real estate broker, and general manager of the New York City restaurant The Longshoreman. He currently lives in Summit, New Jersey, and also owns private residential properties in Quogue, New York, on Long Island, as well as a 65-acre estate in the countryside of New Jersey.
In 1999, Jim and Karen bought a 100+ years old home spread over 1.33 acres in Summit, New Jersey for $2.375 million. The house was sold to Karen for $1 as part of the divorce settlement. In April 2019 Karen sold the house for $3 3.675 million.
Cramer owns a 65-acre estate in New Jersey. In the year 2008, Jim bought a different home in Summit, New Jersey for $4.7 million.