Bieberchella: the money lesson behind the headlines

I'll be honest, I completely missed Bieber fever the first time around. I must have been just a little too old for that era. But a couple of weeks ago my Instagram feed had other ideas, and suddenly Biebchella was everywhere. And like we all do, I fell down the rabbit hole.

What I didn't expect was where I ended up, genuinely fascinated by him and his music. Then, as we all do, I had a bit of a stalk on his life, and up came his financial story.

Because here's the thing. Justin Bieber, at his peak, was one of the biggest selling artists on the planet. And yet behind the scenes, the money story looked very different. After cancelling his world tour in 2022, reports emerged of serious financial trouble, unpaid tax bills, reckless spending, and eventually selling his entire music catalogue for a reported $200 million just to stay afloat. So when he stepped onto the stage at Coachella this April and pocketed a reported $10 million for two weekends, it wasn't just a comeback. It was, at least partly, a necessity.

So how does someone worth hundreds of millions end up here?

Part of it was his own spending. His business managers actually advised him against buying a $700K diamond ring, the loan was denied, and he went ahead and bought it anyway. But it wasn't just him. Reports suggest his financial managers were making decisions that cost him a fortune. The reality is probably both: a person making bad decisions, surrounded by people who either enabled them or weren't keeping him accountable. When you're at that level, everyone around you wants to keep you happy. Saying no isn't good for business. And that's a dangerous position to be in.

Which brings me to something I think about a lot.

Because money mismanagement doesn't discriminate. It doesn't care how talented you are or how many zeros are in your pay cheque. You can earn billions and still find yourself having to work just to keep the wheels on.

I see a version of this every single day. Clients who earn great incomes, who work hard, and yet have no idea where the money goes. Not aware of their spending habits, or unable to stick to a budget.

It's not always a discipline problem. Sometimes it's a psychology problem.

How we relate to money often traces back to how we were raised, not just whether our parents taught us to save, but whether they talked about being financially independent in the first place.

I was lucky. My parents were working class and hard workers, but they talked about money, and they made me feel like my financial future was mine to shape. I didn't appreciate it as a teenager. I do now.

Which is why, as a business owner, the job is bigger than just running a business. It's about legacy. The habits you model and the conversations you have, or don't have, at the dinner table are quietly writing the financial blueprint your kids will carry into adulthood.

Are you giving them the confidence to stand on their own two feet? Because the goal isn't to be handing out money to your kids into adulthood, it's to give them the tools now so they never need it.

And if you're a business owner thinking you can manage the numbers yourself to save a few dollars, are you spending your money on the right things?