The discussion last night among a gathering of baseball fans, at their favorite beverage establishment, was how much money is Alex Rodriguez worth. It seems that Alex Rodriguez’s agent is hinting at figures of thirty million dollars a year for the next ten years. Perhaps it is more but let’s just use round numbers.

Alex Rodriguez has made hundreds of millions of dollars already from baseball. For example, his contract with the Texas Rangers was rumored to be over two hundred and fifty million dollars. The people discussing this knew these figures, as well as other arcane baseball statistics. My question was not whether Mr Rodriguez was worth all that money but, rather, ‘what does one do with all that money?’.

The typical answers were homes, cars, jets, taking care of the family and kids… That is all fine but that does not require hundreds of millions. And, of course, Alex Rodriguez is not alone. It is not unusual for Chief Executive Officers of companies, whether successful or not, to have incomes in that bracket. Alex Rodriguez is just an example. Seriously, what do people do with all that money - besides pay lawyers and accountants?

Catherine Forsythe

Tags: money, wealth, baseball, alex rodriguez