April 2nd, 2014
12:00 PM ET
No Vanderbilt inheritance for Anderson CooperAnderson Cooper comes from a wealthy family, but the CNN anchor is a self-made man. As he explained to Howard Stern on Stern's radio show Monday, his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, told him early on he wasn't getting an inheritance.
Although Gloria was born into an affluent family - she's a descendant of railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt - she has no plans to supply her son with a trust fund like she was. "My mom made it very clear to me that she would pay for my college and stuff and that was it," Cooper told Stern. "There's no inheritance." Stern couldn't believe his ears, but Cooper assured him that he's fine with it. After all, knowing from the time that he was very small that he wouldn't have his mother's fortune to fall back on helped push him to make his money: he started looking for modeling work at 10. "I used to worry a ton. I got a job when I was 10 because I was obsessed with the looming financial collapse," Cooper recalled. "I was convinced that everything was going to collapse, and I needed to sock away money." To get an inheritance, he said, likely would've killed his drive. "I don't believe in inheriting money. That's a total fantasy ... I think it's an initiative-sucker, I think it's a curse. Who's inherited a lot of money who's gone on to do things in their own life? If I felt that there was some pot of gold waiting for me, I don't know that I would have been so motivated." But what about his mom, who went on to launch a profitable line of designer jeans? "I think that's an anomaly," Cooper said.
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By no money, she meant 10 million or so, not enough for Rodeo Drive but she was not going to starve the boy.
One of my closest and dearest friends comes from extreme wealth; her father is self made and her mother inherited from a trust. Early on her father set the example that he wanted to provide for his wife and family so that they would never have need of their trust funds. Both my friend and her brother work and provide for themselves. They simply reinvest the disbursements from their maternal trust funds for a "rainy day". There are plenty of people born with money that go on to do bigger and better things... Sometimes because of their wealth and sometimes in spite of it...
What, no Farrow puff stories today?
My experience as an artist is that rich people are generally good.
My patrons always told me that if you treat people nice then you will always do well by that and it is true.
Anderson Cooper has done well for himself and it is clear that he also understands that idea.
I congratulate him on his success. He earned it the old fashioned way.
Smart lady. I agree with her. In fact, upon death ALL resources still in the deceased person's name should belong to the government. It is everyone's responsibility to make decisions that they must be prepared to explain prior to death.
Well, I always wanted to know if when I bought Gloria Vanderbilt clothes at COSTCO whether I was contributing to Anderson Cooper's trust fund. Guess not. Would be nice to know what GV has planned for her stash...
Wanna get in on the football pool? nice
Another superb HS interview.