What is Jim Cramer's Net Worth and Salary?
Jim Cramer is an American television personality, best-selling author, and former hedge fund manager who boasts a net worth of $150 million. He is famously known for hosting CNBC's "Mad Money" and co-founding TheStreet.com. Jim Cramer earns an annual salary of $5 million from his roles at CNBC and benefits from considerable book royalties and advances.
Cramer managed the hedge fund Cramer Berkowitz from 1987 to 2001. At its zenith, the fund had $450 million in assets under management and yielded an average annual return of 24%. In a 2005 BusinessWeek interview, Cramer mentioned his net worth was between $50 million and $100 million.
At the height of the dot-com bubble, Cramer's net worth surged mainly from his 15% stake in TheStreet.com. When TheStreet.com went public in 1999, it had a market cap of $1.7 billion, making Cramer's stake worth $255 million. However, after the dot-com crash, his stake was valued at about $15 million by 2005.
Early Life and Career Beginnings
James J. Cramer, widely known as Jim Cramer, was born on February 10, 1955, in Wyndmoor, a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to a Jewish family. His mother, Louise A. Cramer, was an artist, while his father, Ken Cramer, owned International Packaging Products, a company supplying wrapping paper and boxes to retailers and restaurants.
During the early 1970s, one of Jim’s initial jobs was selling Coca-Cola and ice cream at Veterans Stadium during Philadelphia Phillies games. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1977 with a Bachelor of Arts in government. At Harvard, he actively participated in The Harvard Crimson, becoming its President and Editor-in-Chief.
Following his college graduation, Cramer began as an entry-level reporter at the Tallahassee Democrat in Florida, where he was among the first to cover the Ted Bundy murders. He later worked for other publications like the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner and American Lawyer. He even served the Governor of California, Jerry Brown. Eventually, he returned to Harvard for law school and used his stock market profits to pay tuition.
(Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
Goldman Sachs
After graduating from Harvard Law in 1984, Cramer joined Goldman Sachs as a stockbroker. Despite being admitted to the New York State Bar Association in 1985, he did not practice law, and his license was suspended in 2009 for failing to pay the registration fee.
Cramer, Berkowitz & Co.
In 1987, Cramer left Goldman Sachs to establish his hedge fund, originally called Cramer & Co., later renamed Cramer, Berkowitz & Co. He raised $450 million, receiving funding in $5 million increments with a 20% fee on the profits generated. Early investors included Steve Brill, Eliot Spitzer, and Martin Peretz. Cramer retired from his hedge fund in 2001, with Jeff Berkowitz taking over. He claimed an average annual return of 24% from 1988 to 2000, except for a negative year in 1998. Some of his claims have been challenged.
Smart Money and TheStreet.com
Cramer also contributed to SmartMoney magazine as the "editor at large." He faced allegations of unethical behavior when he made a $2 million personal gain by purchasing stocks before an article featuring his stock recommendations was published. In 1996, he co-founded the financial news website TheStreet.com with Martin Peretz. The website was sold to TheMaven in 2019 for $16.5 million.
CNBC
Cramer became a frequent guest commentator on CNBC in the late 1990s, eventually co-hosting "Kudlow & Cramer" with Larry Kudlow from 2002 to 2005. He then launched "Mad Money with Jim Cramer" in 2005, offering viewers tools and knowledge to invest wisely. Cramer is required to disclose any positions he holds on discussed stocks and is prohibited from trading them for five days post-broadcast. The show drew inspiration from his former radio show, "Jim Cramer's Real Money," which ended in December 2006.
(Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images)
Books
Cramer has authored several books, including "Confessions of a Street Addict" (2002), "You Got Screwed! Why Wall Street Tanked and How You Can Prosper" (2002), "Jim Cramer's Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World" (2005), "Jim Cramer's Stay Mad for Life: Get Rich, Stay Rich (Make Your Kids Even Richer)" (2007), "Jim Cramer's Getting Back to Even" (2009), and "Jim Cramer's Get Rich Carefully" (2013).
Personal Life
Cramer was married to Karen Backfisch from 1988 to 2009, with whom he has two children. He married Lisa Cadette Detwiler in 2015, a real estate broker and general manager of The Longshoreman restaurant in NYC.
He owns several properties, including the DeBary Inn in Summit, New Jersey, co-purchased with four investors in 2009, and Bar San Miguel in Brooklyn, co-owned with his wife. He resides in Summit, New Jersey, with additional properties in Quogue, NY, and a 65-acre estate in rural New Jersey.
Cramer is a devoted Philadelphia Eagles NFL team fan, holding season tickets for over 20 years.
Real Estate
In 1999, Cramer and Karen paid $2.375 million for a 100+ year old home in Summit, New Jersey. Jim sold the house to Karen for $1 as part of their divorce settlement, and she sold it in April 2019 for $3.675 million.
In 2008, Jim purchased another property in Summit for $4.7 million. He also owns a 65-acre estate elsewhere in New Jersey.
