Keke Palmer became a millionaire by the age of 12.
In 2004, the Chicago native landed her first film role in “Barbershop 2: Back in Business”. Her breakout role came in 2006 with “Akeelah and the Bee” and just a year later, she showcased her acting skills as Mary Thomas in Disney’s “Jump In!” alongside Corbin Bleu.
By that time, Palmer’s parents had already hired a business manager—a strategic decision aimed at ensuring financial transparency.
“They wanted me to know that they they weren’t the ones controlling my money. They had heard these stories and my mom said I don’t want money to come in between me and my child,” Palmer said on “Club Shay Shay.”
Palmer also benefited from a Coogan account, which was designed to hold a percentage of child star’s earnings.
She added, “That always was there regardless of anything else.”
Palmer also spoke on the intricacies of reaching millionaire status by 12.
“I became a millionaire at 12. To expect everybody to have become a millionaire at 12 and learn money management and have a business manager at 12 to me just seems not realistic,” she said on the podcast. “I started working 10, 15 years before most of my generation had their first job and this is like most, obviously some people different.”
Despite Palmer and her parents’ efforts to practice financial due diligence, she still encountered significant financial challenges in adulthood. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, these struggles culminated in her filing for bankruptcy at just 18 years old—a move that underscored the difficulties of navigating financial independence at such a young age. This experience became a pivotal lesson in her journey, shaping her understanding of money management and resilience in the face of adversity.
“I was so spooked. I was like ‘What went wrong?,’” she mentioned during the Building Wealth Today for Tomorrow Financial Empowerment Summit held in Oct. 2024.
She has since turned a new leaf exercising greater financial discernment in her adult years.
“If I got $10,000 in the bank, then my house would be $500 a month. That’s how under I mean, because I can probably afford something $2,500 maybe, but I’m going way under,” she said during the panel. “You know why? Because I wanna invest in my business. So if I wanna invest in my business, then the material things that I’m having currently might have to take a short back. Instead of wearing Gucci, I’m wearing Zara. I live in a good place. I drive a cool car, ’cause my money is going elsewhere… I got a Toyota right now in my driveway.”
