Dwyane Wade has a thing for cars. The retired NBA star spent his first big paycheck on an electric blue Escalade. He decked it out with 26-inch rims and spinners, he told Men's Health in a 2020 interview.
At one point, he owned more than a dozen cars. That was before Wade heard what he says is the best money advice he ever got: "To get rid of about 16 cars," including a Maybach he never drove that was costing him $6,000 a month.
At first, he didn't follow the advice, which came from his financial advisor. But Wade eventually conceded and whittled down his collection to just one car: "a modest Audi Q8," he told Men's Health.
Wade, who forewent his senior year at Marquette University to declare for the 2003 NBA draft, wishes he'd been smarter about handling his salary when he was younger. "I regret not having someone early in my career to help teach me about all this money," he said. "I went from making $200-some-odd dollars in college to becoming a millionaire overnight and I didn't know what to do with it."
He blew through his early money quickly. "I ended up saving none," he said. "I spent all of it." Had he known how to spend smarter at the time, "I would be a lot richer today," he added.
