YouTube billionaire MrBeast says he's actually cash poor: 'I have negative money'

YouTube megastar MrBeast is a self-made billionaire at 27 years old.

But the creator, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, has said he's cash poor.

"I have negative money right now," Donaldson said in a recently published interview.

If you're reading this, you probably have more money on hand than YouTube billionaire MrBeast.

The world's biggest YouTuber, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, has said he owns more than half of his business, which was valued at $5 billion in its latest funding round. But a hefty net worth doesn't always translate to cash.

"I have negative money right now," Donaldson said in a Wall Street Journal video interview published in early January. "I'm borrowing money right now — that's how little money I have."

Donaldson also said that "technically, everyone watching this video has more money than me," though the self-made billionaire suspected that some people wouldn't believe him.

"It's funny talking about my personal finances, because no one ever believes anything I say," Donaldson said.

MrBeast made a similar point last summer when he said he had to borrow money from his mom for his wedding, adding that he had "very little money" since he tries to "reinvest everything."

"I'm so busy working, I don't really think about my personal bank account," Donaldson told the WSJ.

Donaldson's lack of dollars may come as a surprise to fans who have watched him hand out wads of cash to strangers and stand on a pyramid of money. However, MrBeast's company, Beast Industries, is still a startup, and cash flow can be a problem for executives at young companies that aren't publicly traded and have fewer lanes to liquidate their stock.

A lack of cash on hand hasn't stopped Donaldson from splurging occasionally. The YouTuber said he once rented a private jet for about $150,000 to visit his then-girlfriend (now-fiancée), Thea Booysen, in the United Kingdom.

Donaldson is known to drop millions of dollars on YouTube videos, too, which former staffers said he would sometimes kill entirely if they didn't meet his quality standards. The YouTuber said that despite Amazon paying him for his Prime Video show, "Beast Games," he overspent and ended up losing tens of millions of dollars on the first season.

His company, Beast Industries, has made a push over the last year to reduce unnecessary spending, following a loss of over $100 million in its media division in 2024.

Donaldson has made personal finance a growing portion of his brand.

He's looking to start Beast Financial, a banking and financial advisory venture. The YouTuber also said he wants to launch a YouTube channel featuring personal finance videos to help educate his viewers on how to handle money.

Financial content "just feels like a nice fit for us because we do so much with money," Donaldson told creator Jon Youshaei.

Behind the headline numbers is a business model built on constant reinvestment. Donaldson does not treat his earnings as personal income in the traditional sense. Instead, much of what his empire generates is sent straight back into production, staffing, logistics, and larger scale projects. The goal, he has said repeatedly, is to grow faster than competitors by making each video bigger, more complex, and more expensive than the last. That strategy has helped him dominate views, but it also means personal liquidity often takes a back seat.

This approach challenges the public’s idea of what it means to be rich. Net worth reflects ownership and valuation, not the amount sitting in a bank account. In Donaldson’s case, most of his wealth is tied up in a private company that cannot be easily sold or converted into cash. Until a public offering or major liquidity event happens, access to that wealth remains limited. For many founders, this is a familiar reality, even if the scale of MrBeast’s business is far larger than most.

Fans often see the giveaways, the expensive stunts, and the viral generosity, but they rarely see the risk behind it. High budgets, unpredictable ad revenue, and ambitious expansion plans can stretch even successful companies. Donaldson’s admission highlights how fast growth can create pressure, even when a brand appears unstoppable from the outside. It also explains why financial discipline has become a bigger focus inside Beast Industries as the company matures.

By turning toward financial education, Donaldson seems to be closing the loop between entertainment and real world money lessons. If Beast Financial and his proposed finance channel take off, they could reshape how younger audiences learn about saving, investing, and managing debt. For a creator whose career was built on spectacle, the next chapter may be about showing that wealth is not just about how much you make, but how you manage what you keep.

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MrBeast, Jimmy Donaldson, YouTube billionaire, Beast Industries, creator economy, personal finance, startup culture, net worth vs cash, digital entrepreneurs, Beast Financial