Skateboarder Tony Hawk Reveals How Buying a House at 17 Saved Him From Financial Ruin After Wild Overspending

Skateboarding legend Tony Hawk has detailed how becoming a homeowner at the young age of 17 helped him to claw his way out of potential financial ruin when his professional work began drying up because he was deemed “too old.”

Hawk, 56, shot to fame as a pro skateboarder when he was just 14 and quickly began raking in about $160,000 a year. By the time he was a high school senior, he was earning more than his teachers—but also spending his money like “it was never going to end.”

Now, in an interview on SoFi’s “Richer Lives” podcast, Hawk has opened up about those out-of-control spending habits, while revealing how his father, Frank, stepped in to try to persuade him to invest his money in something more significant: property.

“I didn’t have a very good perspective on it,” the sporting legend conceded. “My dad was trying to guide me and sort of warn me, ‘Hey, this might not last forever.’ When you’re that age and the money comes so consistently, you don’t see the end in sight.”

Thankfully, Hawk took his dad’s advice, and at the age of 17, he purchased a home. At the time, he thought the property would serve as a place where he and his friends could party and let loose, rather than be a family home.

However, when his career took a nosedive a few years later, his first home became something else entirely: his “saving grace.”

Not long after buying his first property, Hawk invested in another, much bigger home, which he immediately outfitted with a skateboard ramp in what he describes as a “dream” come true.

Unfortunately, not long after moving into that second home, Hawk’s work started drying up because he was considered “too old” to be the face of such a youthful sport.

“In the early ’90s especially, skating was considered just a youth sport,” he said. “So if you’re over the age of 18, you’re too old. I was 24. I was way past what they thought was a prime or even allowable to be a pro skater.”

As a result, the skaterboarder found himself slipping into debt, particularly after he took out a second mortgage on his second home in a bid to finance his own company.

Thankfully, he had somewhere else to turn.

“That first property I bought was my saving grace because I ended up buying another property and getting underwater with my expenses,” he explained.

“I had a big ramp set up there. That was the dream, but I just really was in over my head. I took out a second mortgage on the house to start a skateboard company of all things, and then ended up selling the house for what I owed.

“I moved back into the house I bought when I was in high school with a new family because my son was born at that time.”

That moment served as something of a wake-up call for Hawk, who said that he immediately began cutting back on his spending—to the point where he was living off instant ramen and Taco Bell, while spending just $5 per day.

“That’s when I really started cutting back on all expenses. It was definitely Taco Bell, Top Ramen, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches,” the athlete said.

After selling his megamansion and moving back into the property he purchased at 17, Hawk began working multiple jobs to keep his family afloat.

Although his time out of the public eye was “scary,” Hawk admitted that it was a “wake-up call” when it came to how he was spending his funds.

“The baseline was ‘Don’t live beyond your means.’ I thought that I wasn’t. I just kept kind of being in denial that, ‘Oh, I’m not making as much as I’m spending.’

“And then at some point, I definitely was not making as much as I was spending and I still had all these expenses. Back then, I had a water bill that I had to go make payments on it. That’s when things got really tricky and a little scary.

“It was a wake-up call. You should always be living so that you know you have savings,” he said.

Hawk made a surprising career comeback in 1999 when he garnered a record-breaking score of 900 at the X Games and debuted the first Pro Skater game on PlayStation.

Although he took out a $40,000 mortgage to fund his brand Birdhouse Skateboards and eventually sold his first house when he regained his popularity, purchasing it all those years ago was one of his “smartest” moves, he said.

Today, Hawk is still known as a skateboarding icon and has a net worth of over $140 million, according to BraveVision.

He has remained tight-lipped about his homes over the years. However, property records indicate that he purchased a stunning Encintas, CA, home in 2003 for $1.9 million. Today, it is estimated to be worth much more.

In the years since owning it, Hawk has installed a huge skate park in the backyard, just beyond the swimming pool.

In 2016, one year after marrying his current wife, Catherine Goodman, the athlete also purchased three units in a Detroit apartment building.

Hawk was previously married to Cindy Dunbar from 1960 to 1993. He then tied the knot with Erin Lee, whom he divorced in 2004. In 2006, he married ​Lhotse Merriam; they separated in 2011.

Hawk shares son Riley, 32, with Dunbar, sons Spencer, 25, and Keegan, 23, with Lee, and daughter Kadence, 16, with Merriam. He is also a stepdad to Goodman’s two sons, Miles and Calvin, whom she welcomed with her ex-husband.