Here's how 50 Cent spent his millions before filing for bankruptcy

On Monday, Curtis Jackson, better known as rapper 50 Cent, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection following a messy lawsuit in which he was forced to pay his rival Rick Ross' ex-girlfriend $5 million.

The news came as a shock, especially considering the rapper was just ranked No. 4 on Forbes' May list of the wealthiest hip-hop artists thanks to his reported $155 million net worth. His massive 2007 deal with Vitamin Water alone awarded him between $60 million and $100 million.

50's lawyers have said the filing is simply to "reorganize his financial affairs as he addresses various professional liabilities," but in the meantime, we only want to live in a world in which 5o Cent is synonymous with his hit 2003 album, "Get Rich or Die Tryin'."

Curtis James Jackson III was born July 6, 1975, in Queens, New York, where he grew up dealing drugs. In 2000, he was struck by nine bullets during a shooting in his neighborhood.

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After he released the compilation album "Guess Who's Back?" in 2002, the young rapper was discovered by Eminem and signed by Shady Records, Aftermath Entertainment, and Interscope Records as part of a $1 million deal.

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Rappers Eminem, 50 Cent, and Dr. Dre.

Source: BBC

With the help of Eminem and Dr. Dre — who produced his first label album in 2003, "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" — 50 Cent became one of the world's most successful rappers, selling more than 30 million albums worldwide.

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In 2003 he founded G-Unit Records, signing his G-Unit associates Young Buck, Lloyd Banks, and Tony Yayo.

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50 Cent with G-Unit members Young Buck, Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo, and Kidd Kidd.

With his newfound success also came product-endorsement deals and a G-Unit clothing company. In 2003 he signed a five-year deal with Reebok to distribute a G-Unit Sneakers line.

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With beautiful women on his arm, the rapper started to care more about his appearance.

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And his accessories.

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He loves bling.

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He started sitting front row at fashion shows.

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50 Cent also got into cars, here with his branded vehicle at the Days of Thunder motorsport event.

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Today his Instagram is filled with luxurious images of clothes and cars that he is constantly posting to his 5.4 million followers.

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50 Cent's Instagram account

He has an impressive collection of both.

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And flies privately.

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In 2004, 50 Cent was given a minority share in Vitamin Water in exchange for being the face of the beverage. In 2007, the Coca-Cola Company acquired Vitamin Water from Glacéau for $4.1 billion. The rapper reportedly received between $60 million and $100 million.

Vitamin Water

Source: The Washington Post

50 has also been the face of Right Guard body spray, Magic Stick condoms, a G-Unit clothing line for Ecko, and "Bulletproof" video games. Pontiac sponsored his 2007 tour of New York City's five boroughs to promote his album "Curtis," and he helped design a G8 sedan.

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And he has a vodka line he constantly promotes on social media.

He wrote books such as 2007's "50 X 50: 50 Cent in His Own Words."

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And 2011's "Playground."

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Source: Amazon

In 2012 he became a licensed boxing promoter for his new company, The Money Team. He and his friend Floyd Mayweather Jr. signed boxers including IBF featherweight champion Billy Dib.

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50 Cent with Floyd Mayweather Jr. belts at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in 2007.

In 2014, an endorsement deal with Sleek headphones went bad after 50 Cent allegedly produced a rival line of headphones. A judge ordered the rapper to pay the company more than $16 million.

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More on the lawsuit here.

But he still has plenty of money from concerts, merchandise, and sales of more than 30 million album sales.

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 He's had 26 different roles on various TV shows and movies, including "Real Steel," "Get Rich or Die Trying," and the upcoming "Southpaw" alongside Jake Gyllenhaal.

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50 Cent's full filmography.

He is starring on the hit new Starz drama "Power."

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And has always been very involved with charity, even launching his own philanthropic initiative to provide food for 1 billion starving people in Africa.

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50 Cent was ranked No. 4 on Forbes' May list of the wealthiest hip-hop artists thanks to his reported $155 million net worth.

Forbes.com

That same month, he was spotted looking dapper at the Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic at Liberty State Park.

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But just days after he was ordered to pay $5 million to his rival Rick Ross' ex-girlfriend for posting a sex tape online without her knowledge, the rapper filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

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More on the lawsuit here.

The bankruptcy claim comes just days after The New York Times published a glowing profile of the rapper, praising his "exceptional business instincts."

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According to his Instagram, 50 seems to still be living just fine.

He's never been shy to flaunt his wealth on social media.

NIGERIA: Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, Stopped To Help Accident Victims [Photos]

Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, came down from his vehicle around 8 this morning to assist in the rescue of an accident victim. The lady, Anukam Angela, lost control of her car and hit a median along Osborne road in Ikoyi.

Ambode, who was on his way to work, asked his convoy to stop and ordered the ambulance attached to him to take the lady, who was in a state of shock, to Lagos Island General hospital. Angela was treated for minor injuries and discharged free of charge on the order of the Governor.

Rapper DMX jailed for 6 months

The rapper was jailed in Buffalo, New York yesterday July 14th for failing to comply with a family court ruling. He was asked by a court to pay back child support to one of his baby mamas but he didn't. When he appeared in court yesterday, a judge slapped him with a 6 months sentence and he was immediately locked up in Erie County Holding Center.

DMX has been arrested many times in the past few years, but this is the first prison sentence since 2011.

17 things keeping you from getting rich, according to a journalist who spent his career studying millionaires

Rasstock/ShutterstockGetting rich is entirely up to you.

Prompted by legendary businessman Andrew Carnegie, who turned a few nickels and dimes into a fortune, journalist Napoleon Hill researched more than 500 self-made millionaires over 20 years before releasing his 1937 best-seller, "Think and Grow Rich." 

In addition to boiling down the "secret" to building wealth in 13 principles, he revealed 30 "major causes of failure" that hold many of us back from getting rich.

Here are 17 that are still relevant today.

Not having a well-defined purpose.

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Define your goal and go after it.

"There is no hope of success for the person who does not have a central purpose, or definite goal, at which to aim," Hill writes.

If you're looking to build wealth, start with visualizing a savings goal with a specific price tag. Then form a financial plan and determine exactly where you want your money to go.

Lack of ambition.

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You have to want it.

You have to want to aim above mediocrity, Hill says: "We offer no hope for the person who is so indifferent as not to want to get ahead in life, and who is not willing to pay the price."

Wealth doesn't simply appear. You have to work toward it with patience and persistence. A good starting point is to invest your money (the earlier the better), and let the power of compound interest build your wealth. It doesn't take much time or effort, but it does require action on your part.

Not properly applying your education.

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Take your formal education and apply it outside the classroom.

A college degree won't cut it. Knowledge is only potential power, and it will not become useful or lead to great wealth unless it is organized and applied to life, Hill emphasizes: "Education consists not so much of knowledge, but of knowledge effectively and persistently applied. Men are paid not merely for what they know, but more particularly for what they do with that which they know."

Don't settle with your degree. Make it a priority to constantly learn new things and challenge your mind. There's a reason that many of today's successful and wealthy people are voracious readers.

Lack of self-discipline.

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Master self-control.

"Discipline comes through self-control," Hill writes. "This means that one must control all negative qualities. Before you can control conditions, you must first control yourself ... If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self."

When it comes to getting rich, the most basic formula is: save more, spend less. It's a simple concept, but spending less requires discipline. Learn to recognize and manage overspending triggers if you want to start accumulating wealth.

Not taking care of your body.

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Make time for exercise.

"No person may enjoy outstanding success without good health," Hill writes. It's no coincidence that many millionaires make time in their schedules to exercise. 

If you haven't mastered your body, the good news is that many of the causes of bad health — overeating, negative thoughts, and lack of exercise — are completely under your control.

If you're pressed for time, try this seven-minute workout you can do at home. 

Procrastinating.

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Put your phone away and pick up a personal-finance book.

Hill calls procrastination one of the most common causes of failure: "Most of us go through life as failures, because we are waiting for the 'time to be right' to start doing something worthwhile. Do not wait. The time will never be 'just right.' Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along."

If you want to build wealth, start today. Pick up a personal-finance book, listen to a podcast about money management, form a financial plan, or contribute toward a 401(k), Roth IRA, or traditional IRA. 

Lack of persistence.

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Don't stop until you have what you want.

"Most of us are good 'starters' but poor 'finishers' of everything we begin," Hill writes. "People are prone to give up at the first signs of defeat."

Don't stop until you get what you want. The most successful people tend to have dealt with, and overcome, failure. "I've learned that it doesn't matter how many times you failed," billionaire Mark Cuban told Smart Business. "You only have to be right once. I tried to sell powdered milk. I was an idiot lots of times, and I learned from them all." 

Negativity.

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Be the person people WANT to reach out to and help.

"There is no hope of success for the person who repels people through a negative personality," Hill writes. "Success comes through the application of power, and power is attained through the cooperative efforts of other people. A negative personality will not induce cooperation."

If you want to grow rich, positive emotions must dominate negative ones, Hill emphasizes. He was on to something: Today, research shows that positive, happier people are more likely to perform better at their jobs and are less likely to be unemployed.

Lack of decisiveness.

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Make up your mind and stick with it.

"Analysis of several hundred people who had accumulated fortunes well beyond the million-dollar mark disclosed the fact that every one of them had the habit of reaching decisions promptly," Hill writes.

On the flip side, "People who fail to accumulate money, without exception, have the habit of reaching decisions, if at all, very slowly, and of changing these decisions quickly and often."

Decisiveness is not just a trait of the wealthy but one of the most important qualities a leader needs to possess. At the end of the day, making a bad decision is better than making no decision at all. Choosing the wrong spouse.

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Don't get married just because it seems like the right time.

Hill highlights this as one of the most common causes of failure. "Unless this relationship is harmonious, failure is likely to follow," he writes. "Moreover, it will be a form of failure that is marked by misery and unhappiness, destroying all signs of ambition."

His claims are backed by research. One study, by Brittany C. Solomon and Joshua J. Jackson of Washington University in St. Louis, shows that having a conscientious spouse can boost your salary by $4,000 a year.

Not taking risks.

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Caution with money is a good thing, but over-caution can backfire.

"The person who takes no chances generally has to take whatever is left when others are through choosing," Hill says. "Over-caution is as bad as under-caution. Both are extremes to be guarded against. Life itself is filled with the element of chance."

When it comes to managing your money, it can be tempting to let your savings sit "safely" in your bank account to avoid feeling repercussions from another stock market crash. However, investing your money is how you'll make more of it.

You'll want to do so wisely of course, and a good starting point is to look into low-cost index funds, which Warren Buffett and other investing experts recommend.

Hanging out with the wrong crowd.

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The rich tend to associate with others who are rich.

"One should use great care to select an employer who will be an inspiration, and who is, himself, intelligent and successful," Hill advises. 

This concept extends beyond your boss and associates; it is also important to surround yourself with talented and driven people outside your work. Hill calls this creating a "Master Mind" group.  

We become like the people we associate with, which is why the rich tend to make friends with others who are rich. 

Ex-CIA Pilot Gives Sworn Testimony That No Planes Ever Hit The Twin Towers

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  His Further ClaimsHe also says that the engines would have maintained their general shape and either fallen to the ground or been recovered in the debris of the collapsed building.
  
  The AllegationsThe piece of alleged external fuselage containing 3-4 window cutouts is inconsistent with an airplane that hit 14-inch steel box columns, place at 500MPH+, it would have crumbled.
  
  DebrisHe also goes on to say that the debris of the collapse should have contained massive sections of the Boeing 767, including 3 engine cores that weighed around 9000 pounds, which would mean they'd be easy to find.

LawsuitIn 2007, Morgan Reynolds, a former chief economist under the George W. Bush administration, has filed a Request for Correction with the U.S. National Institute of Science and Technology, citing his belief that real commercial jets didn't hit the towers.

'Controlled Descent'Another retired airplane captain and former CIA pilot said that the controlled descent into New York by a novice pilot would be very unlikely as they'd be unable to adequately control the plane.

OrganizationMany of these pilots speaking up are a part of the 'pilotsfor911truth.org' group that has argued all of the above statements to be true. And, that the 9/11 Commission failed to take evidence from pilots back in 2002-2004 when they did their inquiry into the attacks