A closer look
Despite the myth that he died a misunderstood pauper, Mozart was actually earning the modern equivalent of hundreds of thousands of dollars a year at the peak of his career. Unfortunately, he had the financial literacy of a modern lottery winner. He squandered his massive fortunes on outrageously expensive clothes, constant relocations, and throwing absolute ragers for the Austrian elite. The man didn't die poor because of a lack of talent; he died poor because he couldn't stop buying custom billiard tables.
