Jimmy Buffet became a billionaire after 5 decades in the music industry. Here's how the late singer made and spent his fortune. (2024)

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Buffett was one of the best-known musicians of the last five decades. In 2023, Forbes named him a billionaire.

Buffett, 76, released his first album, "Down to Earth," in 1970. However, he didn't have real breakthrough success until 1977 with his album, "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes," which remains his best-selling album and contains his signature song, "Margaritaville." That was his first (and only, to date) song on the Hot 100.

In 2023, Forbes proclaimed Buffett a billionairedue to his $180-million stake in Margaritaville, an estimated $570 million from touring and recording, $140 million in planes, homes, and shares in Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffett's company — no relation, though they are close friends), and a $50 million music catalog.

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He's best known for songs like "Margaritaville," "It's Five O'clock Somewhere," "Knee Deep," and more.

Buffett had a group of songs known as "The Big 8" that he sang at almost every show since the '80s: "Margaritaville," "Come Monday," "Fins," "Volcano," "A Pirate Looks at Forty," "Cheeseburger in Paradise," "Why Don't We Get Drunk," and "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes."

In 2023, "Margaritaville" was inducted into the Library of Congress.

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Buffett was also a huge concert draw with a devoted fan base called "parrotheads."

The Parrotheads, named after Grateful Dead's "Deadheads," are a dedicated fan base. Reflecting the laid-back lifestyle Buffett sang about, they dressed up as parrots at concerts (or, at the very least, rock a Hawaiian shirt), called their kids "parakeets" as Buffett-fans-in-training, and showed up every summer to see Buffett perform.

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But Buffett also turned his laidback lifestyle into a brand. Most famously, he co-owned the Margaritaville restaurant chain.

Jimmy Buffett's company Margaritaville, was founded in 1985 after Buffett opened his first Margaritaville store in Key West, Florida.

Soon after, the company became a successful restaurant chain with locations across the US and the Caribbean, including Atlantic City, New Orleans, Nashville, Turks and Caicos, Las Vegas, Jamaica, Orlando, and the Cayman Islands.

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The brand branched out into hotels, including the most recent addition, Margaritaville Resort Times Square in New York City.

The first Margaritaville Hotel opened in June 2010 on Florida's Pensacola Beach, a popular spring break destination.

In the 13 years following, hotels have opened in, among other places, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Hollywood, Florida; Pigeon Forge, Tennessee; Gatlinburg, Tennessee; Osage Beach, Missouri; Palm Springs, California; and most recently, in New York City's Times Square in 2021.

Margaritaville also operates vacation clubs in St. Thomas, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.

As The New Yorker reported in March 2022, more than 20 million people visit a Margaritaville-branded establishment yearly, and the company has "annual system-wide sales of $1.7 billion."

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There are also Margaritaville casinos ...

Just a year after the first hotel opened, Buffett was on hand in 2011 to open the first Margaritaville Casino in Las Vegas, in partnership with the Flamingo Las Vegas.

Now, there are casinos in Bossier City, Louisiana, and Rio Mar, Puerto Rico, as well.

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... and even Margaritaville retirement communities and RV parks.

The first Camp Margaritaville, an RV resort, opened in 2019 and was a "surprise" smash hit, Insider's Brittany Chang reported. The first location was in Georgia's Lake Lanier.

There are now five Camp Margaritavilles open for business, with a sixth on the way in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania.

Margaritaville also operates three 55-and-older communities called Latitude Margaritaville.

"Who knew people wanted to live in Margaritaville?" Buffett said in an interview with The New Yorker. "I thought for a while it was a myth."

Buffett's company also operates Margaritaville locations in airports, which are called Air Margaritaville.

There are seven Air Margaritaville locations.

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Margaritaville also has retail stores.

There's also an online shop, which sells clothing, footwear, games, and pool floats, among other items.

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If you like to cruise, don't worry — there's Margaritaville at Sea, too.

The brand's first cruise ship sailed out of Florida in April 2022.

The Margaritaville Paradise has 658 cabins and branded food and beverage options, Business Insider's Brittany Chang reported. The ship also has eight dining venues, five bars/lounges, and 10 floors to explore.

Right now, the only route is from Florida to the Bahamas.

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But that's not the only chain Buffett was involved with. He also owned Landshark Bar & Grill, which has locations across the country.

In fact, many of the Margaritaville Hotels and Resorts have a Landshark inside of them, including the Times Square resort.

The name references one of Buffett's most popular songs, "Fins." When he performed it, the audience put their hands on their foreheads like fins, and Buffett would say, "the Landsharks are coming."

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If the name sounds familiar, it's because Landshark is also a beer. Of course, Buffett was involved with that, too.

For many years, Buffett was associated with (and sponsored by) Corona, but as Margaritaville's popularity grew, Buffett and Margaritaville CEO John Cohlan decided they wanted their own beer.

So, they paired up with the team at Anheuser-Busch, who were looking for a "Corona killer" themselves, Vine Pair reported, and launched Landshark in 2006. As of 2019, Landshark was still selling 4 million cases a year.

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Buffett released 31 albums and went on 45 tours, including 2023's Second Wind Tour.

He released so much music that he was in the tier of artists with their own SiriusXM channels like Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Grateful Dead, and U2.

As of 2014, Buffett made over $400 million across 539 shows on tour, according to Consequence of Sound. In 2023, Forbes reported this had reached $570 million.

He also had his own record label, Mailboat Records.

Mailboat Records was established in 1999 and now has plenty of artists that fit the Parrothead vibes, including an official Buffett cover band, Jeff Bridges, Jesse Winchester, REO Speedwagon, and more.

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Buffett wrote the music and lyrics for his musical, "Escape to Margaritaville," which made its Broadway debut in 2018.

It wasn't a huge hit with criticsand didn't last long on Broadway, closing after 129 performances in July 2018 and then embarking on a national tour.

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Buffett was also a New York Times best-selling author. He was the sixth author in the list's history to top the fiction and non-fiction lists.

Buffett wrote multiple novels ("A Salty Piece of Land," "Swine Tale,""Where Is Joe Merchant?") and nonfiction works as well ("A Pirate Looks at Fifty" and "Tales from Margaritaville").

In 1992, Buffett's novel "Where Is Joe Merchant?" topped The New York Times' best-selling fiction list. Six years later, when he released "A Pirate Looks at Fifty," he topped the non-fiction list, making him only the sixth person ever to achieve that feat.

Since then, only one other person has done it: Mitch Albom.

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He also dabbled in the movie industry. He scored and produced the 2006 children's film "Hoot."

He also appeared in the film. Buffett, who is interested in conservation, was likely attracted to the novel due to its environmentalist themes.

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One of his most recent business ventures was the cannabis brand Coral Reefer, named after his band.

In 2019, Buffett teamed up with Surterra Wellness to release Coral Reefer, a line of cannabis wellness products.

"It never dawned on me that Coral Reefer would be anything other than a cool name for a tropical band born out of the Key West lifestyle in the mid-'70s," Buffett said in a statement. "But life is supposed to be about having fun and staying healthy enough to enjoy it. I think Coral Reefer will help a lot of folks do that."

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He also invested in the eyeglasses brand Warby Parker.

In 2021, when Warby Parker went public, it was revealed that Buffett was an investor, Markets Insider reported.

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Buffett was also heavily involved with charity efforts. In 1981, he cofounded the Save the Manatee Club.

Buffett cofounded Save the Manatee Club in 1981 with former Florida governor Bob Graham "with the mission to protect manatees and their habitat." It's now the leading manatee conservation group.

The organization focuses on "increasing public awareness and education, sponsoring research, rescue, rehabilitation, and release efforts, advocating for strong protection measures, such as boat speed zones and sanctuaries, taking legal action when appropriate, and supporting rescue, rehabilitation, research, and education efforts in the Wider Caribbean, South America, and West Africa."

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As you can imagine, Buffett was here for a good time. Buffett had homes in Sag Harbor, New York; Palm Beach, Florida; Beverly Hills, California; and the Caribbean island St. Barts.

Buffett owned a waterfront compound in Sag Harbor since the mid-'90s, with neighbors such as Billy Joel and Paul Simon. According to Forbes, he actually owned three homes side-by-side.

He purchased his St. Bart's home in 2006, according to a Buffett fan site, but The New York Times confirmed he was working on building his latest home on the island in 2018.

In 2014, he bought an $8.25 million home in Beverly Hills, featuring 4,300 square feet of living space with four bedrooms and five bathrooms.

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He had multiple homes in Palm Beach. He sold one in December 2020 for $6.9 million.

The home, which he bought for under $5 million in 2011, has "4,783 square feet of living space with three bedrooms and three-and-a-half bathrooms," Mansion Global reported.

The home also has direct beach access, perfect for anyone who wants to waste away in Margaritaville.

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The two he held onto are across the street from each other. He purchased the first in 2002 for $802,000 and the second in 2013 for $1.3 million.

The second home has four bedrooms, three-and-a-half baths, and is 3,100 square feet, according to Forbes.

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Buffett also spent part of the summer traveling the East Coast on his motorized sailboat.

According to a 2021 report by Boat International, Buffett sailed a custom 15.24-meter motor sailer designed by Ted Fontaine called the Drifter. "I made a pretty good living with people buying my tapes and putting them on boats," Buffett said.

It hasn't been reported how much the Drifter cost, but other yachts of a similar size can cost around $2.25 million — and Buffett's is custom.

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The "License to Chill" singer was also an avid pilot and owned multiple planes.

According to a Buffett fan site, he owned six planes, registered to the company Strange Bird Inc., named after his 1989 song.

Most famously, he had a plane called the Hemisphere Dancer, a seaplane from the '50s. It was mentioned frequently in Buffett's book "A Pirate Looks at Fifty," and is now a piece of Parrothead iconography. He retired the plane from active service in 2003, and it's now a part of the Margaritaville Cafe in Orlando.

The Hemisphere Dancer also makes an appearance in his song "Jamaica Mistaica." According to its lyrics,Jamaican authorities almost shot the plane down because they thought Buffett was carrying marijuana.