Jay Leno made a reported $32 million a year as the host of NBC’s The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, and he banked every dime. It started when he was growing up in Massachusetts and had two jobs: one at McDonald’s, the other at a car dealership. He saved the fast-food money and lived on the money he made at the car dealership. As time went on, he began to bank the money he made at the car dealership and lived on the money he made doing stand-up. When the got the job as host of The Tonight Show, he started banking those checks and started living on the stand-up comedy money. So, what made Leno do that? He explained that he always looked at TV as a temporary job, because when it ends, you often don’t work for a long time. Today, the 72-year-old has no need to worry about income at all, since his net worth is a hefty $450 million, but despite his net worth, Leno still works “to avoid being a rich guy in the pool."
