When Elijah Wood was still a child, he got his first big break when he was hired to appear in the music video for Paula Abdul’s hit song “Forever Your Girl”. In the years since that watershed moment in his life, Wood has put together one of the most interesting careers in all of Hollywood.

Still best known as the actor who brought Frodo Baggins to life on the big screen, when Elijah Wood comments on Lord of the Rings to this day, fans pay attention. Despite owing his main claim to fame to a blockbuster film franchise, Wood has gone on to focus his career on smaller independent films that tell unique stories. For that reason, there are a lot of people who’ve grown to love Wood’s work despite not calling themselves fans in the past.

Of course, it should go without saying that one of the main reasons why Elijah Wood can afford to focus on smaller projects is all of the money he made from his blockbuster films. With that in mind, it begs an obvious question, does Wood spend his money in interesting ways as well?

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Financial Perspective

For a very long time, regular people have been fascinated by the incredible lives that a lot of stars lead since they are happy to spend a fortune on little things. For proof of that fact, all you have to do is look at the fact that there have been several shows about the lifestyles of the rich and famous even though Cribs could be pretty shady at times.

While talking to a wealthsimple.com interviewer in 2017, Elijah Wood revealed that his upbringing has made him a lot more frugal than most of his peers. “I was raised in a working-class family. My dad worked at a box factory, and my mom worked at a Quaker Oats factory. Later, they opened a local deli. Watching my parents gave me a healthy respect for the value of hard work. And it was also kind of formative to watch as my family dealt with some pretty stressful financial issues — debt, IRS problems. I was actually very nervous about it all at the time, and I developed a cautious perspective about money. That caution has persisted. After those difficult years, I learned to never take money for granted or be frivolous in my spending.”

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Wood’s Big Purchases

No matter how Elijah Wood feels about spending a lot of money at a time, certain things inherently are expensive. For example, unless you are willing to have a car that breaks down at every turn, vehicles don’t come cheap. According to hotcars.com, Wood owns three cars, a convertible Mini Cooper S, an Audi A4, and a Mitsubishi ASX.

In terms of the living spaces that Wood has called home, it is clear that he has been willing to drop some serious money. After all, in 2012, Wood reportedly bought a 130-year-old Victorian home located in Austin, Texas for $1.075 million. On top of that, Wood reportedly spent a healthy amount of money on renovating the inside and outside of that Texas home which is why he listed it at $1.85 million when he put it on the market in 2020. On top of that, homes.com reports that in 2019 Wood put his “precious Los Angeles compound” on the market for $1.995 Million. While it is unclear how much Wood originally spent on that property and home, it must have been a sizable number.

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Wood’s Passion Project

During Elijah Wood’s aforementioned wealthsimple.com interview, the beloved actor talked about his main collection and how much he is willing to spend on it. “I’m a record collector. I have more than 4,000 records in my collection. Some of the records I buy are pretty expensive. I’ve gotten more comfortable with that lately. Recently, I picked up a Horace Silver jazz album — an original Blue Note release, with Art Blakey on drums. It was $300. There was a period of time when I first started buying records when I was like, Oooh, $50 for an album? That’s too much. But as I began working more and more, I started thinking, I don’t really spend money on anything else, so I can afford to do that.”

“It’s interesting how your spending habits can shift over time. You start to make these little justifications, and $50 can quickly go from “Whoa, that’s too much” to no big thing. But I still have my limits. I think paying a grand for an album would make me nervous. To this day, I still get nervous anytime I’m spending a lot of money.” While talking to The Vinyl Factory, Wood revealed that he has grouped his records with his friend DJ Zach Cowie and to say they have an amazing and costly collection is a huge understatement.

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