Back In The ‘90s Elon Musk Turned His Dorm Room Into A Club And Charged A $5 Cover To Pay Rent — Now He's The Richest Man Alive And Still Rents
Wed, August 19, 2026 at 2:01 AM GMT+3 5 min read
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Long before rockets blasted into orbit and electric cars reshaped the auto industry, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk found a far simpler way to cover rent —throw a party, charge five bucks at the door and hope enough people showed up.
According to Ashlee Vance's 2015 biography "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future," Musk and his University of Pennsylvania roommate, Adeo Ressi, rented a large off-campus house in the early 1990s that had once served as a fraternity. With campus nightlife lacking, they transformed the property into an unofficial nightclub on weekends.
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One Wild Night Paid the Bills
The house was darkened with covered windows, decorated with blacklights, fluorescent paint and whatever unusual items they could find. Admission cost $5, beer and Jell-O shots were plentiful, and some nights drew as many as 500 people. A successful party could cover an entire month's rent.
"I was paying my own way through college and could make an entire month's rent in one night," Musk said in the book. "Adeo was in charge of doing cool shit around the house, and I would run the party."
Years later, Musk confirmed the story himself.
"To pay rent, we turned our house into a nightclub & charged a $5 entry fee. Looked cool at night, but insane by day…blacklights, luminescent spray paint & metal junk sculptures," he wrote on X in 2019.
When another user asked for photos, Musk replied that his mother once worked the coat check while guarding the cash with a kitchen knife. "Yeah, we paid for rent by turning the house into a nightclub & charging $5," he wrote on X in 2022.
Trending: The Wealthy Have Long Used Private Real Estate To Diversify Beyond Stocks. Here's One Platform Opening That Door.
Billionaire Wealth, Budget Habits
The college nightclub may be long gone, but one habit stuck.
Despite becoming the richest person in the world, Musk has continued to live far more modestly than many people would expect. In 2020, he said he planned to sell nearly all of his physical possessions because they weighed him down.
"My primary home is literally a ~$50k house in Boca Chica / Starbase that I rent from SpaceX," Musk wrote on X in 2021. "It's kinda awesome though."
He added that the only home he owned at the time was an events house in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The $5 cover charge may have disappeared decades ago, but the philosophy behind it hasn't. Whether paying college rent or building multibillion-dollar companies, Musk has repeatedly embraced keeping costs low and putting capital to work elsewhere.
See Also: AI Needs More Data Centers. Learn How BluSky AI Is Building Modular Infrastructure To Meet Demand.
Owning Real Estate Without Buying the Whole House
Not everyone wants to rent forever, but buying an investment property outright isn't the only path into real estate.
Platforms like Arrived, which is backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, allow investors to purchase fractional shares of professionally managed rental homes instead of purchasing an entire property. For as little as $100, investors can own a slice of residential real estate with a relatively small upfront investment while Arrived handles property management.
For people who like the idea of earning income from rental properties without becoming a full-time landlord, it's another way to gain exposure to real estate—without needing to buy the whole house.
Musk found a way to pay the rent then, and despite becoming the world's richest person, he still pays it now.
Building Wealth Across More Than Just the Market
Building a resilient portfolio means thinking beyond a single asset or market trend. Economic cycles shift, sectors rise and fall, and no one investment performs well in every environment. That's why many investors look to diversify with platforms that provide access to real estate, fixed-income opportunities, precious metals, and even self-directed retirement accounts. By spreading exposure across multiple asset classes, it becomes easier to manage risk, capture steady returns, and create long-term wealth that isn't tied to the fortunes of just one company or industry.
Arrived
Backed by Jeff Bezos, Arrived Homes makes real estate investing accessible with a low barrier to entry. Investors canbuy fractional shares of single-family rentals and vacation homes starting with as little as $100. This allows everyday investors to diversify into real estate, collect rental income, and build long-term wealth without needing to manage properties directly.
Realberry
Institutional-quality real estate has traditionally been difficult for individual investors to access.Realberry gives accredited investors direct access to private real estate opportunities backed by a team with 35 years of experience, $3.4 billion in assets under management, and $481 million in cumulative distributions paid to investors as of Q4 2025, according to the company. With a portfolio spanning 13 million square feet across seven U.S. states, Realberry focuses on acquiring, developing, and managing real estate with an emphasis on long-term value creation while its principals often invest alongside clients to help align interests.
FarmTogether
Farmland has historically held its value through market volatility and delivered returns uncorrelated to stocks and bonds. For accredited investors,FarmTogether offers direct access to high-quality U.S. farmland starting at $15,000 — fully managed, with no landlord headaches.
Fundrise
Private real estate and private credit can add income and stability to a stock-heavy portfolio.Fundrise offers access to diversified private real estate and credit strategies through an easy-to-use platform, with professionally managed portfolios designed to generate passive income and long-term growth.
Mode Mobile
Mode Mobile is changing the way people interact with their phones by letting users earn money from the same apps and activities they already use every day. Instead of platforms keeping all the advertising revenue, Mode Mobile shares a portion back with users who engage with content, play games, and scroll on their devices. Named one of Deloitte's fastest-growing software companies in North America, the company has built a large beta user base and is scaling a model that turns everyday smartphone usage into a potential income stream.
EquityMultiple
For accredited investors looking beyond stocks and bonds, EquityMultiple provides access to vetted commercial real estate deals starting at $5,000, with only ~5% of opportunities passing their due diligence process.
Image: Shutterstock
This article Back In The '90s Elon Musk Turned His Dorm Room Into A Club And Charged A $5 Cover To Pay Rent — Now He's The Richest Man Alive And Still Rents originally appeared on Benzinga.com
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