Susan Powter lost her multi-million dollar fitness empire due to financial mismanagement.
The ’90s fitness guru said she started relying on GrubHub and Uber Eats food delivery to make a living.
“I know despair,” Powter told People magazine. “I walked home from the welfare office in despair. I was shocked and thought, “After that, am I still here?” How about in the name of God? ”
Powter, 66, lives in a low-income senior community and receives free meals twice a week, the paper said.
In the ’90s, Powter sold a fitness program called “Stop the Insanity!” $79.80.
The program included audio cassettes, recipes and other tips for weight loss. Powter declared bankruptcy in 1995 after selling $50 million a year in products.
At the time, she still had money, but she didn’t know it was being mismanaged.
“Someone else was handling it. I never checked the balance,” Powter told the show. “I should have asked. I fully understand that. I made a mistake.
“I knew how much control I was giving up,” she added. “I didn’t know where or what I was being paid, but I had no assets. I had no funds left for my children.
Fitness mogul Susan Powter currently lives in a low-income senior community. RPR and Associates
“I never thought I wouldn’t have any more books or videos. I never didn’t work. I never thought I wouldn’t be able to make ends meet. But as a 60-year-old woman, I found a job. please.”
By 2018, Powter’s life had become “very scary.” She started driving for Uber Eats and GrubHub, hoping to earn at least $80 a day to pay her bills and rent.
“It’s very difficult. It’s terrifying and shocking,” she told People. “If grief could kill you, I would be dead.”
Although Powter was experiencing financial difficulties, he kept it a secret from his family. But she wrote about it in her book, And Em Died…Stop the Madness! Memoir. ”
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“My sons read my book and said, ‘Mom, we didn’t know.'”
Before financial ruin, Ms. Powter had a syndicated television show.
The show was “total crap,” she said. “They clothed me with pearls; they produced me from me. You can’t even watch those segments now. ”
Powter turned to UberEats and GrubHub to make ends meet. new york post
She eventually stepped away from her fitness empire.
“I was teaching classes in elementary school basements, photographing underwater home births, driving my little Volkswagen Bug with my baby, and just being a mom,” she said. “I’m a very basic hippie kind of girl.”
Powter experienced a health scare in 2023 that led her to apply for Social Security benefits.
“That $1,500 check shocked me to the core,” she told People. “Whoever said money can’t buy happiness was a lie. A liar. It wasn’t happiness. It was more than happiness. It’s not like “I had millions and now I don’t have them.” This is a real thing that so many women experience. ”
She began saving money “relentlessly.”
“I don’t spend any money. I don’t go anywhere. I don’t eat out,” she explained. “These are the sweatpants I always wear. $7 on Amazon.”
