All this "nasser has to have at least $2M to have the lifestyle he has" is just another glorified theory, and that's all. Let's come up with another theory with some numbers..
Nasser's first decent placing in a decent size pro bodybuilding contest was NOC 1994 where he placed second. The prize money there is still chicken shit. You get serious money only by placing TOP3 in at the Arnold or Olympia. Otherwise, the money you spend preparing for the contest will be equal, if not more than the prize money and you actually lose money.
Nasser's decent placings ended after 2000, so prize money from contest was a significant source of income only between 1994 and 2000. He himself complains all the time how he was unable to get a sponsor and how Weider finally signed him. Weider is not known to be the most generous sponsor, so let's be generous and assume he got paid $100k / year. I'm not sure how long the contract lasted, so let's just say he earned $600k in total with his Weider contract. And let's say, on average he earned $100k / year from contest prize monies between 1994 and 2000. That brings the total to $1.2 million. DVD sales, guest posings and such probably add few hundred grand to the figure. So, perhaps he earned $1.5 million when his career went well during those years. Take out taxes.. he's down to $1M. Bodybuilding lifestyle is expensive so during those years, his monthly expenses with living, car, food, drugs etc. must be at least 8k / month, so around $100k / year. That's $1M minus $600,000. He's down to $400,000. In his divorce, he loses half of that. The remaining $200,000 he uses to put a downpayment on his current house. Now he supports paying the mortgage by selling DVDs and worn clothes. Easy to earn couple of grand per month by overcharging schmoes. Car's a piece of shit, but it's ok because it's paid for and creates no monthly expenses.
The estimate above is of course pure speculation, and mainly to demonstrate that requiring $2M to have nasser's "lifestyle" is utter bullshit. You can do the same with $200k easy. There's no one single piece of "evidence" that nasser is a millionaire, but if he is, good for him. The numbers and his recent actions simply do not support that theory.
I think you're grossly underestimating the earnings of someone like Nasser. You didnt include guest appearances which are probably the largest component of their earnings. Someone at Nasser's level is somewhere around t he world for a day or two on about a weekly basis. Craig Titus had said around the same time period I think that he charges $3,000 per appearance, so someone like Nasser I'm sure could demand $5,000ish per appearance, plus at each appearance they sell $2-3 thousand in photos....say he does 40 appearnaces like that a year that's about 300k a year from appearances alone. Now even when his placings started to drop he was still making lots of such appearanecs - he guest posed in my city in 2002, and in his later dvd's he is still guest posing as late as 2005 I think. I would say his annual income including prize money, weider contract, appearances and merchandise would be MINIMUM 500k per year from 1995 to 2000, and about half of that on average from 2000 to 2005. Now Titusisback if you add appearances and photos sold at appearances to your analysis while keeping his expenses the same as you did you'll be left with a much higher figure
Also, you speculated how he pays for his house only now that he's retired - none of his other expenses. As though a mortgage payment is the only expense people have
