I discovered a story that really struck me about Macaulay Culkin and his fortune. It's crazy how money can destroy a family, even when you're just a child.

So here it is, the guy was a millionaire at 12 years old. For the first Home Alone, he earned $100,000. But after the film grossed $476 million worldwide, he asked for $4.5 million for Home Alone 2. At that age, he was already earning more than his parents combined. But that didn't help things, quite the opposite.

When Macaulay Culkin broke through in the 80s, his father Kit dropped everything to become his manager. And then, all the studios wanted the young actor. They even waited 9 months for the filming of The Good Son just to have Macaulay. But the father, instead of respecting his son's exhaustion, pushed him even harder. Macaulay publicly spoke about the abuse, including the fact that his father refused him a bed to sleep in, just to remind him who was in charge.

In 1995, the parents separated and it was total chaos. A legal battle over custody and access to the fortune. The lawyer fees were so huge that the mother couldn't even pay the rent anymore. They were at risk of eviction. And meanwhile, Macaulay didn't even know how much he was really worth. The only way to access his own money was to remove his parents' names from the trust fund.

When Macaulay Culkin finally did that, his father was so furious he didn't even show his face on the last day of the trial. Since then, nothing. It's crazy.

What really strikes me about this story is how the parents saw the money as their property, not their son's. Macaulay was rich before them, but they behaved as if it was their fortune. It really shows that without a healthy relationship with money, it becomes destructive. There are few things in life that have the power to destroy everything. Money is one of them.