LeBron James is currently the highest earning player in the NBA basketball league event.

However, players who signed a four-year contract worth 153 million US dollars last year with the Los Angeles Lakers did not always live in wealth. Before a career in basketball, James and his mother lived in poor condition.

Reporting from CNBC, Sunday (03/17/2019), he grew up in Akron, Ohio, USA. James and the mother often move from one apartment to another apartment and live from a food allowance stamp.

In a podcast broadcast, James claimed to grow up in difficult conditions. He never even knew the real condition of the kitchen until he was 15 years old, because all the food his family could eat was always placed on the fridge.

“Whatever, chips, cereal, bread. Everything is in the fridge,” James recalled.

Even though his condition was poor, James learned from a young age how to manage finances as little as he had. This is thanks to the lessons from the uncles of James.

“My uncles always taught me, they taught me how to have savings,” James said.

He remembers that he was given one US dollar by his uncles and was asked to spend only 35 cents. Meanwhile, 65 cents must be saved.

“Or if they give me 2 dollars, they say this, ‘Spend just one US dollar, but save another US dollar’,” James said.

This habit is inherent in him to adulthood. James claimed, the suggestion to save was kept imprinted in his mind, because when he was a child, he never knew when his uncle would return to give him money.

At present, even though he has been rich in his brilliant career in the NBA, James admits he is still careful in managing his wealth. However, he still spoiled himself by collecting luxury cars.

“That’s the only thing I love. I love cars,” James said.

However, there were a number of things he had to do to save money. For example, James is often called to turn off roaming data on his cellphone to avoid additional costs and refuse to buy a mobile application.