KP *Brown Spiced* Upadhyayula

When Frankie Muniz was 15, his business manager used to call and lecture him if he spent $200 on dinner with friends. Years later, his girlfriend looked at his monthly statement and found a $41,000 charge for "research." "It says that you spent $41,000 on research last month." "I didn't spend $41,000 on anything last month." "Call him right now and ask." Muniz grew up in a struggling family with a mother who worked as a nurse. When Malcolm in the Middle took off, a business manager was one of the first people they hired. By 18, Muniz owned 38 cars, yet he didn't even know which bank held his money. Whenever he treated friends to a $200 or $250 dinner, the manager called the next day to tell him to be careful with his spending. "If he cares about a $200 dinner, he definitely cares about the bigger number," Muniz thought. When Muniz finally called about the $41,000 charge, the manager got frazzled and said he would look into it. His girlfriend started circling more lines on the statements. Muniz owned a $13,000 Smart car. The statements showed he was paying $20,000 a year to insure it. The insurance broker turned out to be the manager's best friend. When his garage door started peeling, Muniz called the manager to have someone paint it. The bill was $30,000. Even with his TV salary, Muniz says he was probably the man's lowest-earning client: "If he's doing it to me, he's doing it to everybody." He fired the manager and had 10 years of records shipped to him in banker boxes that filled his house. By the time forensic accountants pieced everything together, the statute of limitations had expired. Today Muniz uses an old version of QuickBooks with automatic imports turned off, and manually types in every charge he makes. Was the $200 dinner lecture genuine advice, or the easiest way to make sure a teenager never checked the big numbers?