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Hi everybody. I'm Robert Burke, better known as the naked cowboy. I make roughly $150,000 a year on average. Today I'm going to share my expenses, how I invest, how I basically navigate around the expensive city that I live in and work in and still keep the shirt on my back. Well, never mind. I fortunately have an unbelievably disciplined and methodical consistent kind of personality. For 27 years, 8 months, and I think 14 days today, I've religiously gone into Times Square every day, unless I was flying to another country 19 times to do it or bike week, spring break, Daytona, uh, major events. On my best year, I've done as much as $250,000. And I've had literally consecutive years where I only made 25 to $30,000, which
was just enough to pay to go to work. Last year, I made roughly $80,000. And that comes from like 20 to $25,000 in tips in Times Square. Roughly $50,000 from Cameo, which is an app where I'm singing Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary. And then another $10,000 came from Naked Cowboy Oysters. They're from the Blue Island Oyster Company. Chris Cortusio owns the business. They came across a huge bed. He was trying to think of a name to sell these oysters. He's driving through the city. He sees me. Epiphany saw me, Naked Cowboy. And they made a deal. And I think we've been with them at least 15 years. So, Naked Cowboy Oysters. I have a song, Naked Cowboy Oysters, can only be found at the
bottom of the Long Island Sound. So that's a residual from my Naked Cowboy oysters being sold in restaurants nationwide. Cameo is something new to me actually. So Cameo, cameo.com is an app. And what I do is I get emails on my phone and it says, "Hey, Joey's turning 25. He lives in Utah. He came to New York City in 19 whatever." And then I just simply take my phone. I hit record and I say, "Hey Joey, naked cowboy, happy birthday to you." Boom. 50 bucks. that go straight into my credit union in Cincinnati where I'm from and I just 5050. Cameo was a lifesaver in terms of almost doubling my income. I spend roughly $11,000 on work expenses and that would be hats, boots,
gas, gym membership, anything pertaining to basically just being the naked cowboy. Robert Burke, that's me. I'm Robert John Burke II. I exist to get my alter ego, the naked cowboy, to time square. So almost every single thing I do is a business expense. I'm a welloiled machine, so to speak. And the only things I buy are the things that I need for work. So I'm buying boots, hats, guitar, strings. My boots are like $180 and they last like a month because I'm walking 50 hours a week. I live in a two-bedroom apartment here in Queens. My monthly rent here is $2,140 and that includes the garage. The only utility bill I have here is Coned. In the summer, it could be as much as $100, but insignificant water's included in my
rent. And I've lived here for I'm going on 14 years. I moved here with my wife. I actually lived in a hotel in New Jersey. So, when I married, I came here. And so I've paid all of mine and her expenses since we got here cuz she's my wife. Hey guys, come on in. So this is my apartment. Pretty empty. I don't really have a lot of stuff. Coffee maker, stove, refrigerator, freezer. Pretty basic stuff. TV. Don't watch TV really. Books. I spend most of my time right here in this chair. I paint my boots and hat here. I got a guitar that I play just for fun, but not very often. I play seven hours a day. Got a nice bathroom here. Simple, small, New York style.
This is my room here. You see the naked cowgirl lives here. So, she got all her cowgirl hats and pretty much all the clothes are hers. And this is my little box of important stuff, which I can gather and get out of here if I need to. And you got a great view of the city, except that it's overcast today. But generally, you can see the entire skyline. You can even see the Freedom Tower down there, but not today. have an air conditioner, but I usually use a fan because I'm economical and that's my humble abode. Turn off the lights. We're in New York. That con will really go up quick. The reason why I think I am getting good value is for the reason why anyone gets good value for what they
pay. It's the reason why my rent is low comparatively. And that's because I'm a regular guy. I've lived here 14 years. If I leave, I guarantee the next person's not going to pay $2,140. They're going to jack it up to like 3,000 or 3,500 which is what other people pay here. But I've been here. I'm a reliable renter. They can count on me. I pay it before it's due and have never not paid it. It's by being here knowing people. You have to fight to be here a long time. And it's those connections, the networking. See, if you go to Time Square, I can go there.
Everyone knows me and loves me. I can do anything. But if I didn't know everybody, if I didn't have that background, I'd be squashed and spit out and in the East River real quick. In 27 years, 8 months, and 14 days, I've always driven my own car. Never taken public transportation. Just don't need it. I drive a car. I've always driven a car. Been driving since I was 16. That's how we do it in the Midwest. Obviously, people in the big city generally take a train and they take the subway because it's much more economical. But I'm driving in the Times Square. I got my boots, my hat, I got my stuff. It's kind of like my office. I could not be in Time Square and have done what I have done without the ability to get out of
the cold every 40 minutes or out of the heat. My car payment has always been roughly $8 to $900 a month, which I've paid religiously, of course. Gas and travel and gas, I have $13,000. So, that's oil changes, gas. You got to get three different stickers for every kind of exhaust that's popping out of your car. Tolls, bridges, congestion prices, parking, 9,600, car insurance, 3,200. When you add that up, I'm basically paying $3,000 a month to drive a car. I'm the most routinized person on the face of the earth. Do the exact same thing pretty much every single day. You know, I eat lean protein and veggies. I
probably spend about $120 a day on food. So, I eat the exact same foods every day. I basically have about 10 to 12 egg whites before I leave the house. I also go to the deli. That's the same deli I met my wife. I get this sushi tray and a protein shake. That's like $20 cuz it's expensive to get sushi. Then I get home. I get two steamed chicken and broccoli, some chin Chinese chicken right across the street. And then I'm eating another 10 to 20 egg whites before I go to bed. And sometimes I get up in the middle of the night and eat more egg whites. I'm like out of control. I eat more food than anybody on the planet. And that's why I point out even if I say I made 80 to $150,000 a
year, the one thing I don't write off is food because everybody has to eat and that is my biggest expense. Now, these are not things I normally buy, but for price comparison, we've got a gallon of milk. We've got a I call this a two liter white bread, one dozen eggs, and two pounds of rice for the grand total of $2025. For the first 25 years, I've done Marty Gro. So, I drove down to New Orleans and did Marty Gro. Then, I drove over to spring break and Siesta Key, Florida, and then bike week on the way back. So, it's a trip straight down New Orleans, up 95 and back. I've done that 25 times. In terms of recreational expenses, I've mentioned I've been married now for almost 14 years. She's actually normal, so she
likes to have fun and do more recreational stuff. We both have simple tastes. There's been a pool hall right on our block, so for $10, we can play pool for an hour. We go to the beach where there's free parking. We eat on the beach. We've been to Mexico City eight times. Cancun. And in every one of these cities, we're eating chicken and veggies. We're staying at the hotel. And every single day that I'm there, I'm performing at some point as the naked cowboy, making the entire business expense a business expense. It's like Picasso said, when I work, I relax. I'm a worker bee. I get done. Sitting around relaxing is not relaxing. Although one caveat, I love my wife so much that whatever she wants to do, I'm more than happy to contend myself with doing
whatever she wants to do on her time. I flew over to Ireland for Irish entrepreneur. I went to Japan twice. Once for the cherry bloss.com or something. I went to Germany four times. Norway with Norwegian Airlines. They were advertising flights from New York City to Norway. So they flew me over in my underwear. Everywhere I've ever been, every single thing I've done, I just I bring my underwear. Have underwear, boots, and hat. Will travel. Last year, I spent $3,600 out of pocket for minor medical. You know, I felt like I needed to see a doctor. I was getting sore throat. And I just go to the urgent care and pay 120 bucks and they you go to the doctor. I never had health
insurance for my entire life. I never went to the doctor. I went to the doctor for the first time like two years ago as the naked cowboy. I don't care what it is, tax, I go through those types of things in my underwear. First thing they tell you at the doctor's office, get naked. First thing they tell me, could you put your clothes back on? I go to the gym. I've been going since I was 17 years old. And I just make it a point to train harder than anyone else in the gym. It's that simple. I've made absolutely zero efforts to actually save money. Like I went to college, got my bachelor's degree, and right after that, starting trying to be a model and actor, I started working at a TGI Fridays, which was the first job I
had outside of stripping, dancing, or being in a g-string in a bar. And I had a 401k. And after 7 years, I had less than $5,000 in it, so it couldn't be rolled over. But I had a friend named Jason Pete Myers, who's still my financial manager today. And he took that 4,000, whatever. And every single time I've been in, you know, some well publicized lawsuits, I've been arrested where I was compensated by the city. I've had $10,000 deals here, 20,000, you know, endorsement deals. So, every time I've ever gotten a big chunk of money that was additional, I set some money aside, maybe $5,000, $10,000. I have a quarter of a million dollars in my CMAR
and my property. I own the trademark, the Naked Cowboy trademark can be sold. I mean, could be conceivably sold for a million dollars. I mean, you can do boots, hats, CDs, any kind of licensing deal. It's just like Elvis. I got four albums on iTunes that people are downloading around the clock. I'm I'm building a New York institution that'll have Broadway shows, movies, every thing in the world. I have no debt. I've had the same credit card for 25, 26, 30 years. I don't know, my whole life. When I was 17 years old, my grandpa was on a credit union in Green Hills, Ohio. That's still my bank. I have no banks in New York City.
Everything is done in the mail to my home address in the village of Green Hills where I was born and raised. Same account, same everything. If you want to talk about the expenses in New York City and what people wouldn't expect, I would just say that every single breath you take costs money in New York City, right? 16 bucks to drive over the bridge, 16 bucks to come out of the tunnel. So the question is, am I going to live here longterm in New York? Retirement, again, it's like I'm hoping to get through this day. I recognize the risk and the danger of every single thing I do. For one, just my lifestyle is frantic and I have high blood pressure and all this stuff. They say I'm stroke material cuz I'm at like 160 and 120 on my numbers.
Not the least bit worried about it. So, am I going home? I there's nowhere to go home. And my goal still to this day is to have a penthouse right there in time square to have my own helicopter that flies me to my other helipads on other castles and the homes around the world. And my goal is to be the richest most famous man in the world. That's it. I mean, I could do anything. I'm here because this is the most productive use of my time. Hard to imagine that getting in your underwear, boots, and hat and standing in the middle of a street corner could be the most productive thing you can do. But what's Tony Robbins said, the most valuable resource is resourcefulness. And that's I'm
a good sport. Baby shark. Doo.
