he kept making jokes about his wealth in his netflix special.
share2 series of The Office, hello!! That alone is worth multi-millions. Plus he's hosted the Golden Globe awards a thousand times worth millions of dollars a pop. Plus all his other stuff. He's easily worth that much probably even more. This Netflix special adds another multimillion dollar paycheck as well.
shareI think the office earned him most of his money - probably in the region of 80 mill.
Unlike most actors/comedians, he creates/produces most of his stuff and retains the rights - that usually leads to passive income of at least several million/year or possibly even more than 10 mill/year. Keep in mind, he's also created/produced several films as well, though they are nowhere near as successful as the office.
A good stand-up special deal can earn you in the region of 20 mill (Dave Chapelle made more than that for his stand up special on netflix).
All in all - Ricky made a few brilliant moves in the show business by putting himself in the executive position, rather than being a studio servant.
Jewel (the singer) also made some brilliant moves in the music industry. I just saw her interview - she basically made a bet on herself and signed a deal where she retained the rights and got the biggest sales cut of any other singer at that time, while omitting the initial pay check that most singers end up signing up for, while losing the rights to their own music.
all the old singers are now selling the rights to their music.
sharelike strntz said, they are cashing out, especially now in times of great uncertainty.
Besides, the music industry has changed in a major way in the last 10-20 years. Jewel started out when we were still buying records/listening to CDs.
A lot of singers who signed their rights away for the big advance check are now nearly bankrupt.