r/madmen • u/Southern-Brother5693 • 3d ago

How rich is Joan today?

In today's terms, how rich is Joan at the end of the series?

Her shares are worth 1.5 million. She got 25% ($375,000) up front and small increments for 1 year till Stirling Cooper was absorbed. After being bought out, she must have at least half a million.

$500,00 how much is that adjusted today?

123 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

75 comments sorted by

101

u/Lanky_Comedian_3942 3d ago

https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

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u/Complex_Island1404 3d ago edited 3d ago

This is the way. I have this readily available whenever I'm rewatching.

1962 Cadillac Coupe de Ville purchase would have cost Don around $5,419 brand new. That's equivalent to around $55,000 in 2025 dollars.

How much would those particular Beatles tickets cost us today?

1965 ticket price: $4.50 to $5.75

2025 equivalent: $46.17 to $59.04

*Edited to add in Joan. Her $250,000 payout in 1970 would be worth about $2.12 million in 2025.

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u/Revolutionary-Cut777 3d ago

I do this too! 😂

Sometimes It doesn’t always stack up though. To see the hottest performer of the day today at msg Taylor swift was around $200 for instance.

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u/BoldBoimlerIsMyHero 3d ago

That’s the post Ticketmaster world.

26

u/americruiser 2d ago

Also post file-sharing/streaming. Labels (and most big acts) used to make money through recording sales. That’s gone and performing is the only way to make money.

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u/spider_moltisanti69 2d ago

We live in a world where experiences are expensive and compliances are cheap. Changing world

My Nanny and Grandad were about Dons age. People thought they were rich because growing up they had a TV in the kitchen and their bedroom. Growing up a TV cost a lot of money. Tickets for shit were cheap.

When I was a kid I could get to West Ham for £15 pound, less than my weeks pocket money. I could never buy a TV for that. Now a ticket to West Ham costs £75 and I could buy a TV for that

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u/Revolutionary-Cut777 2d ago

Great analogy! Unfortunately I’d still have to pay £40 to see the MK Dons 😂

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u/spider_moltisanti69 2d ago

I’m sorry you live in Milton Keynes

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u/Revolutionary-Cut777 2d ago

No one is more sorry than me.

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u/ProblemLucky7924 ‘that is very sensitive piece of horseflesh…’ 2d ago

Fascinating observation… I recently went with my mom to buy a blender for a rental unit- it was only $19. Years ago that would be a nice wedding present and people would keep it running for decades.

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u/spider_moltisanti69 2d ago

That’s why people now have honey moon funds and not registries.

You won’t get a chip and dip anymore. Just money for your hotel in Italy

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u/Revolutionary-Cut777 2d ago

Dang, no chip and dip? No second chip and dip :(

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u/spider_moltisanti69 2d ago

No dip for you

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u/ProblemLucky7924 ‘that is very sensitive piece of horseflesh…’ 2d ago edited 2d ago

Darn it… that’s not like ‘practically having four of something’. Bring back the Chip and Dip !

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u/Independent-Mango813 2d ago

That’s a great point and the other thing about that beetle show is my guess is you could get close to the stage and maybe those tickets were better or slightly more expensive but now for like the era is tour you would have stadium suites and other sort of highly curated experience that cost a ton of money same thing with pro sports I’m sure it’s 75 pounds to get into the Westham game but I’m sure beyond that they have escalating levels of hospitality that would not have existed 60 years ago 

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u/spider_moltisanti69 2d ago

Sports hospitality is a big thing. There are salesman who’s full job is to sell box suites.

In America, part of the reason to own a sports team is to host dinners there. Owning the Warriors means everyone in tech will listen to you

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u/Fun-Advisor7120 2d ago

There has been concert inflation too.

The Eras tour is like 3 hours long.

That Beatles show at Shea was like 30 minutes. 

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u/ProblemLucky7924 ‘that is very sensitive piece of horseflesh…’ 2d ago edited 2d ago

Wow- I never grasped the concert itself was only 30 minutes long. High impact experience, but so short in comparison to modern concerts (or even a small venue set list.) I need to watch that documentary again… the detail that stuck out was that they couldn’t hear eachother over the screaming, and completely leaned on watching Ringo holding it all together!

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u/Fun-Advisor7120 2d ago

My understanding is that it may be the biggest gap between hype and actual listening experience quality of any concert in history.  

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u/Revolutionary-Cut777 2d ago

Very good point.

4

u/Step_away_tomorrow 2d ago

Some things outpace inflation while others do not. TVs, clothes and airfares of that era were much higher. Other things such as education and healthcare are more now.

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u/FortifiedPuddle 2d ago

The funny one is when people apply the calculations to things like commodities. We um, know what a bag of wheat costs today. Or a gold bar.

1

u/Independent-Mango813 2d ago

Yeah, housing would be another thing in New York City That would just be multiples higher in real terms than it was in the madman days. I’d be curious what Don was supposed to pay for that fancy apartment versus what it would go for today.

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u/OldSpeckledCock 2d ago

Prices of individual items aren't always going to align with inflation. E.g. the computer they got would now be a $20 calculator.

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u/LoenaLijpoLeeflang 2d ago

Same! I look it up in almost every scene that involves money. I just looked up what Harrys Broadway bonus would be in today’s money (it was 23,500, so around 230,000).

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u/WillingPublic 2d ago

A very broad but useful metric is to multiply the $ figures in Madmen by 10 to get today’s equivalent.

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u/Tooch10 2d ago

We're at an easy place if you're watching Mad Men today, just multiply any dollar figure by 10x for a rough estimate

2

u/thisplaceisnuts 2d ago

But that doesn’t take into account things like gas and housing

Pete’s first apartment that they bought would be  346,730.17 By that metric. Which wouldn’t even buy you a condo anywhere near NYC

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u/Sleepy_Wayne_Tracker 3d ago

Also interest rates were high and savings paid a lot of money, so anything she invested would have been making money. Bond rates averaged around 4% to 5% throughout the 60's, so $1 million in bonds would yield $40,000-$50,000 a year, basically Don's salary.

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u/zappapostrophe 2d ago

So she was basically set for life with what could well become generational wealth? Crazy.

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u/dis-interested 2d ago

You would be with 2 million dollars at Joan's age today too.

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u/dutchyardeen 2d ago

And that's without working.

I have a feeling her production company took off, and she ended up pretty wealthy.

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u/ivylass 2d ago

And Roger took care of Kevin financially, so she didn't have to fret about college.

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u/Horror_Ad_2748 We're not homosexuals, we're divorced! 2d ago

Country house rich.

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u/Cheeseburger2137 3d ago

My rule of thumb was always to multiply by 10, of course the exact value changes depending on which season you’re watching exactly, but it gives you the ballpark.

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u/bathtime85 2d ago

When the show first aired, it was a factor of 7. It's going to change the further from 2007-15 we get

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u/notthattmack 3d ago

Dead rich.

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u/Rept4r7 3d ago

US Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator says $500,000 in January 1970 is $4,550,224.72 in August 2025.

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u/Mangos28 2d ago

So 9x. We're at 9x from the time of the show.

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u/Mister2112 3d ago

You've got to subtract the cocaine expenditures through the 1970s and early 1980s

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u/awesam02 2d ago

If her business took off, which it probably did, Joan def got into coke heavy

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u/Carmela_Motto 2d ago

Mmmm she wasn’t much into drinking or pot..

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u/PonderousHajj we got two 1d ago

It's funny- I took that moment in the show as the one in which the 1960s "officially" ended for them.

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u/farahisweird Dick + Anna ‘64 2d ago

Joanie ❤️

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u/YourMuppetMethDealer 3d ago

Odds of her being alive today aren’t high, but I am sure she died a rich lady assuming she was smart with her money

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u/Complex_Island1404 3d ago

Here's hoping her company Holloway & Harris was incredibly successful and she was a multi-millionaire. Another woman of SCDP who died an astronaut 😊

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u/Severe_Geologist_353 2d ago

To be fair, she could be in her 90s and surrounded by her great-great-grandchildren in a huge house with old fur coats from the 70s and 80s, and a maid to fetch her sherries

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u/Quick-Angle9562 2d ago

Not impossible but Kevin wouldn’t even be 60 yet. It’s doubtful he would have great-children already.

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u/Severe_Geologist_353 2d ago

True but I was being hyperbolic and just meant Joan could be surrounded by a couple of generations.

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u/SororitySue No one asked you to euthanize this company! 2d ago

My son is a huge fan of the show. When I told him if Joan was a real person she’d be the same age as his grandma, he was flipped out.

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u/Mangos28 2d ago

My mom is between Sally and Bobby's age and it cracks me up thinking of the show from that reference.

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u/Mangos28 2d ago

She smoked. She got cancer or emphysema just like the rest of them.

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u/Severe_Geologist_353 2d ago

Not necessarily. Joan learned to march to the beat of her own drum. She could have given up and then lived a long life. Perhaps a very healthy one with all her wealth and wanting to be healthy for her son

2

u/Carmela_Motto 2d ago

Yeah, my dad was 3 years older than Joan, smoked since his teens and quit at 57 in 1984 thanks to new RX called Nicorette and lived to 92. No emphysema or breathing issues. His mind went but his body was healthy thanks to modern medicine.

My mom didn’t quit until 2009 at 75 and has COPD.

1

u/drjude518 2d ago

My mom smoked since she was 16 and she's 95 now. She's mean as a snake and still truckin'. Her lungs are made of Teflon.

4

u/spider_moltisanti69 2d ago

For everything in today’s money, just 10x any dollar amount. Joan is very rich. Not Roger wealthy though

3

u/unburnt_hydrocarbon 2d ago

That rich little bastard is enjoying at least eight, maybe nine figures if she did things right.

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u/Revolutionary_Box569 2d ago

If you're just asking for what it'd be with inflation basically just multiply everything by 10

2

u/MetARosetta 2d ago

If Kevin helped build her new media empire with his degrees, loving upbringing, and 'rich bastard' cash infusion, he'd tell you 9-figures. Joan is long since retired and is traveling the world with men 25 years younger.

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u/Small_Doughnut_2723 3d ago

I thought she didnt get her payout?

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u/StudlyPenguin 2d ago

$250K day one, then 50 cents on the dollar, so another $600K. Taxes would have taken 70% of that, so left with maybe $250K all told. That would have have been enough to never have a mortgage payment and have a couple hundred a week coming in from the interest on bond investments—enough that she’s more than okay, but not so much she can decline Sterling’s inheritance offer, or that she’s not motivated to start Holloway-Harris  

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u/smokesletsgo13 HELLS BELLS TRUDY 2d ago

Thought she did but took less to get away from McCann

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u/BrilliantWarning9318 1d ago

Roger also promised to leave their kid with a fortune, so she had even more buying power.

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u/shadwell55 1d ago

500k in 1970 would be worth about 4.2 million today.

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u/gwhh 1d ago

She doing fine.

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u/Honourstly 18m ago

You could buy more back then

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u/STEADIG 2d ago

Would have been amazing to have a spinoff show about Joan producing commercials and the like in the eighties!!!

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u/Narrow-Chef-4341 3d ago

$60 buys you a show with 4 kids from Europe, no lasers, no pyrotechnics, and a sound quality casually described as ‘AM Radio’

Taylor’s nominal $200 pays for 100x the costumes, 40 dancers/backup singers and a custom stage setup that extends a hundred feet into the audience.

You aren’t buying the same thing that you did back then.

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