John Green Responds To Quora Users Asking Why He’s Not Worth More Than $5 Million

Quora isn’t normally a repository for information about notable online video celebrities. (That’s generally Reddit’s domain.) But one user on the question-and-answer website was particularly curious about why the very successful John Green – author of The Fault in Our Stars and more best-sellers, one half of the Vlogbrothers’, and co-founder of VidCon – is only worth an alleged $5 million. So, that user posed the question. And on December 26, Green himself stopped by Quora to answer it.

The original user-submitted query appears to have been written a while ago, as one Quora user responded as far back as April 2015. A total of seven users submitted their own theories and explanations as to why Green did not make the millions more that seem due him thanks to his multiple best-selling books and popular YouTube channels. One user named Clayburn Griffin, who claims to be a part of Green’s Nerdfighter community, notes that writing doesn’t actually pay that much, and for Green to have “$5 million, and some estimates put him over $10 million lately, is incredibly successful.”

“He is perhaps poorer than his level of fame might suggest, but that is easily explained by his own altruism,” Griffin continues. “Much of his fame is from non-profit endeavors. The Vlogbrothers channel doesn’t generate income directly for the Greens, and when it is used to raise money it goes toward charity and to support other projects.”

The Quora post has attracted over 400,000 views to date, as well as the aforementioned attention of Green himself. In his response, the author and YouTube star greets his fellow Quora users and says he wanted to jump in on the discussion about his salary because the Quora question is one of the top search results related to him. Green then provides these three explanations about his current financial status:

1. When we imagine that people’s net worth is directly correlated with their value as a person or professional, I think we give money too much power.
2. In my admittedly limited experience, the Internet is not particularly good at telling you how much money someone has.
3. My family is incredibly lucky (and privileged) to have financial security. But I’m not sure what money can do beyond providing financial security. Like, I am not in need of a yacht. I feel like owning a yacht would stress me out.

Green doesn’t directly confirm or deny that he makes $5 million (or more). However, his answer to the original Quora poster’s burning question proves just how much more the YouTube creator cares about the way he thinks about money and handles it as opposed to the exact dollar figure in his possession.