A-List Celebs Spend More On Their Swimming Pool Than The Average American Spends On His Mortgage

Jennifer Aniston Reese Witherspoon

A provocative feature in New York Magazine last week really set our tongues wagging.

In "Celebrity Economy," writer Claude Brodesser-Akner presents a pretty exhaustive study of just how much it costs the reigning kings and queens of entertainment to maintain their lavish lifestyles.

$100,000 for their 6-year-old's personal stylist?

$130,000 and an SUV for a nanny who won't go blabbing to the tabloids?

$5 million in income taxes?

Once our heads stopped spinning with dollar signs, we decided to look at just how wide the income gap is between "us" and "them."

Brodesser tapped a Hollywood money manager (who remained anonymous) for her estimates on celeb expenses, and we're weighing them against figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Expenditures Report.

Hint: Our "stylist budgets" don't exactly match up.

First off, an A-list celeb pockets a reported $13 million after taxes on an annual basis–more than 200 times as much as the average consumer's $63,000 income in 2010, according to the BLS.

And it costs nearly 30 times as much to keep a roof over your head if you've got Jennifer Aniston-level security issues to deal with and a hefty budget to match.

NY Mag estimates they spend just 3% of their income on household expenses ($486,000). And you can go ahead and add another $24,000 to that to cover the cost of pool expenses: "An absurd amount for a pool," the money manager told Brodesser. "But it's an infinity pool!"

By comparison, average Joes and Janes spend $16,600 on mortgage payments, which is nearly 25 percent of our yearly income.

And while we're stuck prowling deals sites for discounts on laser hair removal and turning to shady payday lenders to cover our boob jobs, celebs might easily shell out $860,000 over their lifetime on cosmetic procedures alone, NY Mag says.

And just wait till you've seen what it costs to to jet-set on a celebrity's bankroll.

They spend a staggering $75,000 on travel and that's not even counting the $125,000 they drop on auto expenses. That makes the $7,700 U.S. households shelled out to drive in 2010 look like chump change.

If you thought your medical bills were getting out of hand, just be glad you don't have to pay 40 grand, which is apparently the going rate to keep yourself alive in Hollywood these days. We spend a fraction of that at $3,200.

At least they're not all unreasonable spenders. A-listers like Halle Berry and Hilary Swank both made the list of the top 10 frugal celebs.