Elon Musk's life story on Wall Street Journal now

Last week, Elon Musk stated he would be “selling almost all physical possessions” and that he would “own no house.” He appears to be actually following through with that promise, as chronicled in a great story in The Wall Street Journal about Musk’s personal finances that you should go read.

According to the WSJ, despite being worth an estimated $39 billion on paper:

...he has to borrow, sometimes a lot, to pay for his lifestyle and business investments without liquidating shares that help him maintain control of the companies he runs. About half his Tesla stock is pledged as collateral for personal loans, an April 28 financial filing shows. Maintaining his equity stake—about 20%, or around $29 billion at its current valuation—is important for him to keep control over the Silicon Valley auto maker.

Musk also doesn’t take a salary at Tesla, but he apparently became eligible for stock options worth more than $1 billion this week. It’s not clear if Musk has the money on hand to exercise that option or if the money raised from the house sales will be used to help pay for the sum.

Whole article has a lot of history about Musk, interesting information about his finances backed up by regulatory filings, and numerous quotes from Musk himself

 If you were wondering the status of Musk’s houses: he has listed three California mansions for sale and plans to sell four other houses in Bel-Air, according to the WSJ. Once the houses are sold, Musk does not know “where I will stay yet, but will probably rent a small house somewhere