Walt Disney mortgaged his house and sold his car to fund Snow White — his wife said she 'never felt secure'

Walt Disney mortgaged his house and sold his car to fund Snow White — his wife said she 'never felt secure' Chris Morris Mon, September 7, 2026 at 11:30 AM GMT+2 3 min read Gene Lester/Getty Images Walt Disney was a visionary who created a company that is arguably the leader in the entertainment field today. But he had to take a lot of risks, and that didn't always sit well with his wife Lillian. Walt wasn't just an evangelist for his big ideas, he was a backer.

In 1934, when he set out to make Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , costs ran up to $250,000. While there were investors, the company still had trouble meeting the amount required to create the film, so Walt sold his car , mortgaged his house and borrowed against his life insurance to complete the film (which Hollywood reporters were calling "Disney's folly" before its release). Must Read Jeff Bezos backs a platform that lets anyone invest in rental homes for as little as $100 — 6 ways to build wealth like a landlord without actually being one Dave Ramsey warns nearly 50% of Americans are making 1 big Social Security mistake.

  Here's what it is and 3 simple steps to fix it ASAP The tax breaks in Trump's 'big beautiful bill' expire after 2028. Here are 4 moves to make before the window closes That wager paid off as Snow White would go on to gross $8 million in its first year (the equivalent of $188 million in today's dollars). In the 1950s, Disney was making another bet, this time into the creation of Disneyland — and Lillian was concerned.

'We haven't got anything' "I've always been worried. I have never felt secure. Never," she said.

"He's always telling us how wealthy we are, how much we've got, and we haven't got anything. " The quote was dug up by the hosts of the Acquired podcast in an episode looking at the company's moonshot philosophy in its early days. Disney, the hosts point out, did not hoard money.

He lived a life that, at the time, would have been considered extravagant. And he struck deals with the company that increased his compensation beyond his $153,000 salary ($1. 9 million in today's dollars).

Chief among those was the formation of Retlaw Enterprises , a privately held company that controlled the merchandising rights to Walt's name, a cut (ranging from 5% to 15%) of Disney's merchandising deals, and the engineering division that designed Disneyland. Retlaw (Walter, spelled backwards) was formed to give Walt's family a slice of the income from Disneyland and some other Disney operations. It would grow to own television stations and property by the early 1990s, but it sold those in 1998 .

Valid concerns Even if Walt hadn't kept reinvesting money into Disneyland and other projects, Lillian's concerns would have been valid. Story Continues All of the Disney money was tied into the company. Financial planners recommend people have a diversified portfolio, capping investment assets in a single stock at between 10% and 20% of your holdings.

"Holding anything in stocks subjects you to a certain amount of market risk, meaning the risk that the whole market goes up or down," writes Fidelity . "But with an individual stock you're subject to the additional risks of any company-specific issues that occur. " Disney's bets, of course, ultimately paid off.

The company reported revenues of $25. 25 billion in its most recent quarterly earnings. Ironically, though, much of that value was created after Walt's death in 1966.

Acquired noted that, at that time, Disney's market cap was just $90 million. Today it stands at $186 billion . That means that more than 99.

5% of the company's wealth was created in the decades after Walt passed away. This article originally appeared on Moneywise. com under the title: Walt Disney mortgaged his house and sold his car to fund Snow White — his wife said she 'never felt secure' This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice.

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