Cameron Diaz retired from acting in 2018 after starring in more than 40 movies. Here is how she now makes and spends her millions.

Before she was an actor, Diaz worked as a model and appeared in advertisements for Calvin Klein, Levi's, and Coca-Cola.

While still attending high school in Long Beach, Los Angeles, Diaz signed a modeling contract with Elite Model Management. Some of her first jobs included being a catalog model for Calvin Klein and Levi's. 

When she was 17, she appeared on the cover of the July 1990 issue of Seventeen magazine. 

Speaking to Hillary Kerr on her "Second Life" podcast in 2020, Diaz said that these early jobs were particularly lucrative for her as a teenager.

With the money she earned, Diaz was able to move to Paris, France, to pursue runway modeling. During this time, she also modeled in Sydney, Australia, where she landed a gig appearing in a television commercial for Coca-Cola.

Once in Paris, however, Diaz struggled to keep up this momentum, revealing that she "didn't work a day" during her time there.

"I was there a full year and I didn't work one day. I couldn't book a job to save my life," she said.

At the encouragement of her modeling agent, Diaz auditioned for "The Mask" when she was 20 years old, kickstarting her acting career.

After nearly five years as a model, Diaz found herself up for an acting job when the producers of "The Mask" approached her modeling agency looking for an unknown talent to star opposite Jim Carrey in the movie. 

Despite having no acting credits to her name, Diaz scored the role in the movie which went on to become one of the top 10 highest-grossing films of 1994. According to Forbes, it made $350 million at the worldwide box office, against a production budget of $23 million.

Once she got the role, Diaz threw herself into her new career, hiring an acting coach and taking acting lessons. 

Over the next few years, Diaz gradually became an in-demand actor in Hollywood. By 1998, she was being paid $2 million for a role.

Following the release of "The Mask," Diaz appeared in a number of independent films, such as "The Last Supper," "Feeling Minnesota," and "She's The One," all of which didn't do particularly well at the box office.

In 1997, however, she starred in the rom-com "My Best Friend's Wedding," alongside Julia Roberts, which grossed $300 million worldwide and made her an in-demand actor.

A year later, Diaz appeared in "There's Something About Mary," which landed the-then 26-year-old her first Golden Globe nomination and a $2 million paycheck, according to Spear's.

In 2000, she was paid $12 million for starring in the action comedy "Charlie's Angels," and her salary continued to rise.

The new millennium saw Diaz land bigger and bigger roles in Hollywood, all of which came with bigger and bigger salaries. 

For voicing Princess Fiona in "Shrek" (2001), she was paid $3 million, per Spear's. The same outlet reports that her role in "The Sweetest Thing" (2002) paid her $15 million while the same year she received a reported $17.5 million for Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York" (2002).

She was paid $12 million for starring in "Charlie's Angels" (2000), $3 million more than her costar Drew Barrymore, according to The Guardian.

However, Diaz fetched even more for the action comedy's sequel, "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" (2003). Her remuneration was a staggering $20 million — almost unheard of at the time. In fact, according to El Pais, she was the second actress in history, after Julia Roberts, to be paid $20 million for a movie.

According to Spear's, her net worth reportedly reached $75 million in 2007, and in 2010 Forbes named her the second highest-paid actress in Hollywood that year.

Her largest paycheck came from "Bad Teacher" (2011) after she negotiated her contract so that she would get a cut of the box office profits.

Although "Bad Teacher" isn't one of Diaz's best-reviewed films, it marks the actor's biggest payday to date. 

The movie, which had a modest $20 million production budget, grossed $100 million domestically and $216 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo — and Diaz was able to get in on the profits after negotiating her contract.

Betting on the movie being a hit with audiences, she reportedly agreed to be paid just $1 million upfront, in exchange for a percentage of the box office profits. In the end, she is said to have earned roughly $42 million, making it one of the highest single-film paychecks ever earned by an actor. 

In 2013, Diaz became artistic director at Pour La Victoire and bought a stake in the parent company of the footwear and accessories brand.

As Diaz has previously said, she doesn't do endorsements anymore, having previously the face of Softbank and TAG Heuer.

However, Diaz made an exception in 2013 when she was approached by her friend and Pour La Victoire board member, Dave Baram, to become the high-end fashion brand's artistic director.

Diaz agreed to take on the role for an undisclosed but likely hefty sum, but also made sure to get in on the company's profits by buying a stake in PLV Studio Inc, the parent company of the footwear and accessories brand.

Diaz has diversified her income streams in another way: by becoming a published author.

In 2013, Diaz wrote "The Body Book: Feed, Move, Understand and Love Your Amazing Body," co-written with Sandra Bark. It peaked at No. 2 on The New York Times Bestseller List three months after its release.

Diaz and Bark then wrote and released "The Longevity Book: The Science of Aging, the Biology of Strength, and the Privilege of Time," in June 2016. 

It's not known exactly how much Diaz made from writing and publishing the two non-fiction titles, but to land spots on the New York Times bestsellers list means that they were well-received and sold a significant amount of copies.

 

In 2020, Diaz launched an organic wine brand named Avaline.

With her business partner, Who What Wear cofounder Katherine Power, Diaz launched the "clean wine" brand Avaline in 2020, which she told Rolling Stone in an interview they had been working on since 2018 — the same year she announced her retirement from acting.

When it launched, the vegan-friendly and non-GMO brand offered just two wines — a rosé and a white blend — but it has now grown to include many others, including red blends and sparkling wines. They range in price between $24 and $30 per bottle

Diaz has invested in property since 2001 and currently owns multiple homes.

Speaking to Stella magazine in 2014, Diaz said that her parents instilled thriftiness in her from a young age and so as a result, as an adult, she only spends money on what matters.

"I come from a frugal upbringing so I'm not just going to throw my money away," she said. 

"I love to be close to my family and friends, so I spend money on plane tickets, having feasts, buying a ton of groceries and cooking, or going out for an amazing meal, knowing I don't worry about how much the bill costs," she said.

However, Diaz has invested in property and has owned a number of impressive properties in New York and Los Angeles. 

According to Capitalism, in 2001, she bought a home above the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles for $1.34 million. While she still owns it today, it's reported that her primary residence is a much larger Beverly Hills compound that she bought from Candice Bergen in 2010 for $9.5 million.

According to the outlet, Diaz also owns a $9.5 million three-bedroom condo in lower Manhattan's Chelsea district and a $12.67 million three-story villa in Montecito that she and her husband Benji Madden purchased in 2022.

Architectural Digest reported in October 2020 that Diaz and the Good Charlotte rocker bought another home in Beverly Hills, a $14.7 million-dollar seven-bedroom farmhouse mansion.

She has also invested in health and biotech startups, including Seed Health and Modern Acupuncture.

Given Diaz's interest in health and wellness, it's hardly surprising that she has chosen to invest in startups that focus their attention on these industries.

She has invested in Seed Health, a company that uses bacteria to heal the microbiome and treat diseases, and Modern Acupuncture, a chain that offers a variety of traditional and cosmetic acupuncture services across America.

In 2022, Diaz invested in the eponymous women's ready-to-wear and accessories brand from American-Nigerian designer Autumn Adeigbo along with Mila Kunis.