"I couldn’t afford a second suit" — Maye Musk provides context on a throwback photo of Elon Musk from 1990

Tesla CEO Elon Musk's mother Maye Musk has taken to X and shared glimpses into Elon's life as a youth. In a tweet, dated December 11, a user (@cb_doge) uploaded a photo of Elon and claimed that it was from 1990. Later, Maye Musk reshared the photo on December 12 and wrote:

"This photo was taken in our rent-controlled apartment in Toronto, with my mom‘s painting on the wall. The suit cost $99 which included a free shirt, tie and socks. A great bargain!"

Maye further highlighted the fact that she couldn't afford another suit back then, thus, the Tesla CEO wore the same one to work every day. She wrote:

"He wore this suit every day to his bank job in Toronto. I couldn’t afford a second suit. We were happy 😃."

Elon's younger sister Tosca Musk then reacted to the tweet that their mother shared and described the incident as "good times." In a follow-up tweet, posted on December 12, Maye referred to Tosca's tweet and recalled that the latter had then gotten a job at a supermarket. In this tweet, Maye Musk wrote:

"Soon after starting, you won the 'packer of the month' award. You soon were promoted to cashier. Staff could get discounts with over ripe produce and sell-by dates expiring. Great bargains. Proud mom."

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Exploring Elon Musk's family and his rise to being a billionaire

The Tesla CEO and boss of X first gained his billionaire status back in 2012, when he appeared on the Forbes Billionaires list. In 2021, he reportedly became the wealthiest person in the world after beating Jeff Bezos.

Elon Musk was born in June 1971, in Pretoria, to Maye and Errol Musk. Maye Musk had been a model back then, while Errol was an engineer and property developer. Elon who grew up with his siblings Kimbal and Tosca grew up in Pretoria with his parents and lived quite a comfortable life there.

While they lived a decent life there, Maye had to reportedly work multiple jobs to support the family with three children, as reported by Mount Bonnell.

Elon Musk with his son X Æ A-Xii, whom he shares with Grimes, (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Elon Musk became a U.S. citizen in 2002 and is now the father of 11 children, one of whom, Nevada, passed away. He shares five children with his first wife, Justine Wilson. Musk later had three children with singer Grimes. In 2021, Elon and Shivon Zilis welcomed twins, and reportedly had a third child in June 2024.

Elon's journey to becoming one of the world's wealthiest individuals was fueled by his entrepreneurial ventures. In 1995, he co-founded the software company Zip2 with his brother, Kimbal Musk. The company was sold to Compaq in 1999 for $307 million, marking a significant milestone in his career. He later founded or led major companies like PayPal, SpaceX, and Tesla, which contributed to his immense success.

The same year, Elon Musk started another company called X.com, which was an American online bank. In 2000, they merged with Confinity and PayPal came into picture. In October 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion. Using $100 million from that money, Elon Musk set up SpaceX in the same year.

After becoming an early invester in Tesla in 2004, Elon then became the CEO four years later in 2008. In 2022, the Tesla CEO acquired Twitter for $44 billion and rebranded it as well.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk's current net worth is a whopping $447 billion. This surge in wealth has been attributed to a rise in Tesla's stock price, as per reports by The Times of India.