An old saying goes that the best way to get a large fortune is to start with a small one. Although plenty of actors, athletes and other stars blow their big bucks on bad investments and hard partying, others play it smart by using their already sizeable salaries to grow impressive real estate portfolios.

Some flip homes, others develop commercial properties, others buy, hold and wait for the property to appreciate, but all of them are turning real estate into a smart investment move.

David and Victoria Beckham

In 2018, one of the world’s most high-profile couples showed off their business savvy with a low-key real estate deal. David and Victoria Beckham, whose combined net worth is approaching 10 figures, nearly doubled their money on a secretive sale of their Beverly Hills home. They bought the place in 2007 for $18.2 million and sold it for $33 million.

Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo DiCaprio owns a massive portfolio of multimillion-dollar properties in the hottest areas in California — including Hollywood Hills, the so-called “Billionaire’s Beach” and Malibu. Then there’s the high-end properties in New York and Palm Springs, and even an island in Belize.

But he didn’t always have a massive and pricey portfolio. In 1999, two years after “Titanic” made him a household name, DiCaprio bought a starter home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Silver Lake for $769,500. In 2018, he listed it for $1.7 million.

Tom Ford

Fashion designer and filmmaker Tom Ford is a major real estate investor who is rumored to be behind the secret 2019 purchase of a Manhattan townhouse once owned by the late fashion legend Halston. If Ford was the buyer as experts speculate, he scored an incredible deal, paying just $18 million for a home that previously listed for $38.5 million.

Whoever bought it used the same LLC Ford used to buy heiress Betsy Bloomingdale’s Los Angeles home for $39 million in 2016. There, too, he scored big. The mansion had been listed for $55 million.

Adam Levine and Behati Prinsloo

Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine and his model wife Behati Prinsloo are among the most prolific real estate tycoons in show business. The couple profited from the sale of two L.A.-area properties in 2017 before buying Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck’s Pacific Palisades home for $32 million. In May of this year, they sold their estate in Beverly Hills for $45 million. They bought it just one year earlier for less than $34 million.

Jay-Z and Beyoncé

Jay-Z and Beyoncé define the term “power couple.” With a combined net worth of $1.4 billion, they are among the biggest self-made superstars in the world — and their real-estate portfolio spans the continent from the Hamptons on the East Coast to Los Angeles on the West Coast. It includes a $2.6 million mansion in New Orleans, a $6.5 million penthouse in New York City, a $26 million East Hampton mansion and an $88 million palace in Bel Air.