Kriti Mehrotra
While Joanna Stevens was born on April 19, 1978, in Wichita, Kansas, Chip Gaines was born on November 14, 1974, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but they both ultimately settled in Texas. The former’s family had relocated there for good when she was around 12 years old in 1990, whereas the latter’s loved ones had moved when he was roughly 8 years old in the early 1980s. At that point, no one could have ever imagined that these two souls would go on to meet one fateful day, fall head over heels in love, and eventually build an empire unlike any other.
How Did Joanna and Chip Gaines Earn Their Money?
Since Chip Gaines had reportedly developed an interest in the world of sports at a relatively early age, he was a full-fledged baseball athlete by the time he had graduated from high school. Therefore, he continued playing while attending North Lake College, which led him to be scouted by Baylor University’s (an NCAA Division I school) baseball coach Mickey Sullivan. He thus transferred for his sophomore year, only to sadly not have the collegiate experience he was expecting — nevertheless, he still proudly graduated with a Business degree in 1998.
As for Joanna, she enrolled at Baylor University for a Bachelor’s degree in Communication immediately after graduating from high school, knowing she wanted to pursue a creative career. She hence even interned at KWTX television as well as KWBU radio stations in Waco before also spending a semester in New York City under the banner of CBS ’48 Hours’ for the experience. She seemed determined to build a career as a broadcast journalist herself, but things started to change bit by bit after she met Chip in 2001, the same year she graduated with full credits.
According to records, by this point, Chip was already well established for flipping houses since he had well over 5 years of experience — he had begun the endeavor while still in his second year. So, once he and Joanna tied the knot in a beautiful, cozy ceremony on May 31, 2003, she joined her husband’s business without any hesitation because she could see the scope across industries. In fact, the couple quickly expanded their brand by launching a retail component — they opened a store by the name of Magnolia Market in their base of Waco, where they sold home goods.
Little did either of them know that Joanna’s decision to utilize her skills and maintain a blog about their experiences would ultimately catch the attention of an executive at High Noon Entertainment. They subsequently suggested the couple film a short video about their work while adding personal touches for a potential reality television series, which eventually became HGTV’s ‘Fixer Upper.’ While the show debuted on our screens in May 2013, it really started taking off following its first full season the ensuing year and thrived right until it came to an end after 5 long chapters in 2017.
During this period, Joanna and Chip were really able to begin hammering out their future aspirations, resulting in them establishing a quarterly lifestyle magazine called Magnolia Journal in 2016. Then, a year later, the wife-turned-television personality-turned-interior designer released a lifestyle line named Hearth & Hand with Magnolia in Target, the success of which led to more opportunities. In February 2019, she came out with a globally inspired rug and pillow collection for Anthropologie, only to follow it up with an even bigger project alongside her husband two months later.
It was April 2019 when Joanna and Chip announced they were going to launch a new media company, which would include not only a television network but also a streaming app. They asserted they would serve as chief creative officers, which did become a reality on April 26, 2020, with the launch of Magnolia Network as well as the revival of the ‘Fixer Upper’ franchise. Since then, they have been a part of ‘ Fixer Upper: Welcome Home,’ ‘Fixer Upper: The Castle,’ ‘Fixer Upper: The Hotel,’ as well as ‘Fixer Upper: Colorado Mountain House,’ all the while also managing their other endeavors.
After all, Joanna and Chip are the proud owners of the Magnolia Realty brokerage, a coffee shop named Magnolia Press, a cafe called Magnolia Table, and a bakery named Silos Baking Co. They even operate the Magnolia App, while juggling their side careers as authors — they co-wrote a memoir titled ‘The Magnolia Story’ (2016), which they followed with individual books. While the latter penned two self-help books, ‘Capital Gaines’ (2017) and ‘No Pain No Gaines’ (2021), his wife has penned an additional memoir, an interior design book, 3 cookbooks, as well as 3 children’s books. They are, ‘Magnolia Table’ (2018), Homebody: A Guide to Creating Spaces You Never Want to Leave’ (2018), ‘We Are the Gardeners’ (2019), ‘Magnolia Table Volume 2’ (2020), ‘The World Needs Who You Were Made to Be’ (2020), ‘The Stories We Tell’ (2022), ‘Magnolia Table Volume 3’ (2023), and ‘The World Needs the Wonder You See’ (2025).
Joanna and Chip Gaines’ Net Worth
Since Joanna and Chip Gaines have been actively working for over 25 years as of writing, it goes without saying that they have managed to build an incredible empire in the entertainment industry. Unfortunately, though, owing to the nature of their public career, it’s really hard to ascertain precisely how much they have earned through each avenue over the years. We can only assume Joanna’s early internships had a monthly stipend of $1,000, whereas Chip’s early flips made him a profit of roughly $50,000 per year. However, once they began scaling, their profit margins undeniably did too, especially as it was soon correlated with their television appearance, for which they potentially bagged $30,000 per episode plus television fees. Then came their magazine, cafes, books, network, and lifestyle brand, which they juggled while also raising 5 children, leading us to believe the reality stars have a net worth of around $50 million.
Read More: Is Fixer Upper Scripted?
