By MANDI WOODRUFF

'Rags to riches' tales are a dime a dozen in America, but we were genuinely surprised when Jim Cramer opened up about his brush with homelessness Tuesday.

The former hedge fund manager and controversial CNBC host had just graduated from out of Harvard Law when he hit rock bottom, CNBC's Lee Brodie reports:

"After a thief broke into his modest California apartment and stole absolutely everything, Cramer had nothing left and nowhere to go. Cramer was living out of his car.

'I was living hand to mouth, and people would take me in now and then so I could get a shower, change, get a good night's sleep,' he explained."

It took six months to get back on his feet before he made his way to Goldman Sachs and later founded his own hedge fund, along with MainStreet.com. As a host for CNBC's 'Mad Money,' Cramer's net worth has reached somewhere between $50 million to $100 million.

It's not the first time he's opened up about his past. We found a fascinating 2005 interview from The Harvard Crimson where Cramer spoke about struggling as a journalist in his early days and lamented America's growing intolerance for poverty.

"I'm just ashamed," he said at the time. "I don't want to say I feel guilty about the wealth I have. But I'm ashamed that we've gotten to the point in this country where we believe that being poor is just your own damn fault."