The “Shark Tank” investor. Kevin O’Leary don’t blame the economy for your empty bank account. He blames you. And he’s not shy about it.
“Listen, I’m going to tell you something most people don’t want to hear,” O’Leary said in a December YouTube video titled “If You Want to Get Rich, Stop Buying These 5 Things.” “You’re broke. Not because you don’t make enough money, not because the economy is rigged against you, not because you’ve been unlucky. You’re broke because you keep buying the crap that keeps you poor.”
From the front line, O’Leary makes it clear: building wealth doesn’t start with a higher income. It starts with cutting the crap.
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His first target? That shiny new car in your driveway.
“Buying a new car is one of the dumbest financial decisions you can make,” O’Leary said. A car’s value drops 20 percent to 30 percent the moment you drive it off the lot, he explained, turning thousands of dollars into dust — for nothing more than “that new car smell.” And leasing? “Leasing is absolutely the worst,” he said. “You’re leasing a depreciating asset. . . . You’ve paid the dealer thousands of dollars for the privilege of lending them the car.”
His advice is brutal but simple: “Buy a three-year certified pre-owned car. Let someone else take the depreciation hit. That’s what rich people do.”
O’Leary isn’t just after your car. He’s coming for your kitchen – or rather, the one you refuse to use. “People tell me they don’t have money to invest. And then I look at them spending $15 on a salad for lunch,” he said. This is not a splash. It’s financial self-sabotage.
The average American spends nearly $4,000 a year eating out, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. O’Leary does the math: Investing the same $3,500 annually for 30 years at 10% could become more than $600,000. “You’re trading half a million dollars in retirement wealth for comfort food and luxury that you’ll forget about in 24 hours,” he said.
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Pack your lunch. Brew your coffee at home. “These are not sacrifices,” O’Leary said. “These are smart financial decisions.” But when you eat out, he says, at least make it count. “Don’t waste money on mediocre chain restaurants because you’re too lazy to cook. That’s not living well. That’s being financially irresponsible.”
Then comes the “forever home” myth. O’Leary isn’t buying it – literally or figuratively. “Your home is your biggest responsibility,” he said. “An asset puts money in your pocket. A liability takes money out. And your house—the one you live in—takes money out every month.”
Mortgage payments, property taxes, insurance, maintenance, landscaping — “It’s a money pit,” O’Leary said. And the bigger the house, the deeper the hole.
He says the real wealth trap is when people buy the most expensive house the bank says they can “afford”. This isn’t a financial milestone – it’s a 30-year contract that benefits the bank far more than you. “They want you to owe them for the next 30 years,” he said. “That’s 30 years of interest payments in their pockets.”
His solution? “Buy half the house the bank says you can afford.”
It’s a theme O’Leary keeps coming back to: wealth isn’t about appearances. It’s about margin. Living below your means is not a punishment – it’s the path to financial freedom. “Poor people spend money to look rich. Rich people spend money to get richer,” he said.
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And yes, that includes the clothes you wear. O’Leary doesn’t care if you own the latest sneakers, designer bags or the latest iPhone. He calls it “a museum of bad financial decisions.” The real flex? A growing net worth.
“You know what impresses me?” he said. “A fat portfolio of investments. A growing net worth. Financial independence. Not a thousand pairs of shoes that go out of style in six months.”
Not even your subscriptions escape his fire. “It’s like a slow drain in your bank account — $10 here, $15 there,” he said. “Cancel them today. Not tomorrow. Today.”
In the end, O’Leary boils down to five habits: stop buying new cars, stop looking for a big house, stop eating out constantly, stop chasing fast fashion, and stop wasting money on subscriptions you don’t use. Do that and you’ve already taken five steps to wealth, regardless of how much you earn.
“It’s not about your salary,” O’Leary said. “I’ve seen people making $40,000 a year build serious wealth because they understood these principles. And I’ve seen people make $200,000 a year living paycheck to paycheck because they refuse to learn.”
The choice is not complicated, he says. It’s just inconvenient. “Don’t be most people.”
And if you’re still arguing that the salad was worth it – just know that O’Leary’s not buying it. But they might buy your house. For half.
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This article Kevin O’Leary Says Broke People Spend $15 on Salads for Lunch But Say They Can’t Invest — Trades $500,000 in Wealth Because They’re ‘Too Lazy to Cook’ originally appeared on Benzinga.com
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