“Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary offered the worst financial and marriage advice ever Monday.
O’Leary went full Jim Cramer during an interview with Fox Business, offering up some of the worst financial and marriage advice I’ve ever heard in my entire life. Apparently this guy “forbids” couples from merging their finances because lacking your own financial identity is going to make divorce all that much harder.
“You must, in this society, maintain your own financial identity. You have to. Because 50% of marriages end in divorce for financial stress over the first five years of marriage, and even if you have a long-term situation and anything would happen to your spouse, such as death … [and] you don’t have your own financial identity, you’re in the wilderness in America,” he told unsuspecting viewers.
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Are you worried about the economy? https://t.co/mTXBDxSoQq
— KAY SMYTHE (@KaySmythe) September 26, 2023
What O’Leary failed to explain was that it is so easy to have independent accounts and merged accounts as a family. And if you and your spouse are on the same page in handling the family finances, you are significantly less likely to get a divorce, according to MarketWatch (and literally every study ever conducted into marriages and money).
O’Leary wasn’t offering advice on the show. He seemed to be subtly telling men and women how to get out of their responsibility to their marital commitment by ensuring a significant and constant divide in their familial structure.
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thank you so much for sharing this with me @Rudy_Newsome https://t.co/YlOi0XGWpP
— KAY SMYTHE (@KaySmythe) February 21, 2023
If O’Leary had a spine, he’d have told families exactly what to do to avoid the pitfalls he’s describing. I can’t tell you what those things are because the law is literally designed to try and make you poor and guarantee that the government can take as much money from you and your family as possible if you die or get divorced. (RELATED: Dear Kay: I Just Saw The Banking News. Are We Screwed?)
If this guy actually cared about people (and not just money), he’d be telling couples to have the most in-depth conversations around money. He’d be telling you that the way to make your lives easier and mitigate divorce is to come up with a financial structure that unites your family while keeping you comfortable.
And don’t marry someone if you’re worried they are a reckless or thoughtless spender.
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I’m terrified to think of how many people I know who are probably in a similar situation https://t.co/Fg0nI4aAjd
— KAY SMYTHE (@KaySmythe) April 13, 2023
Like O’Leary, I also “want financial due diligence on significant others because I’m a realist. I deal in the real world.” And in the real world, we need to do everything we can to support successful marriages. And O’Leary’s advice ain’t it.
In my opinion, he’s just prevaricating about how to have a successful divorce. But there is one area I’ll allow O’Leary some grace. (RELATED: Travis Kelce Apparently Spent $8 Million To Date Taylor Swift So Far)
As a woman, I do think it is imperative that every wife keep a small, separate account that is just for her personal spending. I’ve never met a man who understands why our hair costs as much as it does. Being able to hide those figures from him will probably make both parties happier in the long run.
Here’s the final thing: Split finances mean you’ll probably argue sooner rather than later. Who is paying more for what? Whose responsibility is what? Did you pay what you were meant to pay for? Did you end up paying more than your spouse? All of these questions and more can be avoided if you just talk to your spouse, share finances and ignore Kevin O’Leary.
But that’s just my opinion.