Barbara Corcoran Renowned for ‘Never Saving a Dime’: Even When Selling Her Business for $66 Million, Her Initial Thought Was ‘What to Spend This On?’

(SeaPRwire) –   For the majority of Americans, putting money aside (or at least attempting to) is a top financial priority: It serves as a safety net for unplanned emergency costs, funds reserved for vacations, birthdays or holiday celebrations, and longer-term objectives such as housing down payments or key family milestones.

Barbara Corcoran has never embraced this mindset. In fact, she claims she has “never saved a single cent in her entire life.”

The Shark Tank star has repeatedly shared her core philosophy surrounding money: that any funds she spends will eventually find their way back to her.

Last week, an episode of the Burnouts podcast co-hosted by Phoebe Gates, daughter of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and her business partner Sophia Kianni, with Corcoran as the featured guest, was released. The real estate tycoon, who amassed her multi-million dollar fortune in the property sector, told the pair: “I don’t believe in saving money.”

She explained: “I’ve never saved a dime in my life—when I sold my business for $66 million, my very first thought was: What can I spend this on? I gave half of the sum away to family, friends, grant funds, and charitable organizations, because I truly hold this belief: When you spend money, it comes back to you.”

While Corcoran’s perspective falls far outside standard best practices for personal finance advice, her life experience is fairly atypical. The 77-year-old businesswoman and investor grew up in New Jersey, and had held 20 different jobs by the time she turned 23. Famously, she borrowed $1,000 from her partner at the time, quit her waitressing position, to launch a small real estate agency in New York City.

The pair ran the business jointly before Corcoran’s partner left her for another woman. They divided the profits from the sale of that business, and Corcoran went on to establish her own real estate company. She sold that firm, The Corcoran Group, in 2001 for $66 million.

Even the sum that catapulted her into the ranks of the ultra-wealthy was chosen with little deep deliberation: Corcoran revealed in 2023 that she set the $66 million asking price because it was her lucky number, and refused to take any offers until she hit that target. The first bid to buy the business came in at $100,000, Corcoran told her Instagram followers, “I couldn’t believe how lucky I was.” She accepted the offer initially, but later changed her mind.

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Four years later, another offer arrived—for $20 million. She continued: “I thought if they were willing to pay that much, I could ask for even more. I said ‘No I’ll only take $66 million, exactly $66 million. It took them a year to sort out logistics and review the company’s financial records, but what do you think they paid me? $66 million.”

The savings mindset

Corcoran’s story is inspiring, but it clashes sharply with the current financial reality for many Americans. A YouGov survey published last week found 55% of the U.S. population is just about “keeping their heads above water” financially, or has already fallen behind on their obligations. Indeed, the majority of Americans—even those who would describe themselves as “comfortably ahead” in financial terms—carry some form of debt.

Taking a wider view, the primary driver of this debt across Western populations is covering everyday essential costs. More than two in 10 people said they had taken on debt to make ends meet, followed by 21% of people who said they had gone into debt to pay for one-off or unplanned expenses.

A survey from Bankrate earlier this year found nearly one in four (24%) of Americans have no emergency savings at all, leaving them with no other option but to borrow funds when unexpected costs arise. This was particularly the case—perhaps unsurprisingly—among younger demographics, with 34% of Gen Z and 28% of millennials saying they had no emergency funds set aside.

The economic landscape Corcoran built her career in is very different from the world younger people navigate today. But the woman who now has an estimated net worth of roughly $100 million emphasized on the podcast: “My mom raised 10 kids on an extremely tight budget and she always said: “Money is meant to be spent.” One time, I was almost going bankrupt, for what I think was the fifth time, and I told my mom I had to shut the business down and inform all staff they no longer had jobs. She said: ‘Don’t worry about the money, what a waste of time.’”

She added: “I never got rich by saving, I got rich by letting money flow in and out freely.”