Kevin O'Leary: Financially cutting off your kids after college can teach them a very important lesson

[Anonymous]

I think at the end of an  undergraduate degree a child it's time to take off the training wheels..



Living at home, working and paying room and board for a while is okay, but the goal has to be to make them able to stand on their own two feet.



When "Shark Tank" star and serial entrepreneur Kevin O'Leary graduated college, he got an unwelcome surprise. He was cut off.



When it happened, his mother imparted a few words of wisdom about parents teaching their children the value of work. "My mother said to me, 'The dead bird under the nest is the one that never learned how to fly,'" O'Leary tells CNBC Make It.



"Mom, that is a great poem, but I need some money," he says he replied.



But his days living on her dime were over. "You're not going to get any, so you're going to fly or you're going to be dead bird," she answered.



"Woah, no dead bird for me," O'Leary decided.



Not only did O'Leary's mother help inspire his success, but also his style as a parent. Her idea is now something he's doing for his own two kids.



"I told them when they finished college, I was going to give them this: nothing," he explains. "Because that is what my mother did to me.



"You have to go make it on your own, and I think that is a very important lesson," he says. "I paid for birth through last day of college and then nothing." And, his tough love lessons don't stop there.



When his son Trevor was a teenager, O'Leary made him fly in coach on a trip to Europe while he flew first class, Business Insider points out.



"At 16, my son is making the connection between money and personal freedom," O'Leary writes in his book "Cold Hard Truth on Family, Kids and Money."



"I think that's the greatest gift I've ever given him: to help him see that connection. And I constantly reinforce it by doing Mean Dad things like making him sit in those crappy economy seats."



And when his kids were young, O'Leary's principles were the same.



"I'm in favor of allowance for children if they work for it, because then they equate the value of money to time worked," O'Leary explains. "I'm not in favor of just giving the money as if it grows on trees — because it doesn't

https://pub.cnbc.com/2017/11/16/why-shark-tank-star-kevin-oleary-stopped-giving-his-kids-money.html?__source=msn%7Cmoney%7Cinline%7Cstory%7C&par=msn&doc=104885419">https://pub.cnbc.com/2017/11/16/why-sha ... =104885419">https://pub.cnbc.com/2017/11/16/why-shark-tank-star-kevin-oleary-stopped-giving-his-kids-money.html?__source=msn%7Cmoney%7Cinline%7Cstory%7C&par=msn&doc=104885419

[Angry White Male]

I watched that a couple weeks ago.

[Anonymous]

I agree with Mr Wonderful even though I did not follow that advice with my own son. He would live at home for a while and work, but not pay rent or even for wheels because he would drive one of mine or my ex's vehicles. He would go travelling with the money he saved by living off of us, come home broke. Thankfully his no bullshit Aussie gal has turned him into a man.

[Angry White Male]

Then again, the importance of college itself can be overestimated, especially the types of grads they are pushing out nowadays...



Look at the backgrounds of many of the people that truly changed the world, and usually became wealthy in doing so...  Many are college dropouts, if even that.

[Anonymous]

Then again, the importance of college itself can be overestimated, especially the types of grads they are pushing out nowadays...



Look at the backgrounds of many of the people that truly changed the world, and usually became wealthy in doing so...  Many are college dropouts, if even that.

My kid has a hobby degree. I'm glad he landed a decent gig with the feds.

[Angry White Male]

I learned about the educational system early on...



I dropped out in grade 10, the day I turned 16, while I was still repeating some grade 8 classes.



Then I discovered that one of my buds actually graduated high school, grade 12, even though he was essentially illiterate.



THIS, is when I discovered that our entire educational system was a complete and utter joke.



I officially have a grade 7 education.  People that are illiterate have a grade 12.



Not to fear, however...  I passed my GED a few years later, with a score putting me ahead of what 90% of grade 12 grads would have scored.

[Anonymous]

Then again, the importance of college itself can be overestimated, especially the types of grads they are pushing out nowadays...



Look at the backgrounds of many of the people that truly changed the world, and usually became wealthy in doing so...  Many are college dropouts, if even that.

My kid has a hobby degree. I'm glad he landed a decent gig with the feds.

Your son is doing well Herman?

[Anonymous]

Then again, the importance of college itself can be overestimated, especially the types of grads they are pushing out nowadays...



Look at the backgrounds of many of the people that truly changed the world, and usually became wealthy in doing so...  Many are college dropouts, if even that.

My kid has a hobby degree. I'm glad he landed a decent gig with the feds.

Your son is doing well Herman?

Ya, he is. As you know I was nervous there for a while. He and his old lady have good jobs. They are both learning French. He wants a transfer to Quebec. They want to buy a house there.

[Anonymous]

Then again, the importance of college itself can be overestimated, especially the types of grads they are pushing out nowadays...



Look at the backgrounds of many of the people that truly changed the world, and usually became wealthy in doing so...  Many are college dropouts, if even that.

My kid has a hobby degree. I'm glad he landed a decent gig with the feds.

Your son is doing well Herman?

Ya, he is. As you know I was nervous there for a while. He and his old lady have good jobs. They are both learning French. He wants a transfer to Quebec. They want to buy a house there.

That's wonderful Herman..



And where do they live now?

[Anonymous]

They have an apartment in Regina. I stayed overnight at their place in October. I smoked too much of my boy's weed.

[Anonymous]

They have an apartment in Regina. I stayed overnight at their place in October. I smoked too much of my boy's weed.

That's wonderful you visited your son.....I think.

 ac_unsure

[Odinson]

I left home when I was 14years old..



I had a girlfriend and I needed a place where I could rev her in peace.

[Anonymous]

Then again, the importance of college itself can be overestimated, especially the types of grads they are pushing out nowadays...



Look at the backgrounds of many of the people that truly changed the world, and usually became wealthy in doing so...  Many are college dropouts, if even that.

If you make a real difference, you need a REAL education. Robert Noyce, Tim Berners-Lee,  Rosalind Franklin,  Sir Frederic Banting,  James Watson and so on and so on.



You can make a lot of money, MAYBE, but  unlikely without an education, but most uneducated bums live meaningless lives in poverty doing things that don't inspire them or anyone else.

[Anonymous]

I think at the end of an  undergraduate degree a child it's time to take off the training wheels..



Living at home, working and paying room and board for a while is okay, but the goal has to be to make them able to stand on their own two feet.



When "Shark Tank" star and serial entrepreneur Kevin O'Leary graduated college, he got an unwelcome surprise. He was cut off.



When it happened, his mother imparted a few words of wisdom about parents teaching their children the value of work. "My mother said to me, 'The dead bird under the nest is the one that never learned how to fly,'" O'Leary tells CNBC Make It.



"Mom, that is a great poem, but I need some money," he says he replied.



But his days living on her dime were over. "You're not going to get any, so you're going to fly or you're going to be dead bird," she answered.



"Woah, no dead bird for me," O'Leary decided.



Not only did O'Leary's mother help inspire his success, but also his style as a parent. Her idea is now something he's doing for his own two kids.



"I told them when they finished college, I was going to give them this: nothing," he explains. "Because that is what my mother did to me.



"You have to go make it on your own, and I think that is a very important lesson," he says. "I paid for birth through last day of college and then nothing." And, his tough love lessons don't stop there.



When his son Trevor was a teenager, O'Leary made him fly in coach on a trip to Europe while he flew first class, Business Insider points out.



"At 16, my son is making the connection between money and personal freedom," O'Leary writes in his book "Cold Hard Truth on Family, Kids and Money."



"I think that's the greatest gift I've ever given him: to help him see that connection. And I constantly reinforce it by doing Mean Dad things like making him sit in those crappy economy seats."



And when his kids were young, O'Leary's principles were the same.



"I'm in favor of allowance for children if they work for it, because then they equate the value of money to time worked," O'Leary explains. "I'm not in favor of just giving the money as if it grows on trees — because it doesn't

https://pub.cnbc.com/2017/11/16/why-shark-tank-star-kevin-oleary-stopped-giving-his-kids-money.html?__source=msn%7Cmoney%7Cinline%7Cstory%7C&par=msn&doc=104885419">https://pub.cnbc.com/2017/11/16/why-sha ... =104885419">https://pub.cnbc.com/2017/11/16/why-shark-tank-star-kevin-oleary-stopped-giving-his-kids-money.html?__source=msn%7Cmoney%7Cinline%7Cstory%7C&par=msn&doc=104885419

I don't have kids, but it seems like common sense stuff.

[Anonymous]

Then again, the importance of college itself can be overestimated, especially the types of grads they are pushing out nowadays...



Look at the backgrounds of many of the people that truly changed the world, and usually became wealthy in doing so...  Many are college dropouts, if even that.

If you make a real difference, you need a REAL education. Robert Noyce, Tim Berners-Lee,  Rosalind Franklin,  Sir Frederic Banting,  James Watson and so on and so on.



You can make a lot of money, MAYBE, but  unlikely without an education, but most uneducated bums live meaningless lives in poverty doing things that don't inspire them or anyone else.

Life is so much easier and fulfilling with a profession than without one.