Kevin O'Leary Says Retirees Should Never Waste Money on These 6 Things

Kevin O'Leary has spent years calling out the financial mistakes he believes quietly drain people's wealth. Most of his advice is aimed at younger workers, but the expenses he criticizes become even more consequential in retirement, when a paycheck stops, and every dollar of savings has to last longer. If you are approaching or already in retirement, his bluntest spending warnings are worth taking seriously.

Here is what O'Leary has specifically said he considers a waste of money, and why each one matters more once income is fixed.

Daily coffee shop purchases

This is the expense O'Leary has criticized the most consistently and the most loudly over many years.

"Do I pay $2.50 for a coffee? Never, never, never do I do that," he told CNBC. "That is such a waste of money for something that costs 20 cents."

He has gone further in other interviews, directly targeting the habit itself. "Stop buying coffee for $5.50," he said in a widely shared financial advice video.

His argument is simple: The gap between what a coffee costs to make at home and what a coffee shop charges represents money that could be invested instead. For a retiree spending $5 to $6 per coffee five days a week, that habit costs roughly $1,300 to $1,500 per year, every year, drawn from a savings account that is not being replenished.

Buying lunch out instead of making it at home

O'Leary's second most repeated target is the daily purchased lunch.

"I can't stand it when I see kids that are making 70 grand a year spending $28 for lunch," he said on The Diary of a CEO podcast. He has repeated this point in dozens of interviews and social posts with varying dollar amounts, but the message is always the same.

"Stop buying lunch at $18 when you know you can make a sandwich for $2," he said in a 2024 Fox News clip uploaded to his official YouTube channel.

In retirement, this habit hits differently. When working, you might offset a lunch habit with overtime or a raise. On a fixed income, every restaurant meal comes directly out of the pool of money that has to last the rest of your life. O'Leary's math is straightforward: If you spend $15 on lunch five days a week, that is $3,900 per year in food costs that a homemade meal would dramatically reduce.

Carrying a credit card balance

O'Leary has been unusually direct about this one, including a self-interested angle that makes his point hard to dismiss.

"The reason I own all the credit card companies is I'm getting paid 23% by people that have credit balances on their cards," he posted on X. "It's crazy that you would pay interest of 23% on what you owe the credit card company."

He has also said the fastest way to waste money without realizing it is by not paying off your credit card every month, adding that credit card debt "comes out of nowhere and bites you" when you are not ready.

In retirement, carrying a credit card balance is one of the most destructive spending habits possible. A retiree paying 23% interest on a $5,000 balance is effectively burning more than $1,100 per year just in interest charges, on top of the original purchases. That is money leaving a fixed-income household with zero return.

A wardrobe that is too large and mostly unworn

This one surprises people who only know O'Leary from his financial advice clips, but he has been specific about it.

O'Leary has pointed out that most people regularly wear about 20% of their wardrobe while the other 80% sits untouched, calling this a form of invisible money waste. He has said the pattern of buying clothes that feel necessary in the moment but rarely get worn is one of the ways credit card debt accumulates quietly.

He demonstrated his own approach publicly, posting a video from a Walmart aisle comparing paper towel prices and showing off the $29 black jeans he wears regularly. "Inflation affects all of us," he said. "Saving dough is the name of the game."

For retirees, the lesson is less about buying cheap clothes and more about breaking the habit of buying new clothing for occasions that never materialize. Every purchase that ends up unworn is money that left the account and produced nothing.

Lifestyle upgrades mistaken for financial progress

O'Leary has warned specifically about a pattern he has watched derail even high earners: confusing bigger expenses with building wealth.

He has said that buying bigger homes, nicer cars, or more expensive clothes often feels like success, but in his view these choices drain wealth rather than build it. He has specifically cited boats, cars, and watches as examples of purchases his wealthy peers made while going broke. "They loved their lifestyle, they went to zero," he told a YouTube interviewer.

The retirement version of this warning is about status purchases that carry ongoing costs. A bigger house means higher property taxes, more maintenance, and larger utility bills. A newer luxury car means higher insurance and depreciation. At a stage of life when income is no longer growing, spending that signals success carries hidden costs that compound over time.

Wasted groceries and ignored free resources

There is a less obvious category that does not make headlines as often, but that is included in O'Leary's broader spending criticism.

Wasted groceries, particularly produce that spoils before it is used, are a form of spending that people barely notice but that adds up meaningfully over a year. He has also specifically noted that people pay for things they could access at little to no cost.

For retirees, wasted groceries represent a particularly solvable problem. Smaller, more frequent shopping trips, better meal planning, and choosing frozen or canned alternatives for ingredients that might go unused are practical applications of O'Leary's principle. The average American household wastes an estimated $1,500 in food per year, and that money in retirement comes directly out of savings.

Bottom line

Kevin O'Leary's message is simple: Small spending habits can quietly drain your savings over time. Daily coffee runs, takeout meals, unnecessary purchases, and interest payments may seem harmless, but they can add up to thousands of dollars.

For anyone trying to stay on track for retirement or make a fixed income last longer, the goal isn't to eliminate every expense. Instead, focus on cutting wasteful spending and putting that money toward savings or investments. As O'Leary emphasizes, small financial decisions can make a big difference over time.

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