Kevin O'Leary Says You Should Never Bring This One Thing Into Retirement

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Of "Shark Tank" finance and investment guru Kevin O'Leary's three books, "The Cold Hard Truth On Men, Women and Money" is the most focused on generating and protecting wealth at every stage of your life. In the aforementioned book, O'Leary addresses one particular mistake that places serious risk on retirement savings for people approaching the traditional retirement phase of their life. Debt is a dangerous thing to bring into your retirement lifestyle as far as O'Leary is concerned, and carrying debt with you into retirement is one of a few warning signs that you shouldn't retire yet. According to a January 2025 LendingTree study, 97.1% of retirement age Americans carry debt unrelated to mortgages, with those in the 50 largest cities carrying a median $11,349 worth of debt. Most of that — 92.6% — is credit card debt, followed by auto, personal, and student loans respectively.

According to a May 2023 Gallup poll, only 43% of adults who have yet to retire expect to be in a financially comfortable position when they do so. That means that the other adults surveyed (more than half) lacked confidence in their ability to retire comfortably. Perhaps the public is already leaning into O'Leary's assessment, since the age Americans are retiring has risen from 62 in 1994 to 64.6 years old in 2024 for men, and from 55 years old in the 1960s to 62.6 years old for women, per the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

Kevin O'Leary has some good advice for pre-retirees in his book "The Cold Hard Truth On Men, Women and Money": "If you're heading toward retirement with debt, now's the time to budget like you've never budgeted before" (via The Globe and Mail). If you want to retire at 50, you first need to figure out how much money you would need to save at 50 to set yourself up for retirement success. The problem with adding debt to that equation is it counteracts the compounding interest in your savings and investments by compounding your debt alongside it. Debt is the hole in your retirement boat that will continuously have you reaching for a bucket to bail water to stay financially afloat, instead of just enjoying the ride. O'Leary's book suggests a budget that considers both necessary retirement savings for the age you hope to retire, and the amount you'll require to erase debt before retirement.

"Spend those last few working years socking away as much money as you can, but also use those years to practice living on a lot less, lowering your expectations, and cultivating disciplined spending habits," O'Leary goes on in the book. Building these sorts of habits can also help you save toward your retirement goals, pay down debt, and avoid growing more debt in the process.