- Kevin O'Leary changed how he spends money after learning about his mother's Chanel jackets.
- She would save up for a year to afford a luxury coat, but it would last her 20 years.
- The "Shark Tank" star began treating purchases like investments, prizing quality and resale value.
Long before Kevin O'Leary struck his first "Shark Tank" deal, his mother, Georgette, taught him an important lesson that changed how he spends money.
In his book, "Cold Hard Truth on Men, Women & Money," O'Leary recalls admiring a classic Chanel jacket she wore to one of their family's Christmas dinners in the 1980s.
O'Leary — the self-proclaimed "Mr. Wonderful" — remarked that it must have cost her a fortune, but she revealed that she'd purchased it 20 years earlier in the 1960s.
He learned that she had a tradition of saving up for an entire year to buy a single luxury garment, even as her friends frittered away their money on throwaways.
His mother paid $500 for her Christmas outfit — a lot of money in the '60s. But O'Leary estimated that she'd saved $500 by splurging on a high-quality jacket that lasted her two decades, instead of a cheap, poorly made one that would have needed replacing every couple of years.
"But here's the real value: the perpetually fashionable Chanel blazer would fetch about $1,000 today, according to vintage clothing collectors I've consulted," O'Leary wrote in his 2012 book.
O'Leary learned to "treat everything you buy as an investment." Instead of spending impulsively, he considers the quality and potential resale value of products before purchasing them.
The O'Leary Ventures chairman was appointed executor of his mother's estate — including her jacket collection — after she died in 2008.
In a LinkedIn post two years ago, he disclosed that "many of those coats were one-of-a-kind collectors' items, and they had massively appreciated in value."
Perhaps unsurprisingly, "the women in my family fought like cats and dogs to get near her clothing," he joked to CNBC Make It in 2018.
"I had to beat them back with a stick to be fair about it, because everybody wanted Georgette's outfits because she didn't buy crap," he told the Millennial Investing podcast in 2020.
O'Leary also told CNBC Make It that he follows his mother's example when it comes to buying clothes, and showed off his $2,800 jean jacket from Yves Saint Laurent.
The veteran investor has offered plenty of other financial advice over the years. For example, he's warned couples not to combine their finances, advised against lending money to family, and cautioned against waiting too long to get married and have kids.
