She explained: “I’ve never saved a dime in my life. When I sold my business for $66 million, my first thought was, ‘What can I spend it on? I gave half of it away to family, friends, funds, and charities, because I really believe this: When you spend money, it comes back to you.”
While Corcoran’s take sits well outside the norms of good personal finance advice, her experience is perhaps unusual. The 77-year-old businesswoman and investor grew up in New Jersey and worked through 20 jobs by the time she was 23. Famously, she borrowed $1,000 from her partner at the time, and quit her waitressing job, to open a small real estate firm in New York City.
The couple went into business before Corcoran’s partner left her for another woman. They split the proceeds from the sale of the business, and Corcoran went on to found her own real estate company. She sold that business, the Corcoran Group, in 2001 for $66 million.
Four years later, another offer landed—for $20 million. She continued: “I thought, ‘For that much, I’ll ask them for even more.’ I said, ‘No. I’ll only take $66 million, exactly $66 million.’ It took them a year to shuffle around, look at the books. But what do you think they paid me? $66 million.”
Corcoran’s case is inspiring; however, it sits at odds with the current reality for many Americans. A YouGov survey released last week found 55% of the U.S. population is just about “keeping up” or has already fallen behind. Indeed, the majority of Americans—even those who would describe themselves as “comfortably ahead” in a financial setting—have some form of debt.
Looking more broadly, the reason for that debt across Western populations is to pay for everyday essentials. 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 unexpected expenses.
Corcoran’s economy was different from the world younger people now find themselves in. But the woman who is now worth some $100 million insisted on the podcast: “My mom raised 10 kids on a shoestring budget, and she always said: ‘Money is meant to be spent.’ One time, I was almost going bankrupt, for maybe the fifth time, and I told my mom I had to shut the business down and tell everyone 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 allowing money to come and go.”
