Kevin O'Leary's mother hid an investment account from both her husbands — and died a wealthy woman

O’Leary said his mother, Georgette Bookalam, took 20% of the salary she earned working at a children’s clothing company and put it into a hidden account. She invested the money she saved — and it paid off.

Here’s what she was investing in, and why others might want to follow her lead.

O’Leary says his mother’s financial practices became ‘the core’ of his investment strategies

O’Leary says he learned important investing rules from his mother that he still uses today.

“She had this concept of setting something aside which became the core of my own investment philosophy,” O’Leary told the Motley Fool.

Bookalam put her savings into a diversified portfolio, 50% of which she invested into large cap stocks — stocks of companies valued over $10 billion — and 50% in telecom bonds.

“For some reason she was fixated on Telco bonds,” O’Leary said.

This diversification allowed Bookalam to build up sizable wealth by the time she passed. While O’Leary doesn’t follow this strategy to the letter (for example, his focus is on ETFs), he does focus on regular saving and diversification with his own trusts.

“I live off those trusts and so do my whole family and the charities we support, because they are designed to protect that wealth,” O’Leary said.

A secret personal bank account gave O’Leary’s mother financial independence

Ideally, everyone should set aside some of their salary each pay period and put it into savings. But many married couples put that money in a joint bank account, not a secret private investment account, which is what Bookalam used.

According to the US Census Bureau, 23% of couples did not have a joint bank account in 2023. But notably, nearly half of all women who got married between the ages of 20 and 24 only had joint bank accounts — they didn’t have any accounts separate from their spouse.

Joint bank accounts can make household planning easier, but they also make it hard for married individuals to have financial independence if they’re the only bank accounts they have.

For much of Bookalam’s early adulthood, true financial independence from her husband was impossible — Canadian women only gained the right to open a bank account without their husband’s signature in 1964.

It makes sense that any woman would want to ensure her financial independence when denied the ability to do so for so many years.