Kevin O’Leary declares ‘I don’t need more money’ and, instead, says he craves this far more valuable commodity

“I tried to retire for three years. It was so boring. I couldn’t believe it,” he explained, adding “I work harder today than I ever have.”

Yet, while the self-professed Mr. Wonderful has built a brand and lifestyle around successful investing, he admitted on the podcast that what he really desires isn’t more zeroes at the end of his bank statement.

“I don’t need more money,” O’Leary said. “I want more time. And I want to do some certain things that I really enjoy in life that I haven’t done yet.”

Money can’t buy happiness — but it can buy time

O’Leary explained on the podcast that his wealth has allowed him to pursue passions — like watch collecting and photography — that he couldn’t afford to take up in the past. He also added that he learned how to edit film and shared his love of playing guitar.

“And I want to pursue those dreams and become better at them,” he added. “I’m very frustrated about time management now because I need more time with my guitar to get better.”

Carving out time in our busy lives to indulge in personal passions can prove increasingly difficult. And while they say that money can’t buy happiness, research suggests that those who buy time do reap added benefits.

A 2017 Harvard study across multiple countries including the U.S. found that “buying time was linked to greater life satisfaction.” Elizabeth Dunn, one of the authors, offered the example of buying a home that’s closer to work so that you gain back all the time you’re no longer spending commuting, while others include outsourcing household chores to free yourself up for things you actually love to do.

“People who hire a housecleaner or pay the kid next door to mow the lawn might feel like they’re being lazy,” Ashley Whillans, the lead author of the study said when discussing the research. “But our results suggest that buying time has similar benefits for happiness as having more money.”

Data shows that Americans can spend up to four hours on household chores each day, while a 2024 study that Dunn also participated in highlighted “the emotional benefits of using money to eliminate unenjoyable experiences.”

It pointed to working Canadians who “derived more happiness from a $40 windfall when they were instructed to use this money to ‘buy time’ (e.g., by paying for grocery delivery or house cleaning) than to buy a material thing.”

And the researchers aren’t alone. In discussing his reporting on employees who accepted pay cuts to reduce workloads and take back time for themselves, Wall Street Journal journalist Joe Pinsker noted that “a lot of people were realizing that they were over indexing on the money side of their life and under indexing on time” and that, after correcting the balance, were “really saying that they were happier because of it.”

How to take back your time

Buying back time could involve paying someone else to do household chores. Or, as Pinsker noted, among those who took pay cuts to gain back time, one adopted more economical shopping habits, putting off large purchases that weren’t necessary and auditing family bills and switching insurance and phone providers to save thousands a year to offset it.

But for those who can’t afford to buy back time or take a pay cut, making small but significant changes to your daily routine and workflow could start earning you back hours right away.

That includes making daily to-do lists, scheduling specific, uninterrupted work times and using tech to eliminate professional grunt work like scheduling meetings.