Apr 14, 2026
If you have a stable income and you own a house, a car, and have a decent amount of cash in your bank account, it wouldn't be surprising if you considered yourself wealthy on your own terms.
But, according to "Mr. Wonderful" Kevin O'Leary, "you're not rich if it's all tied up in real estate, you're not rich if it's in jewelry and in cars and in boats and all that stuff." He went on to tell Fox Business' Varney & Co. that wealth and being rich comes down to one thing: liquidity (1).
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"You'd be amazed how many wealthy people say they're rich [and] do not have liquidity," O'Leary said. "Get $5 million liquid and then you are wealthy."
Why $5 million?
O'Leary explains that $5 million is the "magic number" for him because it "makes you $250,000 a year pre-tax" with the current 3.5% to 4% return.
This, however, wasn't the first time the Shark Tank star mentioned this number. In a November 2025 post on X (2), O'Leary mentioned how success is $5 million in liquidity "that you never touch." He went on to describe that "Financial freedom comes from one thing, protecting the nest egg. Touch the income, never touch the principal."
O'Leary told Varley & Co. that he keeps at least $5 million in "T-bills," also known as Treasury bills. Investopedia (3) defines a T-bill as "a short-term U.S. government debt obligation backed by the Treasury Department with a maturity of one year or less." T-bills are sold at a discount to their face value, meaning if you purchase a one-year T-bill with $100 face value, you'd pay $95 for it upfront, and after it matures it would be worth $100.
The $5 million wealth target, according to O'Leary's post on X (4), is "there to guarantee your financial freedom and that of your family for the rest of your life."
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How do your savings compare?
Financial freedom, or at least the kind that O'Leary speaks of, is unfortunately a pipe dream for many Americans. According to a recent study by YNAB, The Money Mood Report, 85% of Americans are worried about money and over half of them have been worried about it for at least three years (5).
O'Leary's advice is sound for people that happen to have money they can invest or set aside to grow in value, but it is not realistic for many.
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In fact, if you have $10,000 in your bank account right now, you've got more saved than many Americans. As Banknote reports, as of 2022, the median bank balance sat at $8,000, according to the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances (6).
If you're not living paycheck to paycheck and can put aside some of your income every payday (even a small amount), you may want to consider building up your emergency savings before putting money into a 401(k) or other investments. Stoy Hall, CEO and founder of the financial planning firm Black Mammoth (7), recently told Investopedia that "if you don't have at least three to six months of expenses set aside, investing is premature."
However, there are pros and cons to consider when you're choosing where to put your hard-earned cash. For example, if you hold off on your 401(k), you may miss out on long-term growth potential for the years you don't invest.
A financial planner can help you make a plan that will work best with your finances and life circumstances.
Article Sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines.
Kevin O’Leary/YouTube (1); Kevin O’Leary/X (2); Investopedia (3, 6); Cision/Yahoo Finance (4); Bankrate (5).
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Joanna Sinclair is an engagement editor for Moneywise. She holds a B.A. in Professional Writing from York University and has been working in digital media for nearly two decades.
