Shaquille O’Neal’s savvy business decisions include investing early in Google and building self-branded products like Shaq-A-Licious XL Gummies and Shaq’s Big Chicken. Shaquille O’Neal’s net worth is estimated at over $500 million. The NBA Hall of Famer kept learning and even met a rich guy, and that conversation changed his perspective on wealth management.
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“I was like, ‘How do you stay rich?’ And he has a napkin,” Shaq said during a six-person meet on Travis Chappell’s Dinner Party podcast. “He said, ‘Shaq, if you have $100, you want to save $50, but if you want to be wealthy, you play with $25 and you save $75.’ So after I heard him say that, I would start to get endorsement checks and not even turn them in.”
Saving that seventy-five percent was important for him, and Shaquille O’Neal turned those into a ‘fail-proof’ plan. “Also had to do something that was a fail-proof, annuities. I said to myself, ‘Okay, if I f— all this up, I still want to be able to get something when I’m 40. So I had so much money coming in, I put a lot into annuities. I had to start collecting. Matter of fact, next year I’ll get a lot almost for the rest of my life. So 55, 60, and 65. That was my fail-proof, just in case the investments don’t work and this and that.”
Then another guest on the show, Graham Stephan, investor and YouTuber, asked Shaquille O’Neal his return on annuities. The Lakers legend’s answer was, “I don’t like to brag, but I think at 55 I’ll probably get…” O’Neal appeared to share his number in secret with another guest, Zach Justice. But the secret was out within seconds: “A million dollars a month.”
Rather than relying entirely on his business ventures, the four-time NBA champion has built another financial cushion for his future. This began with finding the right financial advisor. His mother, Lucille O’Neal, wanted to be involved before anyone was given control of his money.
As Shaq explained in his book, Shaq Uncut, “We talked to a lot of people with their fancy brochures and their big plans, but none of them hit me right.” Lester Knispel eventually caught their attention with a different approach. Rather than make extravagant promises, he discussed savings bonds and setting up a Subchapter S corporation for the family. Shaq remembered his first impression of the advisor: “This little guy with curly hair and glasses walks in. We tell him to put his brochure over on the desk with the rest of the pile and he says, ‘I don’t have a brochure.'”
Knispel also had experience managing the finances of prominent entertainment figures. Shaq discovered that he represented Eazy-E and worked with N.W.A., the influential rap group from Compton. However, his approach to Lucille proved even more important in securing the job.
Other candidates had tried to convince her to leave the financial decisions entirely in their hands. Shaquille O’Neal recalled their response: “They all said, ‘Mrs. Harrison, trust us. We do this for a living. Let us take care of it. You don’t have to worry or bother with it. It’s our job.'” Knispel refused to shut her out. As Shaq explained, “Lester was smarter than that. He told my mother, ‘You can see the books anytime you want.'” His willingness to keep her informed ultimately earned her trust.
Shaquille O’Neal’s financial education also taught him to pay attention to the safety of his deposits.
He questioned what would happen if a bank collapsed while holding millions of his money. “I didn’t know what to do with it, like they say put it in the bank, but what the bank shuts down. Like the FDIC only insures $200,000 so I can’t put 10 million in the bank.”
The FDIC insures at least $250,000 per depositor per bank per ownership category.
Learning from Magic Johnson was also another huge lesson that was important in Shaquille O’Neal building his own wealth. Those learnings and his own willingness to understand wealth management have led to the creation of a ‘fail-proof’ plan.