Corcoran says being rich can't and will never buy you joy. “I know, because I've been poor, I've been rich, and I've been in between. So I can speak for both.”
Corcoran earned straight D's in high school and college, according to her website. By the time she was 23, she had held about 20 jobs. However, her $1,000 loan allowed her to start a small real estate business that launched her career.
Today, the Corcoran Group (which she sold for $66 million in 2001) is a highly successful global real estate company.
According to Corcoran, there are two big misconceptions people have about being rich. That is, money brings happiness and money does not destroy relationships. Let's see why she says neither is true.
“The problem with getting rich is that you can get richer,” Corcoran says. “You start looking at what your money can buy next.”
This leads to what Corcoran calls the fallacy of greed. “The fallacy of greed is that there are as many rich people who are miserable as there are poor people who are miserable. Money has nothing to do with being happy. It's not.”
Despite his success as founder of the Corcoran Group and his appearance on “Shark Tank,” he has acquired a diversified investment portfolio. Money didn't solve all of her problems.
“I'm less happy now than I was when I was very poor. Do you think anything has changed? No, I'm still anxious about the same things. I'm still anxious about the same things.”
Corcoran says getting rich doesn't mean it's all over. According to her, the happiest people are those who are between rich and poor. She says, “They're always happy because they're not always chasing the next thing.”
A recent study from the University of Pennsylvania found that for the majority of people, happiness and well-being increase with income. But more money won't get you far, especially if your life is lacking in other areas.
The second big misconception about being wealthy is that money hurts relationships, Corcoran says. It changes the power relations between those who have money and those who do not.
“Money complicates relationships,” Corcoran says. “Everyone has a $10,000 problem. They come to you all the time. It complicates things, and there's also the will of the child, which just complicates things.”
This is especially true for people who have a “life-changing” amount of money at some point in their lives, Susan Bradley, a certified financial planner and founder of the Sudden Money Institute, previously told CNBC. told Make It.
“It challenges beliefs and values that maybe have been there all along, but we haven't had a chance to talk about them,” Bradley said.
Having money comes with the responsibility of helping friends, family, and those around you, and investing.
“My cousin wants money for that, my uncle wants me to invest in their business. That kind of movement happens all the time. Showing up at your door. “You've got a cousin you've never heard of,” says the certified financial planner and professor of financial psychology. Brad Klontz of Creighton University told CNBC Make It.
For Corcoran, the bottom line is that things aren't always easy for people with lots of money.
But will she give up money in exchange for an easier relationship? Absolutely not. “Things go more smoothly when I don't have a lot of money. But I'm happier when I have a lot of money. Ironically, I don't know why.”
“I'm not giving my money back,” Corcoran jokes.
Disclosure: CNBC owns the exclusive off-network cable rights to “Shark Tank.”
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