Kevin O’Leary’s Guide to SURVIVING THE INFLATION | Mr. Wonderful visits Good Day New York

Rent, groceries, even the cost of heating your home is skyrocketing. Everything seems more expensive these days. So what can be done to save a little money? There's only one person to talk to: Mr. Wonderful. He's an entrepreneur; you know him from Shark Tank, Kevin O'Leary. Nice to have you back on Good Day New York.

Thank you so much. Wonderful to be here. Um, you know, I know that you know how to skirt things. I mean, you came from Canada, right? And you've developed quite a great big business, and your tentacles are kind of everywhere, right? I mean, a lot of things these days.

That's right. So let's talk a little bit right now because people are dealing with Con Edison or their utility bills. Things are high; they are. Can you save a little money with electricity? What can you do?

It's tough because core inflation, electricity, and food—those are the two— which is energy, gasoline, electricity. They're really naggingly high, above six percent, and they're staying there right now. The key is to be careful of what you spend every day. You know, it's sort of like when you go to buy something, and I tell my kids this too, because my mother taught me this: there's a lot of stuff you buy you don't need. You go look in your closet; there's all kinds of crap you bought you don't use, right? Well, that's money that's dead.

So if you're gonna buy something nice, like a coat or sweater or a new pair of pants, make sure it's really good quality and buy one of them and use it like absolutely, where you know your Europeans do that, I noticed. Yes, they'll buy one really nice thing and they'll wear it to death. Yeah, so they buy fewer things of higher quality. Even their closets: they have four pairs of shoes, not 40. It's sort of that, and if you look at what you wear most of the time, I've got two pairs of jeans. I've got these suits, which are my Shark Tank outfit. I've got 25 of these jackets because I wear them out so much, but I never change my outfit. It's like a uniform, but I know what I'm spending all the time.

Even very wealthy families, and I've tell everybody to try this: take a piece of paper—you don't need a computer—write down the money you made in three months, 90 days, and on the other piece of paper how much you spent in the same 90 days. Most people outspend their income, even wealthy families. It's a great exercise. And where does that debt end up? On credit cards at 21. So if you're not paying off your credit card, you're paying 21 percent interest. This is the killer in America—the silent killer, that's what I call it. You've got to spend within your means, suck it up, and do it.

So really save, save! But I mean, how do you do it without even… save us? Don't spend what you don't have. It's that simple.

Right, right. If you can't afford it, you can't afford it. I know, but you know, Kevin, you go into the grocery store; everything's up. But you know, you still got to buy the eggs and the butter and the bread for your family. This is staples. But that means you give up on something else. Maybe you don't buy that pair of sneakers; maybe you don't buy another piece of clothes. Maybe you cool it on the car. You do not want to spend beyond your means; that's my message today. Do not do that.

I noticed so that you, even though you're talking about like, you know, try to save whatever way you can with your utilities, you like to invest in utility companies, do and credit card companies. I mean, if you're—I've tell people, do not let me make money off interest on my credit card companies. Do not let me do that. Don't ever carry a balance forward; you're paying me 21 percent interest! That's crazy! But people do that. Isn't it insane?

All right, speaking of making money, because you do like to do that on Shark Tank, you've got like this new invention! Yes, that I was like, why didn't I think of that? Look at this! Tell us what that is.

This, when I saw this on Shark Tank, it's called the Wad Free, right? And what this does is it stops your sheets from wadding up in the dryer. You dry them 15 percent sooner and faster, saving 20 percent energy. And this is the new Wad Free version that does duvets and big towels. So what you just throw it in the dryer, you take—you clip the corners of the sheet or the duvet into these. You just put it through and just push it like that and seal it to this, and this stops it from bunching up. That's the whole idea; it's a very simple idea.

Are you making money on this one? Huge! Huge hit on Shark Tank! Well, apparently, it's running from 20 to 55 at wadfree.com, depending on what you get. But you save so much money on energy. A Wad Free saves you money the minute you start using it at home. And I sold it to my wife. I said, "Look at this! You know, you throw in a sheet, it gets all bunched up." Yeah, yeah, and it sits there turning, never dry, right? That never happens with a Wad Free; it stops it. That's why it's called Wad Free. It's so simple.

There she is pitching on Shark Tank; that was the first version. This is the new multitasking big one, and I showed it to Linda, and she said, "That's ingenious!" Right now, what do you think of that? I know, I don't know why I didn't think about it either, but you know, listen, you can't always be right, Kevin.

No, I know that you can't always be right. And perhaps you were a little wrong with saying that you were a spokesperson for FTX. But I want to tell you something about venture investing, okay? Eight out of ten deals fail within three years, since the beginning of time, since 1954 when they started tracking venture investing in the United States, out in Boston. Eight out of ten deals fail within three years, and two make you a thousand times on your money, like a Wad Free is a winner; we know that, right? But other deals are going to fail. FTX was just another startup, a big one, but a catastrophic failure. But it doesn't change what I do tomorrow morning. Yes, I lost 18 million dollars; I don't like that.

I think you made some money with him, didn't he pay you like a million or 15 million? 18 million, but he paid you 18? Yeah, and I put it back into FTX in the stock and into the account, and all the money was swept out of everybody's account on FTX; we all lost our money. I had to pay the IRS taxes and agents and everything else. But look, I look like an idiot, and so do all the other investors. But look, we didn't anticipate this. Who knew? Who knew?

Yeah, I mean, even up to this point, I'm like thinking, this guy has gotten a lot of free passes. Who is he? Because supposedly, he's been accused of tampering with the jury, which is, or a witness, which would get you thrown back in jail while you're awaiting trial. He's got a trial awaiting. Here's the thing, here's the good news: the narrative on FTX has changed. They've now found out of the eight billion missing, 6.1 of it. So this is a situation where some people are going to get some money back. It's going to have to go through the bag; it's like Madoff. Yeah, but they threw Madoff in jail right away. Why is this kid not in jail? He's got to go to trial; you know he's got to go to trial.

So, at the end of the day, all of this is happening, but people are starting to ask, "Okay, I had a thousand dollars in my account; I had a million dollars in my account; where's my money?" Well, it looks like we don't know. It's all alleged at this point that almost 60 percent of it's been found, so let's see what happens next.

Okay, you think you're going to be called as a witness? Don't know. I've already been to the Senate; I went to the Senate hearings about it, and I testified everything I knew, and you know, I hope I'm very hopeful that people get a large portion of their money back.

That's really the—of course! And you know, for those of us that are investors, we know this stuff happens; it's bad. I know Kevin O'Leary; I could talk to you all day and night. I'm going to watch you on Shark Tank because you're fabulous. You are Mr. Wonderful. And, you know, Cindy, braised her name when I saw her on the set; it was such a tasty solution.

Why didn't I think… I've heard enough! I want a deal! I want a deal! Because I know I can sell a lot of these, and I am! And she's doing a great job. Denver out of Denver, Colorado. Cindy, keep up the good work! Wad Free, everybody! Save a ton of money on energy! That's it, Kevin O'Leary, Mr. Wonderful. Check him out on Shark Tank.