Marie Osmond wants her seven kids to make their own fortunes, according to a new report.
The country singer believes individuals who are simply “handed money” often end up lacking drive and ambition, and she wants her children to discover their own interests on the road to forging meaningful careers. As a result, Osmond told Us Weekly she doesn’t plan to leave her kids an inheritance.
“Honestly, why would you enable your child to not try to be something? I don’t know anybody who becomes anything if they’re just handed money,” Osmond told the tabloid. “To me, the greatest gift you can give your child is a passion to search out who they are inside and to work. I mean, I’ve done so many things from designing dolls [and much more]. I love trying [and] I wanna try everything. I’m a finisher.”
By contrast, Inheritances “breed laziness and entitlement,” she added, noting that she plans to spend the money she’s made with husband Stephen Craig, whom she has married twice.
Osmond expressed similar views on leaving wealth to posterity in 2020 on “The Talk,” saying she believes inheriting large sums does children “a great disservice.” At the time she said she planned to donate her fortune to charity.
Warren Buffett’s advice
The late actor Kirk Douglas also donated most of his $61 million fortune to charity upon his death in 2020, according to Fox Business. The Douglas Foundation, the charity he co-founded, focuses on providing more equitable access to education, health care and the arts. The foundation has granted more than $118,000,000 to more than 200 organizations since its inception.
English musician Sting, whose wealth has been estimated at $300 million, has also spoken publicly about the downsides of kids inheriting their parents’ fortunes, saying his own children will inherit little of what he has earned.
“I told them there won’t be much money left because we are spending it. We have a lot of commitments. What comes in we spend, and there isn’t much left. I certainly don’t want to leave them trust funds that are albatrosses round their necks. They have to work. All my kids know that and they rarely ask me for anything, which I really respect and appreciate,” he told the Daily Mail in 2014.
English chef and food writer Nigella Lawson has also stated she will not leave her children with a financial cushion.
“I am determined that my children should have no financial security. It ruins people not having to earn money,” she said in 2014, according to the Washington Post.
Warren Buffett, who has long pledged to donate more than 99% of his wealth to charitable causes, has also said his children will inherit little of his fortune, which Bloomberg now pegs at $111 billion. As the noted investor wrote in 2021: “After much observation of super-wealthy families, here’s my recommendation: Leave the children enough so that they can do anything but not enough that they can do nothing.”
