How Maria Menounos Went From Sweeping Floors to Raking In Millions

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3:06It's time for some money rehab.

3:16Today, I'm talking to Maria Menounos. You could know her from a zillion places. Maybe you've seen her on Channel One if you're an OG fan and watched her in high school or Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, The Today Show, One Tree Hill or WrestleMania. Or maybe you listen to her awesome podcast, Heel Squad, or have read her New York Times bestselling books. Despite Maria's long and very impressive career in media, she started with no connections, zero. She is no Nepo baby. It's actually a term that I taught her about in the conversation. She is the daughter of immigrants who hustle to make a rich life for herself.

3:49Today, I'm talking to her about how she did it so you can do it too. We talk about her experience of the immigrant hustle, being in the sandwich generation where she's taking care of the generation above and below her, and what her cancer diagnosis taught her about financial planning. Oh, and I should also say, if you're listening on Spotify, you can also watch the video of our in-person interview in our new M &N studios. So if you're a visual person, check that out. Now, here's Maria.

4:17Maria Menounos, welcome to Money Rehab. Thanks for having me. It's so cool to talk with you because we've run around each other for years and years. I think we had the same agent. We're at NBC. I was in business. You were in entertainment. Never really crossed paths, but I always have so admired you and your openness and your honesty and your hustle and your grind. Do you think a lot of that, I'm also first generation American. Do you think that comes from being immigrant? Yeah, I think so. I think so. I think that's why I love hiring first geners too, because they sell fire in their belly. And they have come from nothing.

4:53So they want to see something happen. I mean, my parents came from nothing and they were janitors in Boston. in and we worked with them cleaning nightclubs. And that was my childhood was in a dirty nightclub that I love and have very fond memories of even though I was evading rats and cockroaches on the regular. But you didn't know any. I didn't know any better. You know, we'd create forts and out of these boxes that would hold, you know, huge amounts of cups that they would, you know, put drinks in. And I learned work ethic from watching my parents work so hard to clean this massive nightclub seven days a week, 365 days a year.

5:30I watched them then leave that one, go to multiple other ones. There were other ones throughout the Boston area. There were offices that we cleaned, and then we'd get to go home. And so if we wanted to get home fast, or if we wanted to get to a family's house, our relative's house on the weekend, we all had to pitch in and help. And that's how we would get to go. I feel like no matter what country they're from, it's a very similar discussion around money and like the value of money what was that like my dad so my dad came here after his older brother his older brother came first set roots and built his own business started a restaurant I mean from nothing I give him so much credit he came here alone and then he would bring all of the brothers over one by one he would pay for them to come to America and he'd have a big bag, apparently, of money.

6:27And he would say, it's in the attic. You need anything, you go in and you take what you need. To his brothers. I can't imagine feeling so just, I don't know, I'd like to think I'm pretty generous, but I don't think I'm that generous where it's like, oh yeah, it's unlimited money, it's in the bag, just take whatever you want. I'd be like, wait, what if they take everything and then I have nothing left? But that's the immigrant mentality. It's like in a bag or under my sink or in a safe, but not in a bank or not in debt. or mortgages or credit cards. For me, it wasn't talked about it. Money was always a source of stress.

6:57Yeah. Oh, for us. So that was my uncle's story. And he helped everybody. And then my dad was sick with type one diabetes, and his medications were really, really expensive. And, and he went a different route with my mom and you know, the cleaning and when you don't know the language, you know, that's usually the first thing you're made, you're a housekeeper, or cleaner or some kind of thing like that and and then him and his brother started a carpet installation business so they would install carpets and tiles he really wanted to start businesses he had that bug in him but my mom was always so scared of him being tied to anything like that where she wasn't going to be with him and just there was just a lot of things and and so for us the only thing I know is he learned from his brother to invest in stocks and invest in mutual funds.

7:50And they would always talk about investing, even with whatever little they had. I would hear that in the background. And, you know, I mean, there was a period where my dad lost his main club and we didn't have money and my uncle would leave groceries at our doorstep. You know, my mom had to get a job to get health insurance for the family at a school cafeteria. So we definitely had our struggles, but I did learn about investing because of my uncle. And so I bought my first stock when I was in high school. What was it? It was called Macro Chem. I'll never forget it. I won Miss Massachusetts Teen USA and I got my money and said, buying a stock.

8:31I love that. How much money did you get? It was like a thousand dollars. And I bought a stock and it was called Macro Chem. And the whole idea and why I liked it was that it was a pain reliever, but in cream form rather than pill form. I said wow that's so smart I think that's such a cool thing to invest in and so I did and then it wasn't long after that I was going to college and my dad had cut me off because I was dating someone who wasn't Greek which was not popular my dad wanted me to be with a Greek boy and I got a job in California and I needed that cash and so I sold it so I didn't really make anything because it was a very short time but I don't have the company still around I've tried looking for it I don't know what happened to it officially investing as a first generation American is a new concept but so is debt did you ever see credit cards or discussion of mortgage or was everything in cash so I don't remember their credit card status I don't believe they really ever had any credit card situations because they knew if they got them.

9:42I remember getting a Discover credit card. I think it was like in college and I had a couple thousand dollars on there and I thought my life was over. I was like, oh, am I going to pay this? Oh, my God. And the monthly bill with the interest. I was like, this is so much. But yeah, they they didn't really spend above their means. My parents never did. The only debt I think that we really had to worry about was my college debt which i thought they were paying for but really all the loans my cousin did the paperwork because they didn't know what to do and the paperwork all ended up in my name and somehow a daughter of janitors had to pay full price at emerson college and didn't get any like assistance but we thought my cousin was smarter than us and he would be able to do the paperwork and who knows this is what happens how much was it out guys i mean at the time I think it was like 40 grand a year.

10:36And you paid it off? Yeah I got some scholarships which was helpful and then eventually yeah Kevin helped me pay off the rest of it when we first moved to LA and I was working and we just kept writing checks and finished it off. Did you feel like after you got into credit card debt you needed money rehab? Was that like the first stint of money rehab you needed in your life? Maybe it was my senior year at high school or something. I don't know. I think it was freshman year of college. I can't remember. But I remember asking my dad for a loan to pay them off. And he said no. I was like, okay. I was like, and my dad was like king of saying no.

11:17So he became very resourceful. Because he always said no to everything. And so I'd have to figure out another way. So I said to him one day, I go, yeah, you know, you said no all the time. And I don't know if it was strategic. I believe it wasn't. But either way, it worked because it made me very resourceful. I had to always find a way. What was the way? I mean, I just had to save up and keep paying it off. That's it. I think when we when Kevin came into my life, because he was much more organized mentally than I am, I'm a little more scattered. he consolidated everything i'm pretty sure we consolidated consolidated everything into one loan and then slowly paid it off do you feel like you have a general scarcity mindset around money or abundance no matter how much money you have that's it when i look at like my earnings over all of these years i'm like holy shit that number is big and i'm grateful that i also because my dad was such a saver and I watched him I you know again it wasn't like they had a lot but he always was saving and hiding money I learned to save and I saved I mean at one point I think I did the estimate it was like 30 percent of my money that I made and they say to save five to ten percent or something of every check right they you know more the merrier Whoopi Goldberg I think said she pulled aside, she said, save 10 % of every check.

12:50I would save and then I would also take any extra money on top of salaries I was making from campaigns like Pantene or whatever I did. I'd buy property, I'd suck it away like that. I never saw it, never touched it. So I was really cognizant of saving and investing and then I got into investing. And so, you know, there was, you know, real estate. And then there was, you know, the money market stuff. But as someone who grew up poor, I'm like, I'm not going to go buy stuff. And so then my husband would start forcing me to go shopping is you need to feel like you are earning and succeeding and you need to go feel this.

13:31Otherwise, it's not worth it. And I'm like, okay, so I've gotten better. But I definitely always have been scared. Do you think that ever goes away? I don't. I think there are moments of reprieve when you're conscious. So when I'm super conscious and in my good flow and good state of being where I'm meditating or I'm like feeling good, I know that this is a part of my being that is also not mine. I'm aware that those were my parents' struggles. With therapy, I've realized I've always been wealthy when it was up to me. Not that that's any kind of dig on my parents or anything like that. It's just I succeeded at 21 years old.

14:20I was already doing really, really, really well. So those weren't my struggles necessarily. Those were my parents. So I've had to kind of like make sure I switch that on and be like, no, Maria, that's not your struggle or that's not your thing. Trauma, financial trauma. Yeah, that was my parents. I had to live through it and go through it too, obviously, but I don't have to worry about it like that because they killed themselves to give me opportunity to be better, to know better, to be educated, to have a better path, right? The next generation's always supposed to be helping the next one. So when I'm cognizant and I'm conscious, I'm like, okay, I'm safe, I'm good.

15:04I work hard. I know what to do. I'm fine. All is well. You've always been fine. Yeah. So now sometimes, sometimes if I'm feeling a little, I will go buy something just to prove to myself, like, Maria, you're fine. Everything is fine. Just go, go. You want that? That one thing is not going to make a difference. You're not going to go broke because you went and bought that, you know pair of shoes you worked hard go enjoy it and so i'll i'll kind of talk to myself and talk myself through it it's a balance we've talked about this before it's like between thinking you're gonna live forever and thinking you're gonna die tomorrow there's the two extremes of hoarding and spending are not ideal because it can give you anxiety either way so you're finding the balance you're finding well you got to trust the data too right so i've spent so much time in my life worrying and stressing and fearing and it's always been fine right so like my husband fears not fears zero about money but you live in like a fight or flight but i'm financially the complete opposite and so at some point i had to let go and again it doesn't mean that the seagulls don't come back to the, you know, the shore, they flock and they come back.

16:26But I try to keep them away as much as possible. I think of the greatest hits sometimes like that they'll come back like the you'll be broke alone and homeless and die in the getter. And I'm like, oh, yeah, nice to see you again. Yeah. You have to address them. Otherwise, you'll just get more and more stressed out. Have you found that the dynamics with your family when you started making money changed when you were 21 and you started making money? Did you support your family as the breadwinner what does that do to the family dynamics yeah I'll never forget when I first met Kevin he's like why do you want to make it so bad and I was like I want to give my parents the life they never had and that was really kind of my driving motivation I always had this desire and this fire in my belly to come out to LA and do all this cool stuff that I you know was seeing and and I really really wanted to be able to give my parents the life they never had And I did.

17:19I bought them a brand new Hummer at one point with a big red bow coming up the driveway. And I hear I have the recording of my mom because she didn't have video back then on phones. But I recorded her when she saw it come up the driveway and then bought them a house. To me, it was fun to succeed in this business and to do the work I was doing only because it was fun to spoil them with the experiences and whatever, you know, things I could. And then when Kevin came in the picture, you guys have been together for 100 ,000 years. You said his mentality around money was different. He was organized, more calm.

17:59So he's an abundant mindset. He grew up rebellious against his family that was like, nope, you can't have that chocolate bar and whatever. So he goes the other way too far and I go the other way too far. So he will rebelliously say spend. Now, he's not somebody who's going to go buy cars and clothes or whatever. He'll spend on business, thank God. At least it's going in the right place. But he won't say no. Like, he doesn't worry. And I'm completely the opposite way. So I think that we've both kind of helped each other in that. But he, you know, he is more organized. Like, my family, we were high-anxietyed, stressed.

18:39I mean, we were in fight-or-flight constantly. My dad was almost dying every day with his low blood sugar attack. So we were really on pins and needles. And because of that, maybe that's why we were so scatterbrained with organization, which then leads to a lot of stress because, you know, finances aren't organized. Houses aren't organized. Everything gets really stressful. It feels really chaotic. And how do you guys deal with the finances now? Do you smush everything together? Everything's always been together because we we both are a team. And he leaves it to me. He's like, you know what you're doing.

19:13And I'm like, wait, but you have to make decisions too. So like we made this big investment maybe a year ago or whatever. And I'm like, I'm not making this decision without you. Sit down. You're taking the seminars. You're listening to it with me. And we are making decisions together because I don't want you to come at me. If this is some, you know, bad decision later, this is us making this decision together. So I try to educate him along the way, but he trusts me. And then he's like, I got my things I'm good at. These are the things you're good at. and I'm like okay I got it but you guys generally agree or he defers to you as he should in terms of financial big decisions oh yeah yeah I mean sometimes I disagree with his I'd be like we don't need another car and he's like yeah but it's you know in 1942 it's only five thousand dollars I go the insurance is gonna cost just as much and we don't need another thing to maintain and I can't deal with you going to the car people every two minutes getting it fixed like stupid stuff.

20:11But you've been the one that has mostly made all the money among everybody, would you say? For some of it, yeah. Did it change like a parental dynamic where you almost became more of a provider, parental figure? I would say that I've always called my parents my kids. I mean, most of my adult life because I took over their finances, I took over their health care, everything. And it does change the dynamic because my dad was the boss. And that was a weird thing for him. Because unfortunately, sometimes the person who's paying ends up being the boss, whether I'm officially taking that as a role or not, I was never thinking I was the boss of my dad.

20:59But, you know, there are moments where it feels like that. And so I think that was a hard thing at first because you know he's a very proud stubborn greek male did he feel like emasculated maybe you'd have to ask him but i think that it all worked out in the end i mean i have a christmas card on my desk my dad's not super expressive he's emotional but he wrote me the most beautiful card it was in the throes of my mom passing it was just like no one would do what you guys have done for us and I can't thank you enough for everything you've done and he knows and he's known we're there to help them and take care of them and make it as easy as possible um and that card will like just be forever my like that's why I did it for that one card sorry you have so much responsibility you have so much financial responsibility sounds like you always have always yeah sometimes it's funny I was talking to somebody recently I can't remember what it was and they were like, gosh, I wish, you know, I just don't know what it's like to just have to think about myself, and what do I want to do, and how do I want to spend my money, and I started laughing, and she's like, why are you laughing?

22:15I go, because I've said that a few times myself, where you're just like, what would it have been like to, like, have my own place? Yeah, because my parents lived with us, too, a lot of the year, like, they, because it was easier to take care of them when they were under my roof, so it was like, what would it be like if I could just freely go on trips and buy whatever I wanted to buy. Because I also had to have an extreme scarcity mindset because it wasn't just me, it was a team. And so we've had a lot of broken wings that we help as well. And a lot of people have lived with us taking cars. That's why Kevin, I think, is obsessed with having more cars because we're always giving them other people to take because they're falling on hard times.

22:56And so it's definitely been a lot of responsibility in kind of every way. So yeah, sometimes you're just like, what would it be like to not have to think about anything other than yourself? But then it is just you. Well, you're in this generation that I think is really struggling as like a sandwich generation where people around our age take care of their parents, but also their own kids. Yeah, but that's at our age now. I've been doing it since I was 22. too. So well, with the new baby, now you have the real sandwich. Yeah, my little munchkin.

23:38Hold on to your wallets. Money Rehab will be right back. And now for some more Money Rehab.

23:51And how has having a daughter changed your mentality around money? Have you wanted to give her the things more of a real playground versus a box that held cups and yeah it's interesting because we i think are doing a blend right we have this playpen for her and somehow all these toys and all these stuffed animals come like guys we can't fill this thing up she's going to be so numb and not want for anything. So I have her playing with rocks and dirt in the front yard. And I try to keep her in that kind of state and that kind of place where she's having to pick roses and we go on sniffing tours and, you know, I'll take her on little hikes and I shift the carriage on two wheels so she can sniff this rose and sniff that rose.

24:45And in terms of finances, Like I've set up her 529 account. I'm setting up, you know, her Roth IRA. Like I have all of these things so that, because we're older parents, setting her up financially so that she's good. But she, you know, she will be taught how to work hard and to value money. And I will be teaching her how to invest. I will be teaching her too. I will be coming over. Yes. We'll have classes for both of our daughters. Yeah. we actually want to do a baby business class i would love that because it's incumbent on parents they're not learning it in school they're not learning it anywhere else yep and i think about too you know you and i growing up in much different circumstances than i will be giving my daughter in much different circumstances that you're giving your daughter like how do you balance that idea i was laughing because i would always tell my best friend growing up i'm like she's going to be in coach with you because she was going to be the nanny we were joking and i was like she's going to learn how to earn her way up to first class and meanwhile she's like on private planes and i mean it's silly but at the same time that's for my sanity and my peace but i think that we also have to understand and this is what i've been learning from other parents who grew up the same way we did and had kids be more privileged and they grew up to be fine amazing humans so we have hope because i'm terrified they were like maria they aren't growing up like us so we can't force them to grow up like us because they're also going to be so confused of course you have money my dad used to say i don't have any money and i believed him because he didn't i mean he had a few things hidden in the wall and then i figured that out but whatever but for for us they are growing up different but that's going to be on us again to really teach them about how privileged they are and we're going to have to teach them how to earn and figure out how to you know incentivize them with chores whatever it is like we're going to have to do our version when i look at our good friends the stallones their daughters are amazing they're like the best girls they're so pure they're so loving and I think of what Jennifer has taught me she would take them to Montana and she would have them riding horses and being out in nature and she didn't raise them Hollywood and then I have my friends Melina Canacretes and and the Chiklises they've all raised really great humans and so I'm just looking to them to kind of help guide me in this journey where I'm like, shit, I would want to put her in the same incubator I came in where it's like, you're growing up hard, kid.

27:32And you're gonna, you're gonna be poor and you're gonna have to grind and figure it out. And she's just not growing up like that. It's different. But I know I can instill values in her. And, and those were the things I think that were our guiding force probably more than just growing up poor. And when she wants stuff, she's gonna have to earn stuff. I think we we We all know that our biggest source of wealth ultimately is not money, but health. You know this all too well, all too intimately. For our listeners who don't know the story of you being diagnosed with a rare type of pancreatic cancer, can you tell us about how that happened?

28:11Yeah. So let's say 2022, I was having issues. I was really bloated all the time. And I knew something was off. So I got an endoscopy and a colonoscopy early that year. They found some precancerous kind of conditions, but they're like, come back in two years. And I'm like, wait, so like when I have cancer, is that your goal? I don't get it, but whatever. I'm going to keep investigating. As the year went on, I had like increasingly like moments, like just moments where I was like in a lot of pain. I was on one flight, for example, that I remember and I was dying in pain and I thought it was the farro salad.

28:49I was like, I'm never eating farro again. and then another time november 2022 i was in so much pain i was like i have to go to the hospital and i've never said that and my friend took me to the hospital they did a ct scan and they're like you're fine nothing and i'm like okay but then why am i dying of pain like it was excruciating December 2023 2022 was right after Christmas Eve like the 26th of December I'm at Anastasia's house the eyebrow guru and this woman comes up to me she's I've been trying to reach you your producer isn't getting back to me you gotta come do my per nuvo scan and she was really adamant and it felt it felt different and I was like okay got it noted I feel like someone's talking to me I'm going.

29:43So I went in January 2023 last year and they discovered a large mass on my pancreas. Called the hospital back that I had gone to two months prior. I was like, hey, can you recheck that scan? Cause this is what's going on. And they're like, oh yeah. So it was two centimeters then they missed it. This is where 20 Robin says doctors can be sincere, but they can also be sincerely wrong. So it had doubled in size within two months and I ended up having to have surgery last February. They took the tail of my pancreas, my spleen, just in case any cancer had passed on into the spleen, 17 lymph nodes. And then I also had a fibroid, a massive fibroid.

30:27So even though I didn't give birth, I have the C-section to prove something came out of there. And luckily, all of my scans have been clear since. So they got everything out, thank God. But that was after, of course, the whole brain tumor surgery and the type one diabetes diagnosis and a few other things in between. So it's been, it's been an interesting health journey that led me to my show Heal Squad that has saved my life because that was why they were trying to reach me was because I had the health show. And if I wasn't to have gotten that scan, I may not have been alive to see my baby born that June.

31:08Crazy. Yeah. And when people get cancer diagnoses, they often change the way they view money. If they go through remission, they say, fuck it. Like, how long do I have left? Let's go spend. Did it change the way you kind of changed me instantly?