In a 2023 interview with Fox News Digital, the Food Network star made it clear that his sons won't be cruising into generational wealth just because dad built a nine-figure empire. "I told them the same thing my dad told me," Fieri said. "‘When I die, you can expect that I am going to die broke and you're going to be paying for the funeral.' And I told my boys, none of this that I've been building are you going to get, unless you come and take it from me."

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"My son is a senior in high school getting ready to graduate," Fieri told Fox. "And he's like, ‘Dad, this is so unfair. I haven't even gone to college yet and you're already pushing that I gotta get an MBA.' He says, ‘Can I just get through college?' And I'm like — hey, Shaq said it best. Shaq said it about his kids one time, ‘If you want any of this cheese, you got to get two degrees.' Well, my two degrees mean postgraduate. So they're on their way."

Shaq, now 53, has said in multiple interviews that his children won't see a dime unless they bring him at least two college degrees, and sometimes he raises the bar to three. "We ain't rich — I'm rich," he famously told them. And in 2025, it's clear more celebrity parents are taking the same stance.

The approach reflects a generational shift — or maybe a generational speed bump. While millennials and Gen Z are poised to inherit as much as $84 trillion over the coming decades in what's being called the "Great Wealth Transfer," not all parents are writing blank checks. Instead, some are setting conditions, demanding proof of ambition, education, or real-world hustle before they pass the torch (or the trust).

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