There’s something that Shaunie has in common with her ex. Just as Shaquille O’Neal admitted he learned financial literacy much after he starting earning in millions, Shaunie Henderson also didn’t understand the concept until her adulthood too. At least one of their five kids is in that position. Shaunie and Keion Henderson showed their concern for Me’Arah’s financial habits too. Incidentally, Shaquille O’Neal is driving a campaign to promote financial literacy among Meezy’s age group.

While discussing money this week on The GrOOw Zone, Shaunie mentioned that talking about budgets, savings, and management was not a part of her family growing up. She admits that’s why she’s not the best at budgeting either and has come to rely on her husband, Keion, to guide her through it. She’s having deeper money talks with her kids now.

However, Shaunie says, “Me’Arah for instance, like she’s terrible at budgeting and I just don’t think she finds the priority in doing it because she knows we’re there to to do everything for her.”

18-year-old Me’Arah is on her own in Florida now. Before she kickstarted her first NCAA season with consecutive wins, her Instagram comments were about her newest NIL deals and also shopping for diamonds. She’s already earning and spending big bucks. Her parents, however, are making efforts to emphasize financial literacy.

While Shaunie started at home, teaching Meezy and her siblings the basics of budgeting, Shaquille O’Neal is doing an entire campaign. With his longtime commercial partner, The General Insurance, he starred in a series of short videos teaching financial literacy to young fans through a roundtable discussion. Most of his lessons are from experience, like when he moved from Orlando to Los Angeles and discovered FICA after they took a chunk of his nine-figure Lakers paycheck.

So he’s hoping his kids and others don’t make the same mistakes as he does. But as Shaunie and Keion reveal, some of Meezy’s habits still grind their nerves.

Me’Arah O’Neal’s stepfather is strict about budgeting too

Keion Henderson also grew up in tough financial circumstances but unlike Shaunie’s family, his childhood was full of strict money-saving tactics. Even though he’s financially secure today, he still has those tendencies which show towards his own tween daughter and Me’Arah.

He said on the podcast and Shaunie corroborated that he gets on Meezy a lot about food wastage. “Me’Arah tastes  something [and says] ‘I don’t want…'” Keion’s response to her would be, “You better eat that ‘cuz we spent money on it.” 

It extends to Shaunie too. She committed a grave crime when she spent $30 on movie tickets but wanted to skip the movie for a nap. Not on Keion’s watch who insisted on making good of those $30.

Meanwhile Shaq’s ensuring more kids learn from his mistakes. He’s collaborated with campus.edu to have more money talks within college classrooms. Most recently, he spoke to UC Berkeley students. No word on whether Florida will get its own talk soon.