Keke Palmer on Viral Comment About Living Below Her Means

Keke Palmer wearing black pants and a white sheer top over a white bralette

(Image credit: Daphne Nguyen)

Appearing on a podcast in May 2025, Keke Palmer explained that she's very dedicated to living below her means—something she learned from her parents.

Now, speaking to Marie Claire as part of our January 2026 Mogul Issue, the One of Them Days actress dives deeper into her very measured money philosophy.

Keke Palmer wearing a blue and white striped skirt, white heels, and a white bralette for Marie Claire Mogul Issue

"I'm serious about it because I've been under before, you know what I'm saying?" Palmer tells Danielle Prescod.

"In my industry, you can be making a lot of money at once and then it'll stop. If I can get an Aston Martin, I'm just going to get an Audi because my industry's so up and down," she continues.

"Essentially I’m on the stock market and sometimes it's up and sometimes it's down. I just choose a position that deep fluctuation won't affect and I think that's just what helps me.

"I remember right before Scream Queens, I moved back in with my parents because I felt like, Why would I have an apartment that I'm not living in and I can't pay for it? I'm using money that I could be saving so I can invest in my other businesses."

Keke Palmer for Marie Claire Mogul Issue

Asked whether this approach ever caused difficulties within the entertainment industry, Palmer says that it can—but that doesn't mean she's going to change it.

"I feel like it's about what matters to you," she tells us.

"I mean, look, there’ve been moments where people are wanting me to flex more, wanting me to do more, be flashier. Not because I didn't love fashion, but because it was not a priority and what I wanted to invest in.

"I wanted to invest in my content more than I wanted to invest in being on the carpet and wearing a cool look. I always felt like I cared more about that, the on the ground work, than that more visible work. That's really just a choice.

"A lot of people would be like, Keke you should be doing more. It just wasn't to me what mattered. I didn't feel like my longevity was in how I looked."

Speaking on the CNBC Make It podcast in May, the Scream Queens star said, "I learned from my parents very early on because they knew their limitations with money and finances. I believe in saving and frugality ... I don’t play around with that."

Iris Goldsztajn is a London-based journalist, editor and author. She is the morning editor at Marie Claire, and her work has appeared in the likes of British Vogue, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Refinery29 and SELF. Iris writes about everything from celebrity news and relationship advice to the pitfalls of diet culture and the joys of exercise. She has many opinions on Harry Styles, and can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.