Back when Mark Cuban broke and sleeping on a beer-stained floor with five roommates, he probably didn’t look like the guy who would one day own the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, sell his startup to Yahoo for $5.7 billion, and become a household name for telling people to stop drinking lattes. But in his eyes, that unpleasant version of himself was already on the right track.
Cuban rolled into Dallas three weeks before his 24th birthday in a battered Fiat X1/9 with oil leaks, a hole in the floor and little more than a sleeping bag and a dream.
It was 1982. And although he wasn’t rich, he wasn’t afraid to walk away from anything. In fact, he said it helped. “I had nothing to lose,” he told the Dallas Morning News in 2011. “It was all about going for it.”
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So how did he get rich? According to Cuban, it wasn’t magic. It was sacrifice, discipline and lots of Mac & Cheese.
On his Blog Maverick website since 2008, Cuban laid out exactly what he believed it took to get rich. First: Cut the shortcuts. “There are no shortcuts. NONE,” he wrote. He warned that if someone offers you a “guaranteed” refund, they’re probably getting rich off of you, not with you. “If a deal is a big deal, they won’t share it with you.”
His advice? Start with the basics: “Save your money. Save as much money as possible. Every penny you can.”
Skip the coffee. Drink water. Skip McDonald’s. Eat Mac & Cheese. Cut up your credit cards, because if you’re pulling to buy things you can’t afford, he says you’re not serious about wealth.
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“The first step to getting rich requires discipline,” he wrote. “If you really want to be rich, you have to find the discipline, right?” That’s where most people fail, according to Cuban. But for those who find that discipline, he said the payoff starts immediately.
“The highest rate of return you will earn is on your own personal spending.” Cuban believes that being a smart shopper is the true “first step” to building wealth. And for those who stay with her? He recommends stacking cash in short-term savings — not stocks. “Buy and hold is a fool’s game for you,” he wrote at the time, pointing out that those who don’t have cash can’t take advantage of opportunities when the market slips.
Cash is king. And Cuban made it clear: You don’t save for retirement. You save so you can strike when the time is right.
That moment, he said, often comes in times of uncertainty. When industries collapse, so do the future rich. The Cuban’s strategy? Know your business inside and out. He encourages people to get paid to learn, whether it’s working in a field you love, even at the bottom rung, or reading everything there is to know about it in your spare time. “We’re not talking about days. We’re not talking about months. We’re talking about years. Many years and maybe decades,” he said.
So yes, Cuban might enjoy being a billionaire — when Business Insider asked him in 2012 what the best part was, he simply said, “Everything.” The worst part? “Nothing.” But he doesn’t pretend it just happened to him. It was built on sacrifices that most people wouldn’t make.
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Nor does he expect everyone to follow his path. Not everyone is trying to be a billionaire and not everyone wants to live off water and noodles. But even if you’re not aiming for a private jet, its rules still apply. In the same BI interview, Cuban said he tells everyone — including professional athletes — to pay off all their debt and use the money wisely. If you can buy in bulk and save 40%, do it. “That’s a guaranteed 40 percent return. You can’t get that anywhere in the market.”
And when it comes to investments? Only do it if you understand what you are investing in. “Don’t invest in things you don’t know,” he said.
For those who want to play it safer than the stock market, today’s options include investing in fractional real estate stocks for as little as $100. Platforms like Arrived allow people to passively earn income from rental properties without owning them. For others, Cuban’s emphasis on “adding value” to any business they touch might make startup investing a better fit — but again, only if you know what you’re doing.
Cuban never pretended there was a single path to riches. But he is quite firm in the first steps: give things up, save every penny, and when the right time comes? Be ready.
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This article Billionaire Mark Cuban Says If You Want to Get Rich, Give Up Things — Drink Water Instead of Coffee, Eat Mac and Cheese, Not McDonald’s, “Save Every Penny” originally appeared on Benzinga.com
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