when coming back Mark Cuban Broke and sleeping on a beer-stained floor with five roommates, he probably didn’t look like the man who one day owned the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, sold his startup to Yahoo for $5.7 billion, and became a household name for telling people to stop drinking lattes. But in his eyes, his scrappy self was already on the right track.
Three weeks shy of his 24th birthday, Cuban drove a beat-up Fiat X1/9 to Dallas with an oil leak and a hole in the floor, carrying only a sleeping bag and a dream.
That was 1982. Although he was not rich, he was not afraid of starting from scratch. In fact, he says it helps. “I had nothing to lose,” he told The Dallas Morning News in 2011. “It was all about gaining.”
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So how did he get rich? According to Cuban, it’s not magic. It’s sacrifice, discipline and a lot of macaroni and cheese.
Back in 2008, Cuban spelled out exactly what he thought it took to get rich on his blog Maverick. First: Cut out shortcuts. “There are no shortcuts. None,” he wrote. He warns that if someone offers you a “guaranteed” return, they are likely to get rich off of you, not with you. “If a deal is important, they won’t share it with you.”
His advice? Start with the basics: “Save money. Save as much as you can. Every penny you can.”
No coffee. Drink water. Skip McDonald’s. Eat macaroni and cheese. Cut off your credit cards, because if you swipe them to buy things you can’t afford, it says you don’t take wealth seriously.
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“The first step to becoming rich requires discipline,” he writes. “If you really want to get rich, you need to find discipline, okay?” Cuban said, and that’s where most people fail. But for those who find that discipline, he says, the rewards begin immediately.
“The biggest rate of return you can get is on your own personal spending.” Cuban believes that being a smart shopper is the true “first step” in building wealth. What about those who stick with it? He recommends keeping cash in short-term savings rather than stocks. “Buy and hold is a fool’s game for you,” he wrote at the time, noting that when markets were down, those without cash were unable to take advantage of opportunities.
Cash is king. Cuban made it clear: You don’t save for retirement. You save money to strike when the time is right.
He said this moment often comes during uncertain times. When industries go bankrupt, future rich people emerge. Cuban’s strategy? Know your business inside and out. He encourages people to pay to learn – whether that’s working in a field you love, even at the bottom, or reading all there is to know about the field in your off-hours. “We’re not talking about days. We’re not talking about months. We’re talking about years. Many years, maybe decades,” he said.
So, yes, Cuban would probably love 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 wasn’t pretending it had just happened to him. It is built on sacrifices that most people would not make.
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He also doesn’t want everyone to go his way. Not everyone wants to be a billionaire, and not everyone wants to live on water and noodles. But even if your goal isn’t a private jet, his rules still apply. In the same BI interview, Cuban said he tells everyone, including professional athletes, to pay off all debt and use their cash wisely. If you can buy in bulk and save 40%, do it. “This guarantees a 40% return. You won’t find returns like this anywhere in the market.”
So what about when it comes to investing? Only do it if you know what you are investing in. “Don’t invest in something you don’t know,” he said.
For those who want something safer than the stock market, today’s options include investing in select real estate stocks for as little as $100. Platforms like Arrived allow people to passively earn income from rental properties without becoming a landlord. For others, Cuban’s emphasis on “adding value” to any business they touch may make startup investing a better fit — but again, only if you know what you’re doing.
Cuban never pretended there was a one-size-fits-all path to wealth. But he was very determined on the first step: drop everything, save every penny, when the right time comes? Be prepared.
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Billionaire Mark Cuban says if you want to get rich, give up everything — drink water instead of coffee, eat macaroni and cheese instead of McDonald’s, “save every penny” originally appeared on Benzinga.com
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