Self-made millionaires share 5 money rules that helped them be more successful and grow their wealth

Every self-made millionaire has a different story of how they amassed a net worth that lets them bear the title. 

Some live frugally or invest aggressively, while others start companies of their own that take off and make them rich. But each success story usually has at least one piece of advice that’s applicable to people at any point in their financial journey. 

Here are money tips from five different self-made millionaires that you can use to help meet your own financial goals.

Grinding hard at your job or negotiating a bigger salary can be pathways to success, but self-made millionaire Jasmine McCall hit it big by putting herself first and becoming her own boss.

The 32-year-old entrepreneur and founder of PayBump earns $143,000 a month in passive income through digital product sales and YouTube ad revenue — the latter of which took off because she wasn’t afraid to share her truth, she says.

“I believe the success of my videos comes from me being vulnerable with my audience,” McCall previously wrote for CNBC Make It.

Prior to focusing on her own businesses, McCall was earning six figures as a recruiter for Amazon. The salary was nice, but she wasn’t able to achieve the work-life balance she truly desired as a new mom. She put work above everything and says she felt guilty when she had to take time off to care for herself or her family.

Now, not only is her monthly passive income higher than her annual salary was at Amazon, but she’s able to work just 10 hours a week. “I spend the rest of my time focusing on taking care of my health, playing with my son, going on dates with [my husband] Jay and visiting my parents,” she wrote.

Money coach Bernadette Joy is no stranger to big financial challenges: She and her partner paid off $300,000 in debt in three years. One of the keys to their success was focusing pretty exclusively on paying down that debt.

Now she encourages others to do the same — get rid of all your debt before you start investing.

“I have an ax to grind around the idea that you should pay off debt and invest at the same time,” she recently told Make It. “Humans suck at multitasking. Trying to do multiple things is just not good for us.”

There are pros and cons to this method, and you may have other financial goals you’d rather prioritize. But according to Joy, success may come easier if you take it one step at a time.

“One of the things that I strongly recommend, especially in times like these where people are really stressed, is focus on one thing and do it really, really well,” Joy said. 

Long before Rachel Rodgers’s company Hello Seven had raked in $10 million in a year, she thought she was “bad with money” and “had the credit history to prove it,” she previously wrote for Grow.

The author and entrepreneur says the key to her eventual success started with changing her mindset and trusting her ability to learn and grow.

“Ultimately, being ‘good with money’ is about trusting yourself,” she wrote in 2021. “So every time those old, detrimental ‘I’m bad with money’ thoughts creep back in, I stop and consciously reframe my thinking.”

Telling yourself you’re just bad with money doesn’t get you any closer to getting out of debt, increasing your net worth or any other financial goal. It might even stop you from trying.

“I tell myself that I believe I can make smart decisions and provide financial security for my family,” she wrote. “And even if I make a money mistake, or some outside force causes me to lose everything, I have the hard-won knowledge to help me find a way to make it all back.”

A former Wall Street trader who became a millionaire at 27, Vivan Tu understands the value of investing. Plenty of people want to become millionaires or even wealthier before they retire. But Tu says the idea that you need to save for retirement is a bit of a misnomer.

“Don’t save to retire,” she recently told CNBC Make It. Instead, “invest to retire.”

The self-made millionaire has also pointed out several money habits rich people abide by, all of which have an underlying idea that you should invest your money effectively to keep it growing. Ignoring others’ opinions and focusing on the long-term are a few ways rich people keep and multiply their wealth, Tu wrote for Make It.

“Instead of buying, for example, a flashy Lamborghini…a truly rich person will take that same chunk of change and buy a two-family duplex and rent it out,” she wrote. “They don’t care what you think of them or whether you’re impressed. They’re happy to just cash your rent checks and let you pay their mortgage.”

Matt Higgins knows a thing or two about change. He went from being a high school dropout living in poverty to becoming a self-made millionaire and co-founder and CEO of private investment firm RSE Ventures.

Though not all changes in life will be positive, he says being comfortable with change is ultimately how you get ahead. 

″’Try harder’ doesn’t mean ‘try the same,'” he said at a CNBC Make It: Your Money virtual event in 2023.

Higgins doesn’t believe in the idea of “blind persistence” that says if you just work hard and play by the rules, you will be successful. You need to be comfortable with the fact that your first plan may not be the best one. Mistakes happen, and you might learn that there’s a better method for accomplishing your goal, but you won’t find the right answer unless you’re willing to be adaptable.

“The most successful people in life, if you were to compare their PowerPoint for their initial business [model], it doesn’t resemble anything like what turns out five years later,” he said at the event.

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