Steal These Money Habits — They Built My 7-Figure Wealth — Silicon Valley Girl Podcast

Marina Mogilko: Just think about how crazy this is. If you spend $6 on your morning coffee, then $18 on takeout for lunch on average, maybe $5 a day on ride sharing apps, $3 for snacks, trying something that people are advertising on TikTok, then $2 on a random subscription. If that happens every single day, that adds up to over $11,000 a year without even realizing that.

For most people, as soon as their paycheck or payment hits their account, the money just seems to disappear. I was there. I've done that in my 20s when my blog started taking off. I remember getting a payment from an advertiser on my Google AdSense paycheck and it was something like $10,000, $20,000. I would just go out and spend it. I was in San Francisco. I didn't have kids. That was a lot of money for me. And I would be buying Louis Vuitton. I would be going on vacations, taking trips. I wanted to explore the world. And it might make sense for the first two or three months when you start making money, but then I see a lot of creators and people who start making money just get into this lavish lifestyle and forgetting about basic financial literacy.

So I did that for a while. Then I started realizing in 2019 and I had my first kid. I was like, "No, this cannot continue. This is not a healthy behavior." So, in this video, I'll walk you through the 11 things I do every time I get paid so you can apply them, too, and hopefully achieve even better results.

Now, I have two kids. I live in California. I have my safety fund. I know exactly what's going on with my money every single day. And these tips won't just help you save more, they will help you build real wealth. And it takes time to do that, but it also takes discipline. When you're financially disciplined, money starts working for you. So you don't have to step up your game every single year to win the rat race to stay where you are. Because in this modern world, I feel like we need to run faster every day just to maintain a current level. Savings and rules make everything so much easier.

So let's dive into my 11 paycheck habits. One thing I wanted to mention before I dive into actual things that I do is something I've heard recently. There was this habit and I think it comes from some type of religion, but basically when you get money you thank money. You thank it for coming into your account, and when you start respecting money your whole behavior changes. So remember that.

My first tip will be prioritizing paying yourself and covering essentials. I know a lot of entrepreneurs are watching this channel. When I started my business in 2011, I didn't really pay myself for a long, long time. Yes, I got that Louis Vuitton in I think it was 2012, or like the first years of business. The only cash I took out was to buy Louis Vuitton, but I was living with my parents and that kind of made sense but that gave me some sense of rewarding myself. But then for a few years, we stopped paying ourselves because we're growing the company.

As entrepreneurs, we need this understanding that business provides us with financial stability. It's not just reinvesting in business all the time. I heard something in Silicon Valley people say like a founder who has a Porsche is a better founder because he was able to take some money out and he's no longer working to just make money. He's already thinking about legacy. He's paying more attention to the product, etc. And this is something I want you to remember as a beginner entrepreneur. Don't forget to pay yourself because in three years of not paying yourself, you're going to be burned out. You're going to be doubting your whole decision of starting a business. And I've been there so many times.

So, a few years ago, we set up salaries for ourselves finally. We never had it, but I'm not salaried at Lingua Trip yet, but I'm salaried at Lingua Marina, this media company, just because you have to pay yourself. And the KPI I have for my team at Lingua Marina is that I need a certain amount of money every single month. And that's your primary KPI. So my team knows that yes, we receive this money, we have these expenses, but we have to make sure that Marina gets paid every single month this amount, and this is what they're optimizing for. If we have extra money left, yes, we're going to hire more people. We're going to experiment with projects, but if we don't, my team will be like, "Marina, we have this KPI. We think that this month we're not going to hit it if we do this, this, and that." And then we make a decision together. I think it's very important that you and your team are aligned.

Managing your paycheck and income smartly is key to building wealth. One simple step that can make a huge difference is investing a portion of your income right when you get paid.

The second thing that I do every single month is I track my income and expenses in a spreadsheet. What I like to do is at the end of each month, I create a spreadsheet where I list all my source of income along with their associated costs. This gives you a clear financial snapshot, helping you see where you make money and where you're losing money.

Some projects, I do them for several months, testing them out. But if I don't see any financial results and I feel like they don't make any sense without financial results, I'm able to see it clearly right away like, "Hey, we've been posting on TikTok in Spanish for 4 months and it's not working. You know, I'm not being paid anything. Let's stop doing that." So, having this data in front of you allows you to make informed decisions about which income streams are worth focusing on, which expenses need to be reduced, and how to optimize your cash flow.

Here's what my table looks like. Every month I sit down. It's like a religion, meditation, whatever. I sit down, I analyze, and I make key decisions based on numbers. Remember, if you can measure something with numbers, you can manage it. So, you have to be counting everything and have every number in front of you. I even track the cost of each video. I know how much this particular video costs me to create, produce, and publish. I know how much it costs me to maintain my LinkedIn presence.

And you might think, "Oh, Marina, but I only have one source of income." Well, you start now. You build this behavior. You build this culture. And then when you have multiple sources of income, it's so much easier for you to scale. The purpose of this video is for you to understand the behavior of controlling your financial life. And later on, I hope you have team helping you. Maybe you have AI helping you in a year. Maybe there will be a sophisticated AI tool that can just do it for you. And you will come to it with an exact task like I need this to look like this spreadsheet.

The next thing, and I'm going to show you something. Identify your energy drains and growth opportunities. So what I've learned in the past 14 years of running a business is that not every income is equal and money follows energy. So if something gives you energy and you're constantly excited to do that, that would probably drive better financial opportunities as well.

So I have this note where I have a list of things that give me energy and that drain my energy. For example, gives me energy: singing, creating short vlogs, filming shorts in public, acts on class, acting. Drains energy: thumbnails, checking the scripts, uploading songs on SoundCloud, coming up with song art, calls with no immediate call to action. And I am working on this list daily. Like I do something and I feel it gave me energy, I will put it down because I know that money follows the energy. My goal is to prioritize tasks that give me energy and to delegate or completely eliminate tasks that drain my energy. I have to focus on my superpowers. And superpowers, they always make you feel amazing. They lift you up. And it's really important to identify them. You can also mark something that's neutral.

And it's not like I'm saying you have to eliminate them completely. I know some things you just have to do by yourself, but I would say no more than 20% of the tasks that drain your energy have to be present in your calendar. That's my maximum. If something constantly drains energy, I'm like, "How can I delegate? How can I not do it?" Hire a financial adviser. If you don't like investing, hire a virtual assistant. Find an AI tool that's going to take over some of the tasks.

Number four, set aside money for taxes. The first surprise for me when I moved to California was my tax bill, and it came unexpectedly. It was tens of thousands of dollars. I remember when they started making money was tens of thousands of dollars and it came in in January or February and I was like, "Oh, this is something you have to plan for because you don't want to be in a situation where you can't pay your taxes."

What you can do is you can automatically allocate a portion of your income, 20 or 30%, to a separate tax savings account every time you get paid. This ensures you're never in a situation where you owe more than you can afford.

Number five, know your financial baseline before you do anything with your money. You need to know where you stand. I know exactly how much it costs us to live here in Silicon Valley. I know exactly how much it costs us to have our kids here in Silicon Valley. List your fixed expenses: rent, utilities, insurance. Identify variable expenses and plan for them: food, entertainment, shopping. You can use a budgeting app to automate this process. But basically once you know your baseline, you can start making smart money moves.

If you're budgeting for shopping, then maybe it's $1,000 a month. I stopped going to physical stores because I just buy everything. But the next time you're in a physical store and you see an amazing purse, you're like, "Should I buy it?" Well, I'm only budgeting for $1,000 on shopping this month and I've already spent 600. And then it's easier for you to make informed decisions.

Number six, build your emergency fund. I will say aim for 3 to 6 months of your living expenses in a high yield savings account where you can withdraw money at any time. Do not invest this money because this is your financial safety net and the market goes up and down. Imagine losing your job or having a medical emergency and the market going down at the same time. You don't want to be in debt. So 3 to 6 months of your living expenses.

Number seven, and I only learned it a few years ago. If you're an entrepreneur, use a solo 401k to reduce taxes and build wealth. I'm only going to talk about what I know and I know solo 401k because this is what I'm using for my business. If you are working for a company, ask them about retirement accounts.

So basically what's going on? Entrepreneurs don't get employer 401k matches. Solo 401k is a powerful tool to save money for retirement while lowering taxes. So if you contribute to a 401k that reduces your taxable income, lowering your bill, we try to max them out. In 2025, you can contribute up to 70,000 if you're under 50 and you contribute as both employee and employer.

When I first started researching retirement accounts, my husband was like, "Why would we just put money into a retirement account? We can't do anything with it. It sits there for tens of years." And then I hired a financial adviser and he said, "Marina, did you know that if you have enough money in your 401k, you can actually buy real estate? You can do whatever. You can invest it in crypto. You can invest it in stocks and bonds."

So, I would really look into that. Find a good CPA. I just didn't know it allows you so much flexibility. You can borrow against your 401k. American tax system has so many interesting things and so many interesting rules that you can use to your advantage. But just make sure you have the right professional by your side. Bottom line is no one is saving for your retirement but you. Start contributing regularly. Small amounts add up. I've been contributing to my 401k for three years now.

There's another thing you can do and that's my number eight. You can contribute to a Roth IRA. It's a great retirement tool if you qualify. You can contribute after tax dollars, but your money grows tax-free and you don't pay taxes on withdrawals in retirement. So basically in 2025, if you're under 50, you can contribute $7,000. And if you're in lower tax bracket now, you can lock in today's tax rate. So pay taxes on 7,000 and then avoid taxes later.

For example, if you invest $7,000 in a Roth IRA today and just let's put it in the S&P 500, how much will I have when I'm 75? I am 35 years old now. Just let's run a simple calculation. So, at the age of 75, $7,000 is going to grow to one million. Oh my goodness. This is crazy. So just imagine you invest $7,000 today. You put it in S&P 500. At age 75, you're going to have $1,004,000 tax-free money. This is crazy.

There is one thing to remember though. In 2025, if you earn over $165,000 single or $246,000 married filing jointly, you can't contribute directly. But you can research something that is called backdoor IRA. So, if you're under the income limit, take advantage of it while you can, even like once or twice in your life. This could be one of the best financial decisions you make for your retirement.

Tip number nine, once you've maxed out your retirement accounts, it's time to build wealth outside of them. A lot of people just store money in their bank accounts. And I recently had this conversation with Humphrey Yang on my channel and he told me, "Marina, I have all my company's cash in Fidelity money market fund or in a brokerage account."

I knew about brokerage accounts. So basically, if you have some cash in your company that you don't need right away, if you can invest it for two years, then you can just start a brokerage account for your company and invest that money. But if you might need the money soon in two months or three months, you can still put them in a money market fund which pays around 4% now. And you can withdraw any time, but at least you're getting interest on that money. It's not just sitting on your account.

And of course, the same applies to your cash. If you already have 3 to 6 months emergency fund, you invested in 401k, Roth IRA, you took advantage of all the tax savings strategies, invest in, for example, lowcost index fund like VO, Vanguard S&P 500, and don't let that money just sit in your account. Send your money to work.

Another tip, consider opportunity cost. Before spending money, always ask yourself, what's the trade-off? For example, you want to buy a $50,000 car. What is this car's value in 5 years? $25,000. What happens if you invest this money at 8% annually? It's going to be $75,000. Always weigh in the long-term benefits of spending versus investing. Smart money decisions compound over time.

And tip number 11, I've talked about a lot of things today, and the easiest way to follow these rules is to automate your finances. Set up direct deposits to your savings and investment accounts. Automate bill payments. Auto invest a percentage of each paycheck into ETF or index fund. And when you automate, you don't have to rely on willpower. Your money just works for you 24/7. I have automated investments happening every single week because I don't want to miss good investment days.