I made over $100,000 at the age of 17, only to lose all of it in the span of months. That taught me something I still believe today. Teenagers and young people like me are really good at making money, but we are terrible at keeping it. In this episode, I walk through the exact system I use to manage my money now, so you can take what works and apply it to your own life.

Back in 2021 I was making close to $10,000 a month as a teenager, and all I cared about was top-line revenue. Sign more clients, close more deals, make more money, and then spend it on dumb stuff. Then one day I checked the bank account I shared with my co-founder and realized I had blown through all of it. Since then I have built rock-solid systems so it can never happen again, and I break the whole thing down here. (Quick disclaimer, this is not financial advice and I am not your financial advisor.)

These are the biggest takeaways:

• Why making more money does not automatically mean building wealth

• The tracking system I started with (a simple budgeting app, every account connected, watched for a few months to find my real baseline)

• How I build a monthly budget by category and readjust it at the end of every month

• How I actually invest instead of letting cash sit and lose value to inflation, and the rough split I use across cash, ETFs and treasuries, and longer-term riskier bets

• The two vaults inside my savings account, a six month emergency fund and a taxes vault holding 30 to 40 percent of my income

• Why I automate the deposits and only have to watch one thing, my weekly spend

If you are young and making money, building a business, or planning to start one, this is the episode I wish someone had made me watch before I lost it all.

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New episodes of Building Blocks drop every week.