3 Things to Avoid If You Want to Become a Millionaire (Most People Get These Wrong)

Becoming a millionaire isn’t just about making more money—it’s about avoiding the habits that quietly keep you from building wealth.

In this episode of the Budget Boys Podcast, Marlon Heard, The Valiionaire, shares three of the biggest mistakes he has seen after more than two decades as an entrepreneur. Drawing from his own wins, losses, and lessons, he explains why your mindset often matters more than your income.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• 💰 Why buying status symbols too early can delay wealth
• 🧠 How the people around you influence your financial future
• 📚 Why investing in yourself is the highest-return investment you’ll ever make
• 🚀 How creating financial margin is the foundation of becoming a millionaire

If you’re serious about building wealth—not just looking wealthy—this episode will challenge the way you think about money, success, and the choices you make every day.

🚀 Join the FREE Budget Boys Financial Education Community

Ready to stop guessing where your money is going and start building real wealth?

Inside the FREE Budget Boys Financial Education Community, you’ll learn practical strategies to:

• 🔍 Discover your Leak Score (it’s bigger than your credit score)
• 💵 Find hidden money leaks stealing your cash flow
• 📈 Create financial margin that can be used to invest and build wealth
• 🧠 Develop the mindset and habits of financially successful people
• 🤝 Connect with a community focused on financial growth and accountability

Your journey to wealth doesn’t start with making more money—it starts with keeping more of what you already earn.

👉 Join FREE today and discover your Leak Score. Your future self will thank you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

What is going on? Going down. Reddit down. Um there was this this uh what was the name of that cartoon? The girl's name was Penny. It was like this black cartoon. Uh anyway, Penny was playing football. I can't think of the name of this this cartoon that came on in the 90s and early 2000s, but the girl's name was Penny. Um I can't do the name, but anyway, Penny was playing football. I don't know if y'all remember this this episode, but the quarterback, the quarterback, every time he he got sent, he would, you know, because it was a black show, it was a black cartoon, the quarterback was singing the cadence. Right? He was singing the cadence, it was it was it was so black, y'all. He'd be like, sit, read it down, read it down. And then he'd be like, Reddit the hound. He was he was singing the cadence. I think it was uh David Allen Greer or Tommy Davidson was the dad. But it was like Reddit the Hound. But anyway, I thought that was funny. I've been looking for that cartoon on YouTube forever. Just that episode where Penny was playing football. But uh back in here with some more grinding out work, some more value for you all. I am the value. This is Marher the Valionaire. Um I've been an entrepreneur now since 2002, and uh I've learned a lot in this game. I've learned a lot, I've experienced a lot, I've won a lot, I've lost a lot, I've learned a lot, I've helped a lot of people. Um there's some times in there where I didn't help people, right? Um let me tell you about that. Let me tell you about the times where I didn't help people. When um, you know, you I'm I'm I learned a process, and the process itself isn't helpful. Right? Whatever I learned didn't yield someone's results. And they paid for it. Okay? And they paid for the training or the class or what have you, right? Um, and it, you know, and it didn't work out, you know, for a lot of individuals. And I'm like, man, you know, I feel it makes me feel horrible that it didn't work out, but that's how it goes sometimes. But uh there were a handful of people that time that said, hey, I I learned a great deal, and as a result of that class, they knew some things, some things not to do, some things to do, uh, some things they may have done a little different. And uh, but you know, deep down inside, I'm like, man, people have spent their money on this class, and and the results, they didn't get the results because things were changing as we were learning. And so by the time they got done, those things they were learning, I don't want to say they're obsolete, they just didn't have the effectiveness that they had at the time when we started. Okay, so back here are some more uh money mindsets, some things that you may want to avoid if you want to reach certain levels and processes in your financial life. Okay, so here are three things that you may want to avoid if you want to become a millionaire. And a millionaire means that all of you the money you have, the assets you have equal up to a million dollars. That means you it you could touch it or have a way to liquidate it so you can get your hands on the cash. Okay, so there's a couple things that you may want to avoid if you want to become a millionaire. Now, once you hit this these statuses, if you want to continue with some of these things, you can, but I promise you you're not gonna want to. Right? So, one of the first things that you want to avoid is buying status symbols. Okay, status symbols are just somebody's last name. Virchasace, last name. Okay, uh Tommy Heel figure, last name. Mercedes-Benz, those are two last names. Porsche, um Lamborghini. These are all last names. So, right, you're paying for someone's last name. So, status symbols are a huge waste of money. Listen, I've done it, I've done it, I've done it. Nobody cares about, I'm not gonna say nobody, but the amount of people that you want to care is not gonna matter enough once you get because once people see it and the initial effect wears off, now it's just that's what you do. Right? There's a guy in my gym that drives a Lamborghini Urus. When I see him at the gym, I'm like, what's up, Wes? What's up, man? And I just keep it rolling. Right? I just keep it. But when he first got like, oh man, how's that Lamborghini? How's it drive? Is it fast, blah, blah, blah. Everyone asked a question. Now it's just that's what he drives.

unknown 5:22

Okay?

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Now I'm pretty sure he's getting it for his own satisfaction, but Wes is a millionaire. Alright? He what he does, he does some incredible stuff. He he makes stupid money. So he's like, well, but before he got the status symbol, he bought an asset that pays for the status symbol. He said, the same time I got the car, I bought this commercial property. Or I bought a piece of a commercial property. And that commercial property, the the the revenue and the profits I earn pays for the car. He said, by the time I'm building this car, that commercial property will probably, you know, increase in in uh in value. Okay, so stop buying status symbols. Yeah, they look nice, but it's just clothes. It's the same material. The same place you buy your status symbols is the same place that Walmart's clothes come from. Target's clothes come from. All those clothes you see at the Goodwill at one point in time was a status symbol. To somebody. That is a huge waste of money. I'm not saying not to. I'm saying get it when you can really afford it. But when you're looking to become a millionaire, you want to leave all that by the wayside. You see people on the news, robbing stores, stealing stores. For what? For some Gucci bags? Just you can walk around your neighborhood of school with a Gucci bag on. People knowing you can't afford that stuff. I went to Vegas and bought my Gucci bag. It was $2,500. Matter of fact, it was $26,000. And I bought a pair of shoes that were $975. So you want to run $1,000 shoes and a $25 bag, and you live in not so great an area, or everybody around you make $30,000, $40,000 a year, they're gonna be like, what are you doing? Who did you steal that from? And why do you have it on? What do you do with this stuff? You know what this means. Okay? Don't buy status symbols. Let your money be your status. Let your lifestyle be your status. Right? When you're creating memories because you went to Bali for a week, or you went to the Maldives for a week, or your grandkids are taken care of, and your trust is set up, and let your lifestyle, you got time freedom. You do what you want to do, let that be your status. Now I'm not saying not to do it, but do it when you can truly afford it. Okay? Number two, hanging around broke mindsets. I'll never forget this in network market. They told us this: if you hang around nine broke people, you are bound to be the tenth. But if you hang around positive-minded people and wealthy people and people who are moving in that direction, you are bound to be the tenth. I would never forget this. Because a lot of my friends have broke mindsets. A lot of my fraternity brothers at the time, when I was getting involved in network marketing and hanging around these multimillionaires and hanging around these people that had these certain mindsets, all my broke friends were like, what are you doing? That stuff ain't gonna work. Oh, I heard about that. They scamming you. And then two years later, when I pulled up on them, and we me and my homies who were in that business rented out all the VIPs at the club that weekend, and all my friends wanted to get in the VIP, and we were stealing everybody's girlfriends that night. Right? With their broke mindsets. But anyway, that's when I was younger. Okay? So, hanging around broke mindsets. That includes your the people closest to you, your family, your your significant other. At the time when I was married, I had to put my wife on a season of separation. I just had to leave, I had to not tell her too much about what was going on within that business opportunity because it wasn't flourishing yet. All she saw me was going to meetings, going to trainings, going out of town, going to big events, going to trainings, on calls, and she was like, You still doing this? And I'm only making five, six hundred dollars a month. She's like, Why are you doing all this for five, six hundred dollars a month? And I kept telling trying to tell her, I've seen it. I've seen it. I was in the house with an elevator. I drove the cars, I sat in the private jets, I've seen it. I've seen too much to know that it won't work for me. And sure enough, it caught up. Okay? I had to put my aunt on a season of separation. She gave me hell. You know, my mother my mother passed away when I was, you know, a young man. She's like, what are your what would your mother think? You're out here. And I had to remind her, my mother was an entrepreneur. She started doing nails in the house and then moved into a salon. I watched her do that. I watched her build from doing nails into the house to opening up her own salon. I was there every step of the way, building stuff, putting stuff together. I put up her whole speaker system in her salon at the age of 16. Or was I, yeah, I might have been 14. Okay? You cannot hang her. Listen, put your friends aside. Put those family members aside. They don't want to see you fail. Right? They're trying to protect your feelings. That's all they're telling you not to do. They don't want to see you fail. They don't want to see you struggle. Because that's exactly what's going on. You are, you're struggling. They don't want to see you struggling. So, no, let's try something else. Go get a job. Blah, blah, blah. Listen, you keep listening to those positive-minded, wealthy, going in the right direction, people. And I promise you, you'll be the tenth. I remember at events, I used to be the one standing in a circle around the leader while the leader talked. And then one day I was talking to somebody, and there was a circle around me listening to me. And my older sister was there. And she was like, Oh my gosh, I saw what you used to do. The people were doing it to you. You were standing around talking, and it was a big circle of people listening to what you had to say. And I remember I used to be on a circle on the outside looking in. It was one of the best feelings in the world. Okay? Avoid hanging around broke-minded people. It's going to be really, really challenging. It's going to be extremely challenging because you love these people. And you don't want to think you don't want them to think that you don't like them or love them, but you got something to do. You attempt to become a millionaire. And for a lot of people, you may be the first one. So you got to do some things that most people are not doing. And most of your people aren't doing those things, so they're not going to understand what you're doing. Why you reading all these books? Why you on the call? Why you on the Zoom? Why you always talking about this? It ain't working. People just tell me at the time, you made a million dollars yet? You made a million dollars yet? You make a million dollars yet? Okay? That's number two. Number three, not investing. First of all, not investing in yourself. Investing in your personal development. There's a reason why there's a self-help section. Books like Think You Grow Rich, 40 Laws of Power, The Art of War, Seduction, all the leadership books by John C. Maxwell. Alright, it's it's a reason for this. You want to become a millionaire, you have to personally develop yourself. You have to become a millionaire before the money shows up. You have to become a millionaire before the money shows up. You have to invest in yourself. Invest in those books, invest in those courses, invest in those coaches. Invest in those books, invest in those courses, invest in those coaches. All they're gonna be doing is helping you get better. And who can get better? Anybody. Anybody that's ambitious. Anybody that's ambitious. You're not investing. You're just hoping it happens. Or you wait for somebody to give it to you. Before you become a millionaire, you become a millionaire. And then the money catches up. Above all things, I pray that your soul prospers just as you prosper. And your soul is your mindset, is your mind growing. Too many people avoid not investing. I mean, too many people avoid not investing. Too many people avoid investing. Because you know why? They don't want to wait. They don't want to wait for the time. But guess what? Time is going to pass whether you want it to or not. You're going to be waiting anyway. You might as well put some money somewhere or invest in things and let the time pass while you're learning, and things are growing, and money's growing, and your mindset's growing, your business is growing, your process is growing, your systems are growing. It's going to listen, time is going to pass whether you want it to or not. You might as well be doing something. It's going to get you to the position where you want to be. Invest in yourself. That's the biggest investment you can make is investing in yourself. Your own personal development. Right? You want to know why people talk about Michael Jordan so much? LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, is because they worked on their personal development. We talk about Tom Brady, personal development. Tom Brady in his 40s was out on the beach working out. He was like, what ring is most important? He said, the next one. The next one. Personal development. The next one. And they went above beyond everyone else. My high school track coach told me he said, Heard there is no traffic at the extra mile. That means that if I'll tell you on a mile, you run a mile and a half, that half mile is the extra mile. If I say do a 400 and you do 425, or you do an extra one, that's the extra mile. Because every time we do five, 400, and you do one more, at the end of the week, everybody else did 25, you did 30. That extra five could mean the difference between running two minutes flat or running under two minutes. So every week I would do one more. I mean, every time we practice, I would do one more. I would do one more. I would do one more, I would do one more. By the time the big meets came, it showed on the track. As a matter of fact, I did so many one more's the day my mother passed away. I'm sorry, I'm apologizing. The day after my mother passed away, I still ran in the track meet. It was the Canfield invitational. I still ran in the track meet the day after my mother passed. You know why? Because I had done so many one more. And my mother would have told me, get your butt on that track. Don't worry about me. She told me that while she was in the hospital. Don't worry about me. Whatever happens to me is gonna happen. You keep doing what you do. Okay? So, three things to avoid if you want to become a millionaire: buying status symbols, hanging around broke mindsets, not investing. Okay, so if you want to undo all of this, all of this, all of this, all of this, come see me. Come join us in the Budget Boys Financial Education Community is free to join. Come find out your leak score. All of this starts with your leak score. You want to become a millionaire, you gotta create margin because margin creates wealth. And right now you don't have any margin. So come learn what your leak score is. Because your leak score is bigger than your credit score. So somewhere with this entry, uh, you better click on the link? Alright, in the description area, somewhere, come join us. Come join us. We're coming from a practical standpoint, all of that complicated shit. Okay, so Marlon of the Valionaire, we'll see you on the next episode.