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The money decisions for high earners that matter most are rarely the exciting ones. I often see people who are very good at making money but have no cohesive plan for managing it.
This article covers the 10 decisions I think matter most once you are already doing well, from savings rate and account structure to insurance, estate planning, and values.
This sounds obvious, but it often gets harder as income rises. Someone making $300K, $500K, or even $1 million a year can still feel like they are living paycheck to paycheck.
My favorite tip is to treat a big raise or windfall as if it did not happen for the first 6 months. Keep living on your old budget and bank the difference. If you then want to upgrade something, do it intentionally with a portion of the increase, after locking in a higher savings rate.
A well structured plan usually mixes account types:
You do not want all of your money locked up until age 59½, and you do not want to pay unnecessary tax by ignoring Roth strategies. What you hold where matters too. Bonds and REITs generally belong in tax deferred accounts, and stock index funds in taxable accounts, where they can benefit from lower long term capital gains rates.
Long term freedom comes from owning assets that grow, meaning stocks, private businesses, and real estate. Cash feels safe and bonds feel stable, but over the long run they tend to lose ground to inflation and taxes. My rule of thumb is that money you do not need for at least 5 years should be invested in equity, after setting aside an emergency fund of 3 to 6 months of expenses.
I regularly see tech employees with 70% of their net worth in company stock. My guideline is that no single stock should be more than 10 to 15% of your portfolio. If you hold a concentrated position, you need a plan to diversify over time. That may mean paying some tax, but it protects you from a catastrophic loss.
Investing for retirement is different from investing to buy a house in 3 years. Define your goals specifically, such as when you want to retire and what you will spend each year. Short term goals call for conservative holdings such as high yield savings and short term bonds. Long term goals can take stocks, real estate, and possibly private markets. Your portfolio should support the life you want. If that is financial independence by 50, for example, it will require high savings rates and aggressive investing.
Because of compounding, someone who invests from 25 to 35 and then stops can end up wealthier than someone who invests from 35 to 65. You cannot get lost years back, so I would rather see you start now with an imperfect plan.
Most financial headlines are designed to make you panic, click, and feel like you need to act immediately. When markets drop 20%, your gut says to sell before it gets worse. When they are up 30%, it says to buy more before you miss out.
In my view, both are emotional reactions, and the better response is to stick with your strategy. Limit the financial media you consume, check your portfolio about once a quarter, automate contributions, and rebalance once or twice a year.
I suggest considering three types of insurance:
On the estate side, the minimum is a will and trust, a durable power of attorney for financial decisions, and healthcare directives. Review your beneficiary designations as well, because the beneficiaries on your 401(k), IRA, and life insurance override your will.
My guideline is that no single stock should be more than 10 to 15% of your portfolio.
I suggest 3 to 6 months of expenses in cash.
At a minimum, a will and trust, a durable power of attorney for financial decisions, and healthcare directives.
VDB Wealth is a registered investment adviser. Information presented is for educational purposes only and is not intended to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. Investments involve risk and, unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Past performance is not indicative of future performance.
If you're watching this video, you're probably already doing pretty well financially. You're making good income, you've built up some assets, maybe you've got a solid career or business going. Congratulations, that's not easy.
But here's the thing I see all the time: people who are great at making money often aren't great at managing it strategically. They're maxing their 401(k), they've got some investments, maybe they've talked to an insurance agent once. But they don't have a cohesive plan. They're not sure what actually matters and what's just noise.
I'm Andy, founder of VDB Wealth. I bootstrapped and sold a business, spent time in private equity, and now I work with business owners, tech employees, and high earners who want to make sure their financial house is in order.
And one question I get all the time is: “What should I actually be focused on?”
So today, I'm going to walk through the 10 money decisions that matter most if you're already doing well. Not “get rich quick” schemes. Not hot stock tips. These are the foundational decisions that determine whether you build real, lasting wealth, or whether you stay on the treadmill forever.
Let's dive in.
This sounds obvious, right? But you'd be shocked how many smart, successful people violate this rule.
You might think it gets easier the more money you make, but it doesn't. In fact, it often gets harder. You upgrade your house, your cars, your lifestyle, and suddenly you're making $300K, $500K, even $1 million a year, and you still feel like you're living paycheck to paycheck.
Here's my favorite tip: if you get a big raise, a promotion, or a windfall, pretend like it didn't happen for the first six months. Keep living on your old budget. Bank the difference. Then, after six months, if you want to upgrade something, do it intentionally with a portion of the increase, but lock in a higher savings rate first.
The muscle you need to build is this: as income goes up, savings rate goes up faster than lifestyle. If you can do that, everything else gets easier.
If you can't do this, if you're spending every dollar you make or more, nothing else on this list matters. You're just running in place.
Alright, decision number two: get your account structure right.
What I mean by this is: you need the right mix of tax advantaged and taxable accounts, and you need to be using them strategically.
Here's what a well structured plan usually looks like:
Tax deferred accounts. Your 401(k), traditional IRA, SEP IRA if you're self employed. You get a tax deduction now, it grows tax deferred, and you pay taxes when you withdraw in retirement. Great for high earners in peak earning years.
Tax free accounts. Roth 401(k), Roth IRA, HSA (if you're using it as a long term investment account). You pay taxes now, but withdrawals are tax free in retirement. This is huge for tax diversification.
Taxable brokerage accounts. No tax breaks up front, but total flexibility. No contribution limits, no withdrawal penalties, no required minimum distributions. If you're saving beyond your retirement accounts, this is where it goes.
Other accounts. 529s for kids' education. Donor advised funds for charitable giving. Maybe a trust.
The key is balance. You don't want all your money locked up in retirement accounts you can't touch until 59½. But you also don't want to pay unnecessary taxes by keeping everything in taxable accounts when you could be using Roth strategies or mega backdoor Roths.
And within each account, you need to be tax efficient about what you hold where. Bonds and REITs in tax deferred accounts. Stock index funds in taxable accounts where you can benefit from lower long term capital gains rates.
This isn't sexy, but it's foundational. Get your account structure right, and you're setting yourself up for decades of tax efficient growth.
Decision three: own equity.
If you want long term freedom, you need to own assets that grow, stocks, businesses, real estate. You cannot build wealth sitting in cash or bonds alone.
I get it. Cash feels safe. Bonds feel stable. But over the long run, they lose to inflation. A 4% bond yield sounds nice until you realize inflation is 3%, taxes eat another chunk, and you're left with barely any real return.
Equity, private businesses, stocks and real estate, are how you actually build wealth. Yes, they're volatile. Yes, they go down sometimes. But over 10, 20, 30 years, they massively outperform everything else.
So here's the rule: if you have money you don't need for at least five years, it should be invested in equity. If you're in your 30s, 40s, or 50s and you're holding 50% cash or bonds because it “feels safer,” you're making a mistake. You're giving up decades of compounding growth.
Now, I'm not saying go 100% stocks with zero cash. You need an emergency fund, three to six months of expenses in cash. And as you get closer to retirement or a specific goal, you may want to dial back risk. But if you're already doing well and you're still young or mid career, your default should be equity heavy.
Nobody retires early by keeping everything in a savings account.
Decision four: ignore 99% of financial media.
Most financial headlines are designed to make you panic, click, and feel like you need to do something immediately. “Markets plunge!” “Recession fears!” “Is this the end of the bull market?”
Here's the truth: none of this helps you build wealth.
The best investors are not the ones glued to CNBC or refreshing their portfolio every hour. The best investors are the ones who set a strategy, stick to it, and ignore the noise.
There's actually a famous study that found the best performing investors were either dead or had forgotten they had accounts. Why? Because they didn't react emotionally to every market swing.
So my advice: limit how much financial media you consume. Maybe check your portfolio once a quarter. Read one or two trusted sources for broad market context. But don't let daily headlines dictate your strategy.
If your investment plan changes every time someone on TV gets dramatic, it's not a plan, it's just chaos.
Decision five: diversify.
This is one of those things everyone knows but not everyone actually does.
Diversification means spreading your risk across different asset classes, geographies, sectors, and individual investments. It means not betting your entire net worth on one stock, one property, one business, or one idea.
I see this mistake all the time with tech employees who have 70% of their net worth in company stock. Or business owners who have everything tied up in their business. Or real estate investors who own five rental properties in the same neighborhood.
When things are going well, concentration feels great. But when things go wrong, it can be devastating.
Here's the rule: no single stock should be more than 10 to 15% of your portfolio. No single asset class should dominate. If you've got a concentrated position, company stock, founder shares, a big real estate holding, you need a plan to diversify over time.
Yes, you might pay some taxes. Yes, you might miss out on upside if that one thing keeps going up. But you're also protecting yourself from catastrophic loss. And over the long run, diversification wins.
Don't confuse concentration with conviction. Diversification is not a lack of confidence, it's smart risk management.
Decision six: understand your goals.
This might be the most important one on the list, and it's the one people skip most often.
Investing for retirement is different than investing to buy a house in three years. You wouldn't train for a marathon the same way you train for a sprint. Yet most people just throw money into accounts without thinking about what they're actually trying to accomplish.
So here's what you need to do: sit down and define your goals. Not vague stuff like “I want to be rich” or “I want financial freedom.” Specific goals.
Do you want to retire at 55? What does that look like? What will you spend per year?
Do you want to buy a vacation home in five years? How much do you need?
Do you want to fund your kids' college? Private or public? How many kids?
Do you want to start a business or take a sabbatical? When? How much runway do you need?
Once you know your goals, you can build a portfolio that matches them. Short term goals get conservative investments, high yield savings, short term bonds. Long term goals get aggressive investments, stocks, real estate, maybe private markets.
This is what I mean by goals based investing. Your portfolio should support the life you want, not your neighbor's life, not some influencer's life. Yours.
And if you're not clear on your goals, that's okay, but that's the first conversation you need to have with yourself or with an advisor before you do anything else.
Decision seven: use time to your advantage.
Compounding is the closest thing we have to financial magic. It's the reason why someone who starts investing at 25 and stops at 35 can end up wealthier than someone who starts at 35 and invests until 65, even if the second person contributes way more money.
Time is your biggest asset. The earlier you start, the less you have to save, and the more forgiving the process is.
But here's the flip side: you can't get time back. If you're 40 and you've been sitting on cash for the last 10 years, you've lost a decade of compounding. That's gone. You can't make it up.
So the action here is simple: start now. Not next month, not after you “figure things out,” not after the election or the market correction or whatever excuse you're using. Today.
Even if you don't have a perfect plan, get money into the market. Open a brokerage account, set up automatic contributions, buy a diversified index fund, and let it sit.
Consistency beats perfection. Start early, be consistent, and let the math do the heavy lifting.
Decision eight: avoid emotional decisions.
This ties back to ignoring financial media, but it's worth calling out on its own.
When markets drop 20%, your gut reaction is going to be: “I need to sell before it gets worse.” When markets are up 30%, your gut reaction is: “I need to buy more before I miss out.”
Both of those are emotional decisions, and both are wrong.
The best thing you can do when markets drop is nothing. Keep investing. Keep your strategy. Don't sell.
The best thing you can do when markets rise is also nothing. Don't chase performance. Don't suddenly dump everything into whatever sector is hot.
Here's a saying I love: “The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.”
Your job is not to be right today. Your job is to be positioned well for the next 10, 20, 30 years. And that means tuning out the short term noise and sticking to your plan.
If you find yourself constantly checking your portfolio, making changes, reacting to headlines, you're doing it wrong. Set up automatic contributions, rebalance once or twice a year, and otherwise leave it alone.
Boring wins.
Decision nine: get your insurance and estate plan right. This is the unsexy stuff that everyone puts off, but it's critical if you're already doing well.
Insurance.
You should consider three types:
1. Disability insurance. Your ability to earn income is your most valuable asset. If you can't work, what happens? Most employer policies aren't enough. Get individual coverage with an own occupation definition.
2. Umbrella liability insurance. If you have assets, you're a target for lawsuits. A $1 to 2 million umbrella policy costs a few hundred bucks a year and protects you from catastrophic liability.
3. Life insurance. If you have dependents, you may need term life insurance, usually 10 to 15 times your income. Don't overthink it, just get it done.
Estate planning.
If you don't have a will, a trust, a durable power of attorney, and healthcare directives, you're leaving your family in a terrible position if something happens to you.
At a minimum:
Will and trust to control how your assets are distributed
Power of attorney for financial decisions if you're incapacitated
Healthcare directives for medical decisions
If you have kids, minor children need guardians designated. If you have significant assets, you might need more advanced strategies, irrevocable trusts, life insurance trusts, gifting strategies.
And don't forget: review your beneficiary designations. Your 401(k), IRA, and life insurance beneficiaries override your will. Make sure they're up to date.
This stuff feels uncomfortable to think about, but it's one of the most important things you can do for your family. Schedule a meeting with an estate planning attorney this month. Get it done.
Decision ten: align your money with your values.
This is the one that ties everything together.
Your portfolio should support the life you want, not your neighbor's, not your co worker's, not some influencer on social media. Yours.
If travel brings you joy, save for it guilt free. If early retirement is your goal, build toward that. If giving back is important to you, make philanthropy part of your plan.
Money isn't the goal. It's the tool to build a life you care about.
Too many people optimize for the wrong things. They chase the biggest paycheck, the highest net worth, the most impressive portfolio, and then they're miserable because none of it aligns with what they actually want.
So take a step back and ask yourself: what do I actually want my life to look like? What brings me joy? What do I want to be known for? How do I want to spend my time?
Then build a financial plan that supports that vision.
If you want financial independence by 50, that's going to require high savings rates and aggressive investing. If you want to work longer but travel extensively, that's a different plan. If you want to leave a legacy for your kids or a cause you care about, that requires estate planning and charitable strategies.
There's no one right answer. But there is a right answer for you. And your money should reflect that.
Alright, let's recap. Here are the 10 money decisions that matter most if you're already doing well:
1. Spend less than you make. Build the muscle early.
2. Get your account structure right. Tax deferred, Roth, taxable, use them all strategically.
3. Own equity. Stocks, businesses, real estate. That's how you build wealth.
4. Ignore financial media. Most of it is noise designed to make you react.
5. Diversify. Don't bet everything on one thing.
6. Understand your goals. Invest with purpose, not just because you're “supposed to.”
7. Use time to your advantage. Start early, be consistent, let compounding work.
8. Avoid emotional decisions. Stick to your plan when markets are up and when they're down.
9. Get your insurance and estate plan right. Protect what you've built.
10. Align your money with your values. Build the life you actually want.
These aren't flashy. They're not going to make you rich overnight. But if you get these 10 things right, you'll be in the top 1% of people who actually have their financial life together.
If you're watching this and thinking, “I need help getting some of this stuff in order,” you're not alone. Most successful people are great at their craft, whether that's running a business, working in tech, being a doctor or lawyer, but they haven't spent years thinking about financial planning. That's okay. That's what advisors are for.
At VDB Wealth, we work with business owners, tech employees, and high earners who want to make sure they're making smart decisions with their money. If you want to talk through your situation, feel free to reach out. Contact info is in the description.
Thanks for watching. If you found this helpful, I'd appreciate a like or subscribe, I'll keep putting out content on wealth building, tax strategy, and financial planning.
And if there's a topic you'd like me to cover, drop it in the comments. I read them all.
Thanks again, and I'll see you in the next one.
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