CEOs Money Advice: Profits are increased, operations are expanded, costs are reduced, and shareholders are satisfied. The finest CEOs, on the other hand, go above and beyond the job description of a corporate boss by providing intelligent counsel to their staff, investors, customers, and anybody else who might be listening.
For titans like Warren Buffett and Mary Barra, their words are as important as their discoveries and triumphs in increasing company profits. Their phrases cover the walls of small-business break rooms and prospective entrepreneurs’ dry-erase boards. Their advice is referenced in business seminars and passed down from mentors to mentees.
It makes sense to listen when the world’s most successful people discuss money, investments, careers, and wealth. Even if you don’t want to head a corporation like Berkshire Hathaway or GM, you could learn a thing or two that you can apply to your own 401(k), household budget, and life.
Best 10 CEOs Money Advice
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos
The best lesson from Jeff Bezos came not from his words, but from his actions. Much has been written about how to save money by making your own coffee and preparing your own food, but big-ticket products tip the scales far more than Starbucks – you’d be prudent to buy less car than you can afford.
Bezos drove the same ’87 Chevy Blazer he drove when Amazon had ten employees until he was a billionaire twelve times over. Even so, he only upgraded to a Honda Accord. Until 2013, his then-wife MacKenzie Scott drove Bezos to work and their children to school in a Honda minivan.
Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett has been imparting Yoda-like financial knowledge to Bezos since the 1980s, when he was working in executive roles at hedge funds and investment banks like any other 20-something.
Buffett once said that you should never invest in something you don’t understand. Then there was the stuff about living within your means, investing in index funds rather than picking equities, and investing in firms you believe in and holding them for a long time. However, the finest tip of all was to pay yourself first. But, as Buffett is wont to do, he phrased it better: “Don’t save what is left after spending.” “Spend what remains after saving.”
General Motors CEO Mary Barra
Mary Barra is more than just the first female CEO of a major automobile manufacturer. She ranks alongside Warren Buffett as one of the most quotable executives in business. “If you have an issue, you have to address it,” she declared at a convention in 2012. Because that condition will worsen in six months. In two years, it might grow significantly. However, it will not shrink over time.”
She was talking to the auto bailout, but her words could be extended to a variety of ordinary scenarios, as is so frequently the case with Barra’s typically clever statements. It may be an allegory for finally confronting credit card debt, leaving a dead-end job, or terminating a toxic financial relationship for you.
Apple’s Tim Cook
During a commencement speech at the University of Glasgow in Scotland in 2017, Apple CEO Tim Cook exhorted the audience of freshly minted graduates not to work for a wage. “My advise to all of you is, don’t work for money – it will wear you out quickly, or you’ll never make enough and you’ll never be happy, one or the other,” he remarked.
People were quick to point out that Cook’s counsel, while conceptually lofty, is easier said than done when diapers need to be purchased and bills need to be paid, according to CNBC. They also pointed out that Cook sells iPhones rather than developing them as a hobby and giving them away for free.
Virgin, Richard Branson
Richard Branson, together with Elon Musk, is as near to Tony Stark as the world has in real life. Branson is well-known for his tenacity — but you don’t have to be a billionaire adventurer or even a knight to profit from tenacity. Whether you’re fighting to save money every month, seeing your investments lose value, or simply struggling to master the fundamentals of money management, be like Branson and persist with it.
“Whether setting up a business, flying around the world in a balloon, or racing across the ocean in a boat,” he once wrote, “there have been moments when the easiest thing to do would be to give up.”
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk
Elon Musk, like Richard Branson, has a stake in both Earth and space — but, in the ultimate act of one-upmanship, Branson, like Bezos, has actually gone there. Musk, one of the greatest corporate innovators and risk-takers in history, urges both earthlings and E.T.s to choose a finish line worth attaining.
“Don’t just make your goal to’earn a lot of money’ or ‘be promoted to X,'” he says, according to the Chicago Tribune. Develop a compelling and meaningful goal. Find a way to improve things or do something meaningful.”
Best Buy, Corie Barry
Corie Barry was named Best Buy’s first female CEO in 2019. Her advice to girls and women who wish to emulate her success is to get comfortable being uncomfortable.
“It’s why I start with making yourself uncomfortable,” she explained to CNBC. “Somewhere in here, you’re going to have to be willing to put yourself in a place that you don’t feel quite ready to fill, and then utilize all the resources around you to help you be successful.”
Although her advise is gender-specific, it may be applied to anybody who is stuck in a financial rut or a dead-end career.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella
According to Business Today, Satya Nadella believes in developing new methods for each new initiative rather than repackaging what worked yesterday and hoping for the same outcomes.
“You have to have that learning mindset going forward,” he stated. It’s not predetermined.”
There are two lessons to be learned here. The first is a caution not to rest on your laurels – if you look at your trophies in the rearview mirror, you’ll crash the automobile. The second is to avoid making the error of transferring lessons learnt from yesterday’s conflicts to tomorrow’s hostilities. That could mean reconsidering a stale CV, a dusty 401(k), a car insurance policy that’s probably more expensive than necessary, or anything in between.
Alphabet, Sundar Pichai
Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Alphabet, does not endorse dropping out of school the way he did. He does, however, advise basing your schooling, job, and financial decisions on what is best for you and only you.
“Had I followed the course in graduate school, I’d definitely have a Ph.D. today, which would have made my parents incredibly proud,” he told Inc. But I may have squandered an opportunity to deliver the benefits of technology to so many more people. And I certainly wouldn’t be standing here as Google CEO speaking to you.”
PepsiCo’s Indra Nooyi (Retired)
Many financial gurus say that saving your way to riches is impossible and that earning more money is the only true path to financial independence.
It’s natural to make a conservative entry, keep your head down, and avoid being noticed until you’re up to speed, whether you’re just entering the workforce, starting a new job, or changing careers to start from the bottom of the totem pole later in life.
Indra Nooyi, Pepsi’s long-serving chair and CEO who retired in 2019, wants you to do the exact opposite.
“Volunteer for the most difficult assignments early in your career,” she told Forbes. Don’t be satisfied with a 9-to-5 job. People should recognize you when you initially enter a company.”