Cody Sanchez, entrepreneur and founder of multiple businesses, recently sat down for an extensive conversation about financial literacy, career development, and the intersection of money with personal relationships. Her perspectives, drawn from years of experience in finance and business ownership, offer a framework for thinking about wealth building that challenges some conventional wisdom while reinforcing other fundamental principles.
The Current Economic Reality: Acknowledging the Challenge
Sanchez begins by validating what many people feel about the current economic environment—that it genuinely is difficult out there, and those feelings are real and justified. She points to a stark statistic about wage growth versus housing costs: while wages have increased approximately twofold over recent decades, housing prices have increased by roughly ninefold during the same period. This mathematical reality means that today’s generation cannot afford the same lifestyle milestones that previous generations considered normal and attainable.
This disconnect between wage growth and cost of living, particularly in housing, means that the financial roadmap followed by previous generations may not work for today’s young adults. The traditional advice to buy a home as quickly as possible, which made perfect sense when Sanchez’s parents’ generation was starting out, becomes mathematically questionable when housing appreciation so dramatically outpaces income growth.
However, Sanchez argues this doesn’t mean opportunity has disappeared—it means opportunity has shifted. She invokes Warren Buffett’s famous maxim: “Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.” During periods when markets feel uncertain and assets are repricing, opportunities emerge for those positioned to act. She notes that housing prices in some markets, including Austin, Texas, have declined substantially—in some cases by 30 percent—creating potential entry points for buyers who might have been priced out at peak valuations.
The key, according to Sanchez, is having both the financial resources and the knowledge necessary to capitalize on these moments. This requires preparation before opportunities appear, which brings her to her core thesis about financial literacy.
Financial Literacy: Speaking the Language of Money
Sanchez draws an analogy between financial literacy and language acquisition. Just as you cannot effectively communicate with someone if you don’t speak their language, you cannot effectively build wealth if you don’t understand the fundamental concepts and mechanisms of money. She argues that most Americans understand finances at approximately a high school level, which means their financial education stopped at basic concepts like budgeting and balancing a checkbook—tools that, while useful, represent only the foundation of financial knowledge rather than the complete skillset needed to build wealth.
One practical test of financial literacy that Sanchez offers involves understanding the distinction between debit and credit cards, and why, in the American financial system, credit cards generally represent a superior choice for most transactions. This seemingly simple distinction actually reveals important concepts about how the financial system works and how individuals can navigate it effectively.
Debit cards, Sanchez explains, do not help build credit history—a critical component of accessing capital in the United States. Good credit serves as the foundation for accessing favorable interest rates on mortgages, car loans, and business financing. Additionally, debit cards typically don’t offer rewards programs, cash back, or points that credit cards provide. Perhaps most importantly, debit cards offer less consumer protection in cases of fraud. When fraudulent charges appear on a debit card, the money has already left your account, and recovering it requires dealing with your bank with limited leverage. With credit cards, fraudulent charges can typically be disputed and removed with a few clicks, and a replacement card ships immediately.
Sanchez acknowledges that credit cards have received negative attention—deservedly so when people fail to pay balances in full each month, allowing interest charges to accumulate, or when cards are used to purchase wants rather than needs. However, she argues that this has led to an overcorrection where people, particularly younger generations, avoid credit cards entirely, thereby forgoing the benefits of building credit history and earning rewards.
The wealthiest individuals globally, she notes, all carry some debt—the key distinction being good debt versus bad debt. Good debt funds assets that appreciate or generate income. Bad debt funds consumption or depreciating assets. Understanding this distinction represents a fundamental aspect of financial literacy.
Building Credit and Accessing Capital
For parents wanting to set their children up for financial success, Sanchez recommends helping them obtain a credit card early—even during high school if possible. The specific card matters less than establishing credit history early. Major banks operate under substantial regulations regarding credit cards, providing considerable consumer protection, so the primary considerations should be basic terms and any perks that align with spending patterns.
Early credit establishment provides access to what Sanchez identifies as the first pillar of wealth: resources. The old saying “it takes money to make money” contains fundamental truth. Individuals starting with nothing can begin building their resource base through credit, which doesn’t require existing wealth. After establishing access to resources through credit, the next pillar involves accumulating knowledge—understanding how to deploy resources effectively. Then comes wealth accumulation itself, followed by investment knowledge that enables money to work for you rather than simply exchanging time for income.
Debt, Leverage, and Warren Buffett’s Contradiction
Sanchez references a quote attributed to Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett’s longtime business partner, about how men go broke through “whiskey, women, and leverage”—with leverage meaning debt. Buffett himself has publicly stated his aversion to debt. Yet Sanchez points out a crucial contradiction: Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett’s company, is in fact highly leveraged with substantial debt. The distinction lies in how that debt is structured.
Buffett doesn’t mortgage his personal residence to buy companies. Instead, Berkshire raises debt against the companies it acquires, using corporate-level leverage rather than personal guarantees. The debt funds assets that generate cash flow and can service the debt, rather than personal consumption or lifestyle expenses. This distinction between productive debt on cash-generating assets and personal debt on consumption represents a fundamental concept that separates wealth-building strategies from wealth-destroying behavior.
Career Development: Making More Money as an Employee
For individuals focused on increasing their income within employment rather than entrepreneurship, Sanchez offers a specific framework. The first step involves understanding exactly how much monetary value you generate for your employer. Many employees have never quantified their contribution to company revenue or profit. Sanchez recommends directly asking your manager: “If you had to quantify how I make you money, could you help me understand that?”
This question typically impresses managers because employees rarely demonstrate this level of business thinking. Once you understand your contribution—for example, if you generate $100,000 in sales that yield $20,000 in profit for the company—you’ve established a baseline for negotiation. You can then ask whether increasing your contribution would justify increased compensation. If you bring in an additional $100,000 generating another $20,000 in profit, could you receive $5,000 of that profit as additional compensation?
This approach won’t work in every corporate environment, particularly large bureaucratic organizations with rigid compensation structures. However, Sanchez argues that opportunities for this type of negotiation exist more frequently than people realize, and money is often available for those who understand how to ask for it based on value creation rather than simply years of service or job title.
The Brick Layer to City Planner Framework
Jay Shetty shares his framework for communicating career development to team members, using a construction analogy. The entry level is the brick layer—someone who knows how to lay bricks and build a wall. They understand the immediate task and can execute it reliably.
The next level is the builder, who not only lays bricks but understands how to construct entire walls, apply finishing touches, erect scaffolding, and connect different structural elements. The builder has expanded beyond single-task execution to broader construction capabilities.
Above the builder sits the architect—someone who can design and build entire new structures, extensions, or additions. Architects don’t just execute existing plans; they create new plans and bring them to fruition.
The highest level in this framework is the city planner, who doesn’t just design individual buildings but plans entire ecosystems of how different structures, infrastructure, and systems interact and support each other.
Shetty emphasizes that advancement through these levels isn’t about more hours or greater effort—it’s about expanding vision, strategic thinking, care, and scope. Too many employees believe that working longer hours or demonstrating more visible effort will lead to advancement and compensation growth. In reality, promotion and pay increases come from expanding the scope and sophistication of contribution.
Sanchez agrees with this framework, adding her own variant called the “NPC ladder,” referencing non-player characters in video games. NPCs remain in the same location repeating the same phrases endlessly. Some people choose to remain as NPCs in their careers—not developing new skills, not expanding their scope, not pushing boundaries. Others progress from supporting cast member to main character to protagonist who actually changes the script and moves the company forward. The highest performers become main characters whose contributions fundamentally shape organizational direction.
The Myth of Hard Work Equals Wealth
Both Sanchez and Shetty challenge the persistent cultural narrative that hard work directly translates to wealth accumulation. If this were true, Sanchez argues, the person operating her local laundromat would earn as much as Jeff Bezos, given the physical effort involved in manual labor. She references a visualization showing how much money Bezos earns per second, illustrating that he “laps” manual laborers multiple times over within seconds despite not working physically harder.
The distinction isn’t about effort level but about leverage, knowledge, and creating scalable systems. Sanchez sees artificial intelligence potentially accelerating this divergence. As AI makes midlevel execution accessible to everyone, standing out will require creativity, unique knowledge, and synthesis that goes beyond mere production volume.
She quotes Naval Ravikant’s framework: In the modern economy, you don’t want to work like a cow—grazing continuously with constant low-level effort. You want to work like a lion—intense sprints followed by rest periods, maximizing impact during focused efforts rather than grinding continuously.
Starting a Business Without Capital
Addressing the common objection “I don’t have money to start a business,” Sanchez argues that people never suffer from lack of money—they suffer from lack of knowledge about how to access money. The wealthiest individuals globally rarely use exclusively their own capital for investments or business ventures.
She points to resources like the Small Business Administration (SBA), which offers both grants (money that doesn’t require repayment) and loans covering up to 90 percent of business acquisition costs. Private investment platforms connect small business owners with potential lenders. Most importantly, Sanchez argues, the rarest commodity isn’t capital—it’s capable humans with solid ideas and genuine willingness to work hard. Capital actively seeks these people.
The critical mental shift involves believing that money surrounds you and that you don’t need exclusively personal capital to build wealth. This belief change, while challenging, opens possibilities that remain invisible to those who accept capital constraints as immutable.
The Side Hustle Strategy: Keep Your Day Job
Sanchez challenges the narrative, popularized by survivorship bias, that you must “go all in” on your business idea from day one. She notes that 90 percent of startups fail within five years, making the “quit your job and pursue your dream” advice potentially catastrophic for most people who follow it.
Instead, she recommends maintaining employment while developing a side business until the side business generates cash flow matching your living expenses. Only then should you consider leaving your job. This approach eliminates or dramatically reduces financial risk. You use salary from employment to fund the side venture, allowing you to take smart risks without facing homelessness if the business fails.
Sanchez acknowledges she had three or four failed businesses before achieving success. Had she quit her job for any of those ventures, she would have ended up “sleeping on somebody’s couch.” The side hustle approach allows you to test whether your idea is actually a profit project rather than merely a passion project, without risking financial devastation.
Research supports this approach: Studies show that entrepreneurs who maintain an income source while building their business have 33 percent higher success rates than those who quit jobs to focus exclusively on the new venture. The reason relates to decision quality—when you’re in constant financial fight-or-flight mode, decision-making suffers. Having income stability allows you to “downregulate” and make better strategic choices.
Following Passion Versus Playing the Game
Sanchez argues that advice to “follow your passion” typically comes from people who are already wealthy and can afford to make career choices based purely on interest rather than income potential. She doesn’t believe most people should try to monetize their hobbies or turn their passion into their profession.
Using Airbnb founders as an example, she suggests they weren’t passionate about air mattresses or home design when they started—they were passionate about the game of business itself. They could have built a lighting company or painting company with similar enthusiasm. The key was loving the game, not the specific industry.
Sanchez developed what she calls the “boring sexy matrix,” which charts industries by their excitement level against average income. The data shows inverse correlation: the more boring the industry, generally the higher the income. She cites Hollywood as an extreme example—the Screen Actors Guild has approximately 187,000 members, yet more than 80 percent don’t earn enough to qualify for health insurance through the union. Average income for actors approximates $23,000 annually.
When 80 percent of people in an industry fail to earn full-time income from it, you’re better served choosing a field where 99 percent of participants earn 100 percent of their income from their work—even if it’s less exciting. She’s not discouraging pursuing creative fields, but rather encouraging creativity about how to work around those fields while still generating income.
Her recommendation: Find ways to integrate what you love with what pays. If you love acting, explore the ecosystem around acting where money flows more reliably. Don’t feel confined to the pre-ordained sexy roles when the financial reality doesn’t support that path.
Money, Dating, and Relationships
Sanchez shares research indicating that married couples earn on average 30 percent more than unmarried individuals, and their net worth averages nearly three times that of single people over their careers. She emphasizes she’s not shaming single people—she understands the challenges of finding the right partner. However, she argues the data suggests prioritizing finding a compatible partner if wealth building matters to you.
She pushes back against contemporary dating attitudes, particularly data showing 64 percent of women won’t date men earning the same or less than them, while men generally don’t consider income level important in partner selection. The problem: women are increasingly outpacing men in income and education levels, creating a mathematical shortage of partners meeting this income criterion. Moreover, research doesn’t show that couples with income parity are happier or wealthier than those without it.
Sanchez suggests finding someone who “plays a different game”—values different things and brings complementary rather than identical strengths. Her husband was a Navy SEAL earning modest government salary when they met, while she already ran a business. He valued service and respect over income, playing an entirely different game than her focus on financial success. This complementarity created strength rather than competition.
On paying for first dates, Sanchez believes whoever asks should pay, though she leans traditional—expecting men who ask women out to pay, and viewing it as positive when women who initiate dates at least offer to pay.
She notes the fundamental tension in modern relationships: for the first time in perhaps 200 years, men and women compete for identical goals—jobs, education slots, recognition, relevance. This competition creates friction that previous generations didn’t face. When women demand equality in all respects, men reasonably ask what that means for traditional expectations around provisioning. These questions lack easy answers and require couples to negotiate rather than relying on inherited social scripts.
Prenups and Financial Conversations
Sanchez strongly advocates for prenuptial agreements before marriage. She frames prenups not as lack of commitment but as essential difficult conversations that reveal whether couples share life vision, can handle conflict constructively, can compromise on important matters, and truly understand each other’s values.
A prenup conversation forces discussion about what each partner considers “theirs,” “mine,” and “ours”—fundamental questions about resources, trust, communication, and future vision. Your bank account reflects your willingness to have difficult conversations, Sanchez argues. The more you delay or avoid hard discussions, the less money you’ll accumulate.
Whether to combine finances after marriage lacks a universal right answer. Some couples maintain entirely separate accounts, even Venmoing each other for shared expenses. Others immediately combine everything. Neither approach is inherently superior—what matters is whether you can have honest conversations about money, expectations, spending, trust, and agency. Those conversations, not the specific account structure, determine financial compatibility.
The Practical Investment Framework
For someone with limited capital looking to invest, Sanchez offers a progressive framework:
Stage One: Invest in Yourself
Before investing in markets, invest in learning. Your highest-returning asset is yourself because you have unlimited upside and compounding potential over time. Take courses, develop skills, gain knowledge that increases your earning capacity.
Stage Two: Index Funds
Once you’ve built knowledge, Sanchez recommends low-cost, broadly diversified index funds. She worked at Vanguard and remains partial to their cost structure. She advocates against trying to pick individual stocks unless you’re doing so purely for education and accept potentially losing everything invested. Most people won’t beat professional investors with superior technology and full-time focus on markets.
The strategy: Invest automatically—set up automatic transfers so investing becomes a habit rather than a decision you make each month. She recommends at least 10 percent of income going toward investments regularly. This automatic approach removes emotional decision-making and ensures consistency.
Stage Three: Private Investments
After mastering public market index investing, sophisticated investors move into private equity—investing in companies that don’t trade on public exchanges. This might include direct real estate investment, commodity investments, or ownership stakes in private businesses.
Stage Four: Building or Buying Businesses
The highest level involves becoming the company that others invest in—either building your own business or buying existing businesses to operate and grow.
She emphasizes that most “day trading” advice and options trading recommendations target novices who lack understanding that these strategies require professional-level expertise. Trying to learn options trading from a few hours of instruction resembles trying to learn brain surgery from a weekend course—it’s for professionals, not beginners.
The Bottom Line: Playing Long-Term Games
Throughout the conversation, Sanchez returns to several core themes: Financial success comes from understanding the rules of money’s game and respecting them rather than resenting them. Wealth building requires patience, knowledge accumulation, and willingness to have difficult conversations. The highest returns come from loving the process rather than fixating on outcomes. And most importantly, real financial security emerges from building skills, relationships, and knowledge that cannot be taken from you—not from accumulating possessions or status symbols that can disappear during market downturns or life changes.
Her framework challenges both traditional and contemporary wisdom about money, relationships, and career, offering instead a pragmatic middle path focused on understanding systems, building genuine value, and making strategic choices aligned with long-term wealth building rather than short-term appearance management.
Acknowledgment: This article was written with the help of AI, which also assisted in research, drafting, editing, and formatting this current version.
