If you ask a billionaire how to get rich, the answer is almost always the same: investments, market analysis, leadership, an appetite for risk, and a great deal of hard work. Mark Cuban, though, will simply tell you: «Live like a student».

In a 2010 interview with Forbes, the billionaire was asked what he would do with $100,000. His answer mentioned neither cryptocurrencies nor stocks. It was about toothpaste. And sixteen years later, that advice is more relevant than ever.

Who is Mark Cuban?

Cuban is an American billionaire entrepreneur and investor, best known for selling his startup Broadcast.com to Yahoo in 1999 for $5.7 billion. With the proceeds he bought the Dallas Mavericks, the NBA team that won the league championship in 2011. He was one of the «sharks» on the popular TV show Shark Tank, where he invested in startups. More recently he founded Cost Plus Drugs, a platform that sells medications at transparent, reduced prices, challenging the U.S. pharmaceutical industry.

Watch the everyday spending

«First I would pay off all my credit card debt and consider paying down any other debt as well», Cuban told Forbes, before surprising everyone by adding: «The rest I would put in the bank».

The reasoning is simple: being ready when an opportunity appears. Cuban believes that financial flexibility beats short-term yield. The next step, though, is to make a shopping list. His advice is to review your annual budget, identify the heaviest recurring expenses, and figure out how to cut them.

Stocking up on products when they are on promotion, he explains, can save between 30% and 50%.

«I try to extract the most value out of that money. It’s the best guaranteed return on investment you can find anywhere», he said.

The logic is elementary. If you have to buy toilet paper, shampoo, and detergent anyway, it makes sense to stock up when prices are lowest. No risk, no volatility. Just savings booked in advance.

The inflation you don’t see (but is there)

According to ISTAT, Italy’s national statistics agency, annual inflation in Italy stood at 3.2% in March 2026, with personal care products — toothpaste, shampoo, shaving items — among the categories rising steadily. Consumer giants such as Procter & Gamble and Colgate-Palmolive have already warned investors that they are seeing revenue pressure tied to tariffs and rising production costs, which points to further price increases on the shelf.

The habit of stocking up is familiar in plenty of households — think of winter preserves, olive oil bought by the case in the fall, or coffee purchased in bulk when the price drops. Extending that logic to everyday hygiene products means applying the same principle to expenses that would otherwise renew every month at full price.

Most consumers do not track toothpaste prices with the attention Wall Street devotes to quarterly earnings, but the household budget feels them all the same.

«When you see a sale, it’s better to buy two years of toothpaste at a 50% discount. That’s an immediate return on your money», Cuban told Vanity Fair.

Live like a student, invest like a billionaire

Toothpaste is just the foundation of a much broader philosophy. «The first thing you have to do is live like a student», Cuban repeats.

His advice also includes building an emergency fund equal to at least six months of income, to be set aside before considering any more complex investment. Only after that would the billionaire invest — in an S&P 500 index fund, the cheapest one available. For those with a higher risk appetite, no more than 10% in Bitcoin or Ethereum, but with the awareness that they could lose it all.

Cuban is not the only advocate of this strategy. Financial advisers say it often: small recurring expenses can quietly erode wealth, year after year, especially when prices keep rising. A discount on something the household would have bought anyway delivers an immediate, predictable return — unlike many stock market investments.

Editor’s note

This article was originally published in Italian on money.it by Donato De Angelis on May 24, 2026 as «Un miliardario ne è convinto: meglio comprare il dentifricio in offerta che investire in Borsa». It has been translated and adapted for an international audience by the Money.it International desk.