Mark Cuban: Stop Saving Money and Invest in This One Thing Instead
Mark Cuban is one of the world's most well-known entrepreneurs with a net worth of $6 billion, according to Forbes. He didn't get rich by letting his cash sit in a savings account, and whenever someone asks him how to build wealth, he gives the same blunt answer: Stop saving so much and start investing.
You don't need to own an NBA team to follow his playbook. Cuban's go-to move for regular people is boring, cheap and works: a low-cost index fund that tracks the S&P 500. It's not flashy, but it's the foundation his more complicated bets are built on. Here's why he swears by it, and what it could mean for your money.
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Long-Term Returns Beat the Bank
While Cuban is a fan of emergency funds that can cover a few months of living expenses, he believes you should put the rest of your money into investments, and the numbers back him up. Morningstar reported that S&P 500 index funds have produced an annualized 15.1% return over the past decade. That’s a much higher return than the average savings account rate of 0.38% APY as of June 2026, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
If you started with $10,000 and earned an annualized 0.38% return for the next 10 years, you would have $10,386.56. That growth rate does not keep up with inflation and can actually move you further away from long-term financial goals. An annualized 15.1% return over that same stretch results in a $42,616.56 balance, according to Investor.gov’s Compound Interest Calculator.
You can be losing thousands of dollars per year by keeping your money in the bank instead of putting it into a low-cost index fund that tracks the S&P 500. Setting up automatic investments ensures that your portfolio grows each month and keeps that cash from quietly disappearing into everyday spending.
Portfolio Diversification Simplified
So how does an index fund actually deliver those returns? It starts with diversification. Index funds make it extremely easy to diversify your portfolio. A fund that tracks the S&P 500 offers exposure to 500 publicly traded companies. The portfolio allocation is based on market caps, so giant companies like Nvidia and Apple will make up more of the fund than smaller companies.
Index funds are also passively managed, which results in very low fees. For instance, the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF only has a 0.03% expense ratio. That means you only pay a $30 annual fee for every $10,000 you put into the fund. It’s a silent expense that leaves your portfolio’s value instead of showing up as an item on your credit card, but with some funds having expense ratios above 1%, a 0.03% expense ratio is a great deal.
Cuban invests in more complicated assets but regularly recommends index funds for people who are getting started. They are easy to understand and do not require much hands-on activity.
Invest in Other Assets Over Time
An S&P 500 index fund is a great starting point for many investors, but investing in individual assets can produce higher returns for investors who get more comfortable with analyzing companies. Mark Cuban has bought many investments that go beyond the S&P 500. He picks stocks, buys cryptocurrencies and pursues alternative assets.
The S&P 500 itself makes a great case for individual picks once you get familiar with financial markets. For instance, more than 200 companies in the S&P 500 have produced negative year-to-date returns. There are unproductive assets within index funds, but these same funds also have some of the best-performing stocks. As of this writing, Sandisk, Western Digital and Micron sit at the top of the year-to-date leaderboard.
If you want a simple portfolio and don’t want to analyze financial markets and companies that much, index funds are the way to go. Even if you want to pick individual stocks and seek higher returns, it’s still good to diversify into a low-cost fund that mirrors one of the most proven benchmarks in the stock market.
This article was provided by MoneyLion.com for informational purposes only and should not be construed as financial, legal or tax advice.
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