Navigating pressure as a young millionaire
When success opens doors, it’s savvy decisions that can keep them open.
Cristiano Ronaldo was just 16 when he signed his first professional soccer contract. Charli D’Amelio was 15 when her TikTok dances turned into a multimillion-dollar empire. Today, names like Olivia Rodrigo, Patrick Mahomes and Billie Eilish prove how fast fame can turn into fortune.
Headlines focus on success. What isn’t widely discussed is how sudden wealth can feel thrilling one day and overwhelming the next. Having money at a young age is empowering and is becoming more common given the expanding reach of digital content platforms and the increasing value of college athletics name, image and likeness deals.
Experiencing prosperity early in life can also quickly become unexpectedly complicated and present unique pressures that even most adults will never experience firsthand. People see your success, and with that, your wealth invites possibility.
You may lean more on the people you trust, including family and friends, by asking them for guidance or advice – which may develop into business relationships and dynamics in ways you never imagined. And while opportunity is everywhere, understanding the risks as well as the rewards is how you preserve what you’ve earned and build the life you want.
Factor in family dynamics
It makes sense to trust your family and close friends more than anyone else – trust is earned over time, and you might even feel a sense of loyalty or gratitude for the role they’ve played in helping you achieve success.
There’s no question that trust matters, but it has the potential to grow even stronger when supported with the right professional expertise. Given that, a good question to ask yourself is: “Who has the experience to guide me toward good decisions and away from mistakes others have made?”
Partnering with a team of seasoned professionals can bring structure and an outside perspective. It isn’t about replacing the people who have been with you since the beginning; it’s about giving you, and them, a stronger foundation to build long-term success on. Working with a team of advisors who have experience guiding others at your wealth level can help you see clearly what’s worked and what hasn’t, and, in turn, help you move forward with fewer missteps.
Managing your wealth is about more than money, it’s about navigating the family dynamics that come with it. From your immediate circle to extended family and friends, sudden financial success can create expectations, blur boundaries and heighten the pressure to say “yes.”
Turning down family and friends is never easy, but having your own private wealth team – an attorney, accountant and financial advisor – can create a network of checks and balances to help you think through opportunities objectively. A professional can help you decide what’s worth pursuing and, when needed, deliver a clear, firm “no” on your behalf. That way you’re better positioned to make informed, strategic decisions that are in your best interests while being able to preserve important relationships.
See the risks as clearly as the rewards
Your talent and hard work may present you with a multitude of new and exciting opportunities – endorsements, partnerships and ventures – that can amplify your success. But, with every opportunity comes risk; some harder to spot than others.
The real advantage is having the clarity to recognize potential risks before they cost you.
One risk is making investments that work against your long-term goals – which could be signing unfavorable deals, investing in ventures that don’t perform as expected or locking too much money in illiquid assets like real estate or businesses. That’s not to say you shouldn’t explore the big, bold opportunities that come your way, rather you simply want to make sure there’s a strategy behind each decision.
There’s also risk in not separating your personal net worth from your professional life. Those ‘too good to be true’ opportunities can blur the lines, and if things go wrong, the damage can be hard to measure. If taxes are mishandled or you’re invested in a business you don’t fully understand or with people you barely know, you could be personally liable for problems you never saw coming. Treat your personal wealth and your professional career as two separate worlds. That way, if something goes wrong in one, the other can be protected.
Over-relying on someone you trust instead of an expert also poses risk. Perhaps that trusted person means well, but depending heavily on someone who lacks technical experience can expose you to serious tax, compliance and budgeting risks with substantial implications for your future. It’s not just your financial future at stake; your personal brand and reputation can also be left vulnerable without experienced guidance on your side.
Your career is a business
Once you start thinking about your professional career as a business, it often becomes much easier to have challenging conversations with those around you. From that realization onwards, everything becomes a business decision, which can help empower you to separate the personal from the professional.
With rising success, your instinct may be to stay actively involved and close to every day-to-day decision. However, the more success you achieve, the more decisions will likely compete for your attention – from marketing and collaborating to scheduling, finances and more.
As you build trust with your professional team, it’s important to shift from hands-on management to strategic delegation. Strengthening your professional team allows you to take a step back, shift from a ‘do-it-all’ mindset, offload certain pressures and focus on growing the talent that led to your success.
Your financial lifecycle is the opposite of the majority of Americans. Most are long-term savers who start small and accumulate wealth over time. You’ve earned your wealth quickly and early, requiring an approach that’s both personalized and specialized. Long-term success tends to favor those who pair both trust and disciplined expertise.
