Last updated: March 2026 — 22 min read
Money is one of the most popular topics on The Diary of a CEO — and for good reason. Steven Bartlett has sat down with billionaires, hedge fund managers, behavioral economists, and self-made entrepreneurs to unpack the psychology, strategy, and mechanics of building wealth.
But with 400+ episodes, finding the specific diary of a ceo money episodes you need can be overwhelming. This guide organizes every money-related DOAC episode into categories, ranks them by impact, and pulls out the key frameworks you can apply immediately.
Whether you're trying to start a business, build an investment portfolio, or simply develop a healthier relationship with money, there's a DOAC episode that addresses exactly where you are.
Before diving into tactics, the best DOAC money episodes start with mindset. How you think about money determines what you do with it. These episodes rewire your relationship with wealth from the ground up.
This is the single most impactful money episode in DOAC history. Naval Ravikant — angel investor in Twitter, Uber, and 100+ companies — dismantled conventional career advice in 1.5 hours. His core thesis: wealth is created by owning equity in businesses or assets, not by trading time for salary.
"Seek wealth, not money or status. Wealth is having assets that earn while you sleep. Money is how we transfer time and wealth. Status is your place in the social hierarchy."
Key frameworks from this episode:
Who should listen: Anyone in their 20s-30s making career decisions. This episode is your North Star.
Morgan Housel, author of The Psychology of Money, explained why managing money has nothing to do with intelligence and everything to do with behavior. His stories — from a janitor who died with $8 million in investments to a Harvard MBA who went bankrupt — illustrate that patience, not brilliance, is the wealth multiplier.
"Getting money requires taking risks, being optimistic, and putting yourself out there. Keeping money requires the opposite: humility, frugality, and paranoia."
Key takeaways:
Who should listen: Anyone who earns good money but can't seem to build wealth.
Steven got raw about his own journey from poverty to multi-millionaire. He revealed the emotional side of money: the imposter syndrome after his first million, the guilt of earning more than his parents ever would, the addiction to "more" that nearly consumed him. This solo episode resonated deeply because it showed that money problems don't disappear when you get rich — they just change shape.
Key takeaways:
Who should listen: Anyone chasing a financial number thinking it'll make them happy.
These episodes focus on the most powerful wealth-building vehicle: business ownership. From starting with nothing to scaling past seven figures, DOAC guests have walked every path.
Hormozi didn't just talk theory — he gave a step-by-step playbook for creating offers so valuable that customers feel stupid saying no. The "value equation" he presented (Dream Outcome — Perceived Likelihood — Time Delay — Effort) has become the most-referenced framework in the DOAC entrepreneurship community.
Actionable steps from this episode:
Codie Sanchez challenged the Silicon Valley narrative. While everyone chases tech startups, she's buying laundromats, HVAC companies, and car washes — "boring businesses" that print cash with minimal competition. She walked through real deal structures: how to find businesses for sale, how to negotiate seller financing, and how to operate them with 5-10 hours per week.
The boring business thesis:
Who should listen: Anyone with £50K+ in savings who wants to own a business but doesn't want to build from scratch.
Sara Blakely built a billion-dollar company with $5,000, no business education, and no outside investment. On DOAC, she revealed her secret weapon: ignorance. "I didn't know what I didn't know, so I wasn't afraid." She shared how she cold-called manufacturers, designed packaging in her apartment, and personally stood in Neiman Marcus stores selling to customers.
Key money lesson: You don't need a lot of money to start. You need resourcefulness, shamelessness, and the willingness to do things that don't scale.
Shaan Puri destroyed the side hustle myths: dropshipping is dead, print-on-demand margins are razor-thin, and "passive income" is almost always a lie in year one. Instead, he shared a framework for finding genuinely profitable side businesses based on three filters: something you'd do for free, something people already pay for, and something that can scale beyond your time.
Top side hustle ideas from the episode:
Once you're earning money, these episodes teach you how to keep it, grow it, and make it work for you.
The Nobel Prize winner in economics (technically behavioral psychology) explained the cognitive biases that destroy portfolios. Loss aversion — feeling losses 2.5x more than gains — is why most investors buy high and sell low. The "endowment effect" is why you hold onto losing stocks too long. And "anchoring" is why a stock that dropped from £100 to £50 feels "cheap" even if it's worth £20.
Before any financial decision, ask:
Ramit Sethi's philosophy is refreshingly anti-frugality. Instead of cutting out lattes, he argues you should spend extravagantly on the things you love and cut ruthlessly on the things you don't. His "conscious spending plan" allocates income into four buckets: fixed costs (50-60%), investments (5-10%), savings (5-10%), and guilt-free spending (20-35%).
Key insight: "There are £30,000 questions and £3 questions. Most people spend all their time optimizing £3 questions (should I get the medium or large coffee?) and ignore £30,000 questions (should I negotiate my salary? automate investing? refinance my mortgage?)."
Who should listen: Anyone who feels guilty about spending money, or who saves obsessively but isn't actually enjoying life.
Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio gave DOAC listeners a macroeconomic masterclass. He explained the "long-term debt cycle" — why economies boom and bust over 75-100 year periods — and where we currently sit in that cycle. His "All Weather Portfolio" concept — designed to perform in any economic environment — was a game-changer for listeners who felt overwhelmed by investing.
Dalio's investment principles:
These episodes address the emotional and psychological relationship with money that most financial advice ignores.
Dr. Maté connected childhood trauma to adult financial behavior in ways that were both uncomfortable and illuminating. Compulsive spending, workaholism, and the inability to enjoy wealth all trace back to unresolved emotional needs. "If you're using money to fill a hole inside you, no amount will ever be enough."
As former Chief Business Officer of Google X, Mo Gawdat had access to more wealth and resources than 99.99% of humans. And he was miserable. His equation — Happiness ≥ Events — Expectations — applied to money means: the richer you get, the more you expect, and the harder happiness becomes. The solution isn't less money — it's recalibrating expectations.
Love him or critique him, Kiyosaki's core lesson resonated: the difference between the rich and the poor is financial education, not income. His "cash flow quadrant" — Employee, Self-Employed, Business Owner, Investor — gave listeners a map for transitioning from trading time for money to building systems that generate passive income.
Most impactful lesson: "The rich buy assets. The poor have expenses. The middle class buy liabilities they think are assets."
Across all the money episodes, these five frameworks appeared most frequently and got the strongest listener response:
Level 1: Sell your time (employee) → Level 2: Sell your expertise (freelancer/consultant) → Level 3: Sell a product (business owner) → Level 4: Sell money (investor). Each level requires less time and generates more wealth. Your goal is to climb the ladder, not optimize your position on it.
Value = (Dream Outcome — Perceived Likelihood of Achievement) — (Time Delay — Effort & Sacrifice). Increase the top (bigger outcomes, higher confidence) and decrease the bottom (faster results, less effort). This is why a £5,000 course that guarantees results outsells a £50 book that doesn't.
Morgan Housel's framework: calculate the lifestyle you'd be perfectly happy with. Multiply annual costs by 25. That's your "enough" number. Everything beyond that is a bonus — not a necessity. Most people never calculate this number, so they chase forever.
Fixed costs: 50-60% | Investments: 5-10% | Savings: 5-10% | Guilt-free spending: 20-35%. The radical idea: automate investments first, then spend the rest without guilt. No budgeting spreadsheets. No tracking every coffee. Just system design.
30% stocks | 40% long-term bonds | 15% intermediate bonds | 7.5% gold | 7.5% commodities. Designed to perform reasonably in any economic environment — growth, recession, inflation, or deflation. Not the highest returns, but the most consistent.
Across dozens of money episodes, these seven mistakes came up repeatedly:
Based on the combined wisdom of 15+ DOAC money episodes, here's a concrete 30-day plan:
We create detailed notes for every DOAC money episode — key takeaways, timestamps, and frameworks you can implement immediately.
Browse All Episode Summaries →The best DOAC money episodes feature Alex Hormozi ($100M Offers), Naval Ravikant (wealth creation principles), Codie Sanchez (buying boring businesses), Daniel Kahneman (financial psychology), Morgan Housel (Psychology of Money), Sara Blakely (building Spanx from $5K), and Steven Bartlett's solo episodes on his financial journey. See our full money episodes ranking.
Steven advocates for investing in assets that generate passive income, avoiding lifestyle inflation, building multiple income streams, and prioritizing financial education. He often defers to his expert guests — particularly Naval Ravikant and Ray Dalio — on specific investment strategies.
Yes, DOAC has featured episodes discussing cryptocurrency and Web3, though Steven generally advises caution and emphasizes understanding fundamentals before investing in volatile assets. The consensus across DOAC money guests: crypto should be a small percentage of a diversified portfolio, not a primary investment.
Start with the Ramit Sethi episode — his "conscious spending plan" is specifically designed for people who feel overwhelmed by their finances. Then listen to the Morgan Housel episode for the psychological shift needed to build wealth long-term.
Roughly 30-40% of all DOAC episodes touch on business, money, or wealth in some capacity. However, about 15-20 episodes are specifically focused on money and investing as their primary topic.