Billionaire Mark Cuban is well-known for his frugality, but he doesn't consider that his most valuable asset.
When he was in his 20s, for example, Cuban legally turned an abandoned car into his own personal property.
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On a December 2022 Club Random podcast, he told Bill Maher how in 1982 he found the neglected vehicle on the side of a road.
Cuban noticed there were loan papers in an envelope on the front seat.
“I knew from my own personal experience that someone had abandoned [the car], because they couldn’t make the payment,” Cuban said.
"The next day, he called officials at the bank, told them he found a car they were looking for and offered to take over the payments," according to CNBC. "They agreed."
"True story," Cuban wrote in a tweet March 6. "Mark Cuban found a car abandoned on the side of the road -- and got it for free with a simple phone call."
When Cuban was 24 years old, he lived in a three-bedroom apartment with five friends, according to a Blog Maverick post from 2009.
"I didn’t have my own bedroom," he wrote. "I slept on the couch or floor depending on what time I got home. I had no closet. Instead I had a pile that everyone knew was mine. My car had the usual hole in the floorboard, a ‘77 Fiat X19 that burned a quart of oil that I couldn’t afford every week."
Cuban also used to go to supermarkets in the middle of the night for discounts on food.
"I used to go to the grocery store at midnight because they lowered the price of chicken and these big [bags of] French fries to $1.29," he said. "And I would buy a bunch of them."
But being frugal isn't what he said is his most valued asset.
"I didn't have a car that cost more than $200 until I was 25, I think. It was crazy. But that was my decision. I was determined to save money. I was determined to be able to retire," he told Money in 2017. "It wasn't like I thought, 'Okay, I'm going to be super-rich.'"
"I valued time more than anything. I wanted enough money to be able to travel, have fun, and party like a rock star, but still live like a student. That was my motivation."
