Key Points

  1. Tori Dunlap, founder of Her First $100K, says she became a millionaire at 27 and a multimillionaire by 32, yet still drives the Toyota RAV4 she bought at 22.
  2. She argues the real waste is spending to appear wealthy rather than on things that genuinely matter to you, citing time as her most valuable currency.
  3. Her approach redirects money toward travel, charitable giving, and financial independence — priorities she says material displays of wealth cannot match.

What Tori Dunlap Actually Spends On — and What She Refuses To

Tori Dunlap, founder of the financial education platform Her First $100K and author of "Financial Feminist," says she hit her first $100,000 in savings at 25, became a millionaire at 27, and is now, at 32, a multimillionaire. What she does not have, by her own account, is the look or lifestyle many people associate with that level of wealth. She still drives the same Toyota RAV4 she went into debt to buy at 22, gets her hair done roughly every three months rather than constantly, and rented an apartment until last year — not because she couldn't afford to buy, but because she didn't want to spend the time house-hunting.

Her point is not that spending is bad. It is that spending on things you don't actually care about — a bag, a car, a house bought mainly to signal wealth to others — is where money gets wasted. Dunlap says she spends freely on travel, which she considers one of the most important parts of her life, and is proud of the home she eventually bought. She keeps that home and her partner off social media, treating privacy as more valuable than displaying her success.

The essay, told in her own words, is less a budgeting guide than a description of how she defines financial success: having enough security to never stay in a situation that doesn't respect her, to donate to causes she believes in, and to pick up the check for friends and family without worry. She notes that women in her community have used financial independence to leave abusive relationships or toxic jobs — outcomes she ranks far above any material marker of wealth.

The Money Logic Behind 'Looking Rich' vs. Being Rich

Why 'Looking Rich' Is a Cost, Not a Status Symbol

Dunlap's argument rests on a simple distinction: spending to signal wealth is different from spending on what you value. The first is driven by external comparison — keeping up with the Joneses, as she puts it — and produces little lasting satisfaction. The second is deliberate and tied to outcomes she can name: travel, privacy, generosity, and the ability to walk away from situations that don't respect her. For a personal-finance audience, that reframing matters more than any specific purchase decision, because it shifts the question from "can I afford this?" to "does this actually matter to me?"

Time as the Real Currency

The detail that carries the most weight in her account is not the car — it's the house. Dunlap says she could have bought years earlier but didn't want to spend the time searching. Only when her landlord sold the apartment twice in a row did she decide the investment of time was worth it. That is a useful correction to the usual advice about optimizing every dollar: at higher income levels, the binding constraint often becomes time and attention, not money. Her refusal to get her hair done constantly is the same logic applied to a smaller expense.

What This Story Is and Isn't

This is a first-person essay, not a study or a financial plan. Dunlap's numbers — $100,000 at 25, millionaire at 27, multimillionaire at 32 — are self-reported and not independently verified. Her choices are also shaped by circumstances many readers won't share: a successful business, public visibility, and the option to buy a home when she chose to. The transferable idea is the intentional-spending test, not the specific car or the specific house. Readers who try to copy the lifestyle without the underlying income or business will find the math doesn't work.

How to Apply the Intentional-Spending Test to Your Own Budget

The one question worth asking before any big purchase: am I buying this because I value it, or because I want other people to think I'm wealthy?

  • Run your last three months of non-essential spending through that test. Anything bought mainly for appearances — a car upgrade, a designer item, a larger home than you need — is a candidate to cut or delay.
  • Identify one or two things you genuinely value and stop apologizing for spending on them. Dunlap's example is travel; yours might be something else entirely. The point is to spend deliberately, not to spend nothing.
  • If you're weighing a major purchase, price in your time, not just the money. Dunlap delayed buying a home for years because she didn't want to spend the time searching — a legitimate reason that had nothing to do with affordability.
  • Treat privacy and financial security as assets. Dunlap keeps her home and partner off social media and describes security as the ability to leave any situation that doesn't respect her — a concrete goal you can measure against your emergency fund and savings rate.