Ep 201: How to Build Wealth and Feel Secure With Money with Roxy Zalucky What if building wealth isn’t just about earning more money, but learning how to feel safe enough to actually use it? In this episode of Dawn of a New Era: The Billionaire Brain Podcast, Dawn McGruer is joined by Roxy Zalucky, founder of Zalucky Financial, who spent 15 years working across Wall Street and Bay Street before building a financial advisory business focused on helping women understand, manage and grow their wealth. Roxy’s fascination with money started early. Growing up without much financial education at home, she became determined to understand how money worked and eventually built a career inside some of the world’s biggest financial institutions. Early in that career, one brutally honest conversation with her boss changed everything. After asking for a pay rise, she was told she was replaceable. Rather than accepting that, Roxy went back to university, learned computer science and built a rare combination of financial, regulatory and technical expertise that ultimately helped her become the second female trader in the history of her hedge fund. But it was seeing how successful women were still being treated when asking for financial advice that pushed her into entrepreneurship. Dawn and Roxy explore why financial success does not automatically create financial confidence, how money trauma can continue influencing even high earners, and why women need to build both a financial strategy and a healthier relationship with wealth. In this episode, you’ll discover: • How Roxy went from an entry-level Wall Street salary to becoming a hedge fund trader • Why one comment from her boss completely changed the direction of her career • What led her to leave institutional finance and start Zalucky Financial • Why even highly successful women can still feel uncomfortable or unsafe around money • How financial trauma can quietly influence the decisions you make with wealth • Why some high earners keep huge amounts of cash sitting in current accounts • The hidden cost of doing nothing with your money • Why opportunity cost matters just as much as investment returns • How automation can make wealth building easier and less emotional • Why your personal financial team should grow as your business success grows • How to start investing when you have never done it before • Why starting with a small amount can help build confidence • The importance of diversification across property, investments, retirement funds and business equity • Why financial freedom comes from earning, keeping and enjoying wealth • How legacy can become a powerful motivation for building generational wealth Roxy explains that one of the biggest surprises in her work has been discovering just how common financial trauma really is. People may appear successful on the outside, but underneath the numbers can sit fear, guilt, scarcity and old beliefs that continue to shape every financial decision. And that is why, for Roxy, the first step is rarely the spreadsheet. It is creating enough safety for someone to talk honestly about their financial story. Because even the best strategy in the world is useless if every part of you is resisting it. One behaviour Roxy sees regularly among successful women is holding large amounts of cash simply because it feels safer when they can see it. She shares the example of a client with $350,000 sitting in a checking account because she was worried she might eventually need a new roof. Once the actual cost of that potential emergency was established, it became easier to separate genuine financial security from fear-driven behaviour. The conversation also explores the hidden cost of leaving money untouched. Beyond inflation, Roxy encourages people to consider opportunity cost. What could that money potentially be doing elsewhere? The goal is not to shame anyone into investing. It is to understand the full picture so you can make an informed and intentional decision about what feels right for you. Dawn and Roxy also talk about making wealth building more enjoyable. Whether it is automated investing, starting with $20 or $50, creating rituals around money or simply learning through curiosity, investing does not have to feel intimidating. Roxy’s advice is simple. Start somewhere. You were not born knowing how to drive a car or ride a bike, so why should you expect yourself to automatically understand investing? Start small, learn as you go and build the muscle. Roxy also highlights the importance of diversification. Rather than relying entirely on one asset class, one country or one strategy, she encourages people to think about a broader wealth picture that can include property, business equity, retirement savings, cash and diversified market investments. Ultimately, this conversation is about much more than numbers. It is about creating freedom, building confidence and changing the financial story that gets passed to the next generation. For Roxy, that legacy has become one of her greatest motivations. Because building wealth is not only about what it changes for you. It is also about what becomes possible for the people who come after you. Connect with Roxy ZaluckyInstagram: @ZaluckyFinancial Visit Zalucky Financial online to join Roxy’s free Monday newsletter, where she shares three key market updates to help make financial news easier to understand. 🎧 Subscribe to Dawn of a New Era: The Billionaire Brain Podcast for conversations around founder psychology, neuroscience, wealth, identity and the thinking behind extraordinary success. CHECK OUT THE PODCAST & APPLY TO BECOME A GUESThttps://dawnmcgruer.com/podcast FOLLOW DAWN MCGRUERInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dawnmcgruer/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawnmcgruer/ Think better. Feel richer. Live happier. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podkite - https://podkite.com/privacy
