Nyjah Huston is one of the highest-paid skateboarders in the world with sponsorship deals with NikeSB and Monster.
That doesn't mean he always makes the best decisions around money.
Huston began winning contests with $5,000 to $10,000 prizes by the time he was 10, and at age 15 won his first professional contest and a $150,000 check.
"I was just getting my license around that time, so I bought my first car — a Mercedes," Huston says. "I was juiced."
The 29-year-old says his luxury car splurges since then, including a $300,000 Lamborghini when he was 19, were all "definitely worth it."
But one major money mistake still haunts him: "The dumbest way I've ever spent my money? Oh, that's easy: crypto."
Huston says he has "lots of regrets" about buying into the crypto craze, which peaked in 2021 when bitcoin hit $1 trillion in market value for the first time and NFTs entered the mainstream. The crypto market saw a dramatic decline by the end of 2022 and continues to be a risky investment.
Huston remembers learning those lessons firsthand. "My buddies and my roommates, at the time, were super into it," he says. "But I'm a busy guy. I'm always out skating. I don't have time to sit on my phone or my computer all day. So sometimes I would wake up and I would be up like like $20K off like a $2K investment."
Those highs didn't always last. Huston remembers checking his investments in the morning and being excited about the gains, then planning to sell at the end of the day. By the time he got home one night, though, he saw that his gains were "all gone."
To balance out those moments, Huston tries to incorporate the best money advice he's ever learned, which he says comes from his mom. Huston says she tells him "on the daily to make smart investments, because I'm the type of person that's willing to take some risks in investing into startup companies and things like that."
At the end of the day, "my mom's always like, you need to put your money [in] retirement accounts. Do it the right way. Be safe. So I thank my mom for that one."
The six-time world champion and 13-time X Games gold medalist will head to Paris next summer to represent Team USA in the 2024 Olympics.
Watch the Paris Olympics next summer on NBC and Peacock.
Disclosure: CNBC parent NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics is the U.S. broadcast rights holder to all Summer and Winter Games through 2032.
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