Building wealth may depend less on looking rich and more on resisting the pressure to spend as though you already were.

JC Rodriguez, founder of "The Frugal Rich," joined FOX Business' Stuart Varney on "Varney & Co." to discuss the habits he has observed among everyday millionaires, along with approaches to saving, investing and how young people can navigate major financial decisions.

According to Rodriguez, a common trait among the wealthy people his content has spotlighted is a deliberate approach to spending, particularly when it comes to impressing others. The observation echoes research popularized in the 1996 book "The Millionaire Next Door," in which authors Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko found that many American millionaires built their wealth by living below their means rather than displaying it.

"We have spotlighted America's everyday millionaires in our content and what we found is amongst America's wealthy is they all have this aspect of frugality within their life that they're always living. … They're very intentional about how they spend their money, and they don't care to impress others," Rodriguez said.

That same focus on intentional money management, he noted, can begin well before someone reaches millionaire status. Rodriguez encouraged people to consistently direct part of each paycheck toward savings or investments, even when the amount is relatively small. The "pay yourself first" principle he described is a longstanding staple of personal finance guidance, popularized by George S. Clason's 1926 book "The Richest Man in Babylon," and automated transfers are now a standard feature at banks and brokerages.

"We always encourage people to pay yourself first. Whenever you get your paycheck, just set up an automation to move money from your checking into your high-yield savings account or into your brokerage account if you want to start investing. … No matter where you are on your financial journey or your income, you can still just start off with $50, $100 towards saving and investing," he said.

The high-yield savings accounts he referenced, offered largely by online banks, typically pay higher interest rates than standard accounts at traditional branch banks.

For those beginning to invest, Rodriguez also drew a distinction between long-term investing and activities he characterized as speculative, including sports betting and prediction markets. Both arenas have become more prominent for American consumers: a 2018 Supreme Court decision opened the way for states to legalize sports betting, and prediction markets such as Kalshi have drawn attention for event-based contracts traded on exchanges regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

"I believe in good old low-cost, diverse index funds as a place to begin your investing journey. … A lot of times prediction markets might be the fun thing to do but isn't the best approach to invest your money," Rodriguez said. The low-cost index funds he favors, which track broad market benchmarks rather than picking individual stocks, have become a mainstay of retirement investing as fund fees across the industry have declined over recent decades.