You must spend money to make money.

The proverb expresses a pragmatic economic idea: profit typically requires prior investment—of capital, resources, or risk. It can apply to commerce (buying stock to sell at a margin), to enterprise (funding tools, labor, or marketing), and more broadly to any endeavor where upfront costs enable later gains. As a maxim it also carries a cautionary edge: the pursuit of profit can rationalize continual outlay, and “spending” may be framed as necessary even when it is speculative or wasteful. Although often attributed to Plautus, the familiar English wording is a later proverbial formulation rather than a securely attested line from his surviving Latin plays.