Cash Flow Milestones: Celebrating Financial Independence Journey

The key takeaway is celebrating cash flow milestones, such as saving $100/month, maxing out Roth IRA, and reaching 25% savings rate for financial independence.

### Celebrating Cash Flow Milestones on the Path to Financial Independence
* 💰  The first milestone worth celebrating is **saving $100 per month**, which may seem small but demonstrates **discipline and the power of compounding growth**.
* 🌱  The next milestone is **maxing out a Roth IRA**, which offers **tax-free growth** and a **wide selection of investment options**.
* 💸  The third milestone is **saving $1,000 per month**, which can lead to **significant wealth accumulation over time**.
* 🏦  An advanced milestone is when **monthly savings exceed monthly debt payments**, indicating a **strong focus on the future**.
* 📊  Another advanced milestone is **maxing out a 401(k)**, which allows for **tax-deferred growth** and often includes **employer matching contributions**.
* 📈  The aspirational milestone is when **monthly investments exceed monthly spending**, a significant achievement for those seeking **early retirement**.
* 🎉  Celebrating these milestones can provide motivation and **reinforce positive financial behaviors** on the journey to financial independence.

seven cash flow milestones worth [Music] celebrating. Bri I am so excited about this because we know that 80% of personal finances behavior. And so today we want to focus on some behavioral milestones that you might hit on your path to financial independence. And these while they might seem small early, they might seem insignificant. They are huge, and they are certainly in my opinion worth celebrating. Yeah, I'm one of those people. I constantly talk about give me small decisions or give me a little bit of today for that great big beautiful tomorrow. This is exactly what we're talking about. We've actually built a foundation of our content is telling what you need to be thinking about in your 20s, your 30s. And then a recent show we did was actually on net worth milestones. And you guys gobbled it up. You loved it. And I loved because it really let you affirm those good small decisions you're making. We decide hey, this is net worth milestones. This is when you're starting to get traction.

these things are showing up on your net worth statement under assets and lowering liabilities. How about the things on every day you have money come into your household, your cash flow. Let's talk about Milestones you should focus on for every dollar that comes into your command in your army of dollar bills and how you maximize that. Now, here's the disclaimer: you don't have to meet all of these to reach Financial Independence, and there may be some of these that you never hit, and that's okay. But for some of you, especially in the early stages, you are going to hit these, and they are going to be points that you want to strive towards. And if you're not there yet, we want you to get excited about moving towards those. So, Brian, let's jump in and start with the very first Milestone, and this is one that's sort of near and dear to our hearts: saving $100 per month. Well, if you strip this down, I know $100 a month doesn't sound like a lot of money, but if you

think about what this means from a behavioral standpoint. It actually means you're living on less than you make. This is the first ingredient to wealth, which is discipline and creating that margin so your money can actually work hard for you. What I love about this number is, Bri, I think in your story and like the origin story of Brian Preston, this was the number. This was the one that got you excited, right? This was the very beginning of your inspiration. Mr. Marrow would start off the intro chapter of Millionaire Mission. Mr. Marrow shares that he walked in, and what I've kind of come to the conclusion is this was Mr. Marrow sharing kind of his own regret and also understanding the power of compound and growth and said, Hey guys, you're young, you have tons of time on your side. If you could just save $100 a month, you would be a millionaire. Remember I was working fast food at the time, working at the local Hardee's drive-thru and even making $3.80 an hour. I was like, I can save $100 a

month. So this is the first cash flow milestone that I want you to jump on. So maybe you're there saying, Ah well, guys, things are tight, life is tight. I just started out, I just graduated college, or maybe I'm in college. I don't know that I can do that. Okay, we want to help you think through that. How are some ways or what are some ways you can come up with a hundred bucks a month? Well, here's the first one. This is kind of common sense, but it's worth thinking through. Are there fixed expenses that I know that I could decrease? Do I have insurance providers that maybe aren't giving me the best rates? Do I have subscriptions that maybe I am not actually utilizing? Are there things that I could cut out that are just happening on autopilot every single month that would maybe allow me to free up $100 of cash flow each month? Yeah, I mean, definitely we talk about ungrateful service providers. You hit on that. And then these subscriptions. Look, we are in this world now where everybody's got a

subscription for you challenge those I mean look at how you're living your life and see if there's some way you can trim some of that because it just doesn't take much to create $100 a month. Or how about adjusting your behaviors? Maybe you're someone who eats out a few times a week. Maybe you could go from eating out a few times a week to eating out a few times every two weeks. Just cutting back some of those consumption behaviors might be that thing that gives you a little bit of extra margin to get your money to work for. And look, I look, I'm not the latte effect type of person because but when you're starting out, you do have to be laser-focused with every dollar that comes into your command. And I can remember in the beginning of my journey, I would bring my lunch to work. I would, you know, make my coffee cup, buy you a tumbler or win you a tumbler that you can actually take your coffee from your house. Those little small decisions do have a big impact.

the long term or maybe you are already living as lean as you possibly can. Another way to come up with 100 bucks, how do I increase income? Is there a side gig I can do? Is there something I can do to generate additional income? Can I sell stuff to come up with an extra hundred bucks a month? And then, you know, one of the things, if you can eliminate high in debt. Um, you know, if you're not, I, I, this often is that if you're not scared when you're using debt, you're probably using it wrong. And I feel like that that's something that we as Americans struggle with right now is we're way too comfortable with debt and with interest rates on credit cards being over 20%. You've got to get that type of debt extinguished as fast as possible, and it's going to help you get on a better foot with your finances. Now, these are just a few ideas of how to save $100, but Brian in the Bookman Mission, you took it a step further.

actually issued a challenge to the readers right well think about it the typical American can't come up with 60% of Americans right around 60% can't come up with $11,000 for for emergency reserves and I was like let's fix this and this is when I designed the $200 a month challenge. I didn't want you to feel like you had to go work extra hours. I didn't want you to feel like you had to go slash your budget. These are things that I think everyone can do by just adjusting your behaviors and I would challenge you go check it out a millionaire Mission. This is something you can do and you'll be better than 60% of your peers just from doing the $200 a month challenge. So the question you might be ask okay why why is it guys a $100 is just not a lot of money why why does this matter why is this even a milestone because that small amount of money that that little incremental step in Saving can have a huge long-term

impact if you can start it early because look at what happens. If you can just save $100 a month for 10 years, you will have saved $12,000. But if you can get that money working for you, and let's just say conservatively you can make 8% per year, after just 10 years of investing that $12,000, you invested could be worth $18,000. So pretty exciting. But now if you could do that for 20 years, you will have invested $24,000, but your portfolio is worth almost $60,000. If you can do it for 30 years, you've invested $36,000, your portfolio is worth almost $150,000. But if you can do it for 40 years, just a hundred bucks a month over a working career, even though you will have only put $48,000 of your dollars to work, those dollars can turn into over $350,000. This is the power of compounding growth, and I want to go beyond even what this $100 discussion.

because you're going to notice a trend here, and this is all throughout personal finance. Once you understand the power of what time can do for you, that's why it is the third and most powerful ingredient of the wealth-building ingredients. Is that think about the this when you've invested for 10 years, your money has had the opportunity to grow by 35%. But the magical thing is the longer you can say consistent and keep going on when you've let that money work for 40 years. Now the account is 86% growth. So quit thinking linearly, linearly is you know you 1 2 3 4 five six no your money when it grows exponentially through compounding growth. It is picking up speed with every year, every decade that you can say consistent. That's why 10 years it's only 35% growth. 40 years 86% growth. If we did this for 50 years, if you did the whole Warren Buffett thing that said part of the reason that Warren Buffett is so rich is because he lived for so long and built

wealth for so many decades. You can see how powerful your army of dollar bills are. All right, Brian, let's talk about the next Milestone, the next cash flow Milestone that's worth celebrating. It's a big deal, and this is another one that's near and dear to our hearts: maxing out your Roth IRA. Oh man, I love Roth IRAs because these things, this is your path to becoming a tax-free millionaire, and it starts with small, once again small incremental decisions. If you think about the maximum that you can Fund in 2024 is $7,000. Now, if you're 50 or over, somebody at this table resembles that, you can actually do $8,000. That works out to be right around $583 a month. It's not crazy, it doesn't take a ton of Capital to be able to do this, but if you can begin maxing out your WTH and you can establish that behavior, it sets your future self up for success. And why is Roth the account that we picked? Why is that the one that we

wanted to hold in on because we think that Roth dollars are amazing. There are some huge benefits to Roth, the first being when you open up a Roth account, you get to choose where you open it, what custodian. Well, when you choose a low-cost provider like Fidelity, like Charles Schwab, like Vanguard, you naturally, if you're buying low-cost index funds, you're going to have low expenses, low fees. You get to keep more of your dollars working for you for the future. I also like the tax-free growth. I've already hit on this. Think about on those previous slides when we were talking about that 86% of your account could be the growth, not what you contributed, but actually the growth of the account. If that's tax-free, that is that much sexier for the future. So take advantage of letting that exponential growth build up completely tax-free. Another benefit of Roths is, unlike your 401k, which might only have a few investment options available, you have a huge selection of investment options. Again, if you use a low-cost

provider like a Fidelity, a Schwab, or a Vanguard, you can select from the entire universe of low-cost index funds and ETFs, so there's a huge opportunity for you to, again, have very efficient dollars working for you for the future. And then, lastly, the flexibility of the contributions. Think about the fact that, you know, you have until April 15th of the following year to fully fund this. Also, Roth IRAs have a break glass in case of emergency provision where if you got into a really bad pickle, you could actually get access to the basis of your Roth IRA to be that emergency fund. We don't love that, but it's still nice that it has that flexibility of the contributions. Look, this is the last thing I'll say about the Roth part. The government restricts how much you can put in, the government restricts how much money you can make to even have access to this. There's a reason that they have put so many restrictions on this powerful tool. You're crazy if you're missing out on this limited.

opportunity that the government's laying out for you. Just so you can build your financial future. Another reason why we think this is a great milestone and one worth celebrating. Because if you're following the financial order of operation Brian can you know the thing up. If you're following the financial order of operations, one of the huge benefits once you've maxed out your raw IRAs is you get to continue moving along in the food. You get to go from step five now to step six. So that's a milestone in and of itself worth celebrating. And the earlier you can do this, the sooner you can figure this out, the less likely you might have future regrets 'cause sometimes people look back and think, man, what if. I think one of the powers of the show is that I am transparent with my mistakes and um look. I had my own messy middle moments and the um 90s and early 2000s in the fact that my wife and I had just bought a house then i' had lost my my father and I was then using that life.

moment to save up to start my first business in 2002. And all during that period because remember Roth IRAs came on the scene in 1998. And I'm very proud of the fact that I've loaded up that 1998 Roth. But I ran into some. I still funded these accounts. But if you added it up, there was $10,000 between 1999 to all the way through 2003 because of life that I left a little bit here and there on the table. Now I am nerdy enough that I went and calculated what my Roth accounts are worth now. And I detailed all this in millionaire Mission. And this is why it's my Roth IRA regret. And I figured out I was making 99.3% annually if you annualized all my contributions and what I've actually earned on my Roth assets. And I said okay, that $10,000 of here and there, $1,000 here, there. It seemed like it was just a small decision at the time, right now.

what would that account be worth, and when we figured it out at that 99.3%, that $10,000 small decision would now be worth close to $70,000. Insane. That's that stinks and regret that's tax-free growth that I left on the table. But here's what will really make your hair on your arm stand up. If you then expand that because remember, we don't need to think linearly, we need to think exponentially because the more time we can give our assets to work, the more they grow upon themselves. If you fast forward that $68,000 close to $69,000 by the time I reach 65 years of age, that same $10,000 would have had the opportunity to become $332,000 of tax-free money. I'm telling you, small decisions today can have huge impacts. Yes, I feel like this did not derail my financial life. You do not have to have perfection to be successful, but be honest with yourself. It is these small

little decisions that you give up $1,000 here, $2,000 there, that can lead to an over quarter of million dollar mistake that I've made in the past. And the sooner you figure it out, the better. The best time to have done it was yesterday. The second best time to do it is today. All right, so we talked about maxing out Roth IRAs. Now let's talk about the third Milestone when it comes to saving, when it comes to Building Wealth. The next Milestone we think that is worth celebrating, and this is silly to say, it's when you get into four-digit territory. It's when you actually are saving $1,000 a month. We celebrated saving $100 a month. Well, now that has gotten even bigger to where you're saving a thousand bucks a month into your portfolio. Look, I don't, I'm pretty transparent as I've already shared, you know, my Roth regret. I cannot tell you the specific date that my wife and I started saving $1,000 a month, but I remember a.

celebration we had from it the month we set up. I remember we our assets at that time. We were with Charles Schwab, and I set up the automatic account Builder to start doing $1,000 a month into that joint investment account. And we went to Dante's Down the Hatch, which is a fondue place. It's since burndown was in in Atlanta. It was a great had alligators in the lobby and all kind of other crazy stuff. We went and celebrated because this was a huge milestone in our financial life in our 20s that we started saving and investing $1,000 a month. And this would be big for you too guys because think about this. I've already shared that close to 60%. It's currently right now 56% of Americans can't even come up with $1,000 for an emergency. If you're saving and investing $1,000 a month, you're doing this on a monthly basis talking about discipline and that margin to build wealth working for you. You are doing so good as a

financial mutant. When you reach this milestone, I think what's amazing is if you just look at the median household income in this country, it's about $75,000. If you can be saving $1,000 a month, that right there puts you at 16% savings rate, which is amazing. If you have an employer match and your employer's putting money in your account as well, you are likely getting very close to that 20 to 25%, just by hitting this thousand. So, it is a meaningful number and it is a huge milestone worth celebrating because once you hit $1,000, do you know what that means? It means that now you have done 10x what that person that was saving $100 was doing. Now, over 10 years, you will have put $120,000 to work. It could be worth $184,000. But if you can do $1,000 a month over 40 years, over an entire working career, even though you will have saved $480,000, which is wildly impressive.

money. If you can earn 8% on average, has the ability to turn into 3.5 million. Do well. What's interesting to me when I looked at this, you remember the two numbers that I showed earlier, is quit thinking linear, think exponentially. After 10 years, if you think about this, only 35% of the account is growth, the other 65% is you doing the hard work putting the money in. It's because we added a few extra zeros, we went from $100 a month to now we're doing $1,000 a month. This, the math is the exact same, 35%, but the numbers are just substantially larger. And then you take out to the exponent point of 40 years in the future, that 86% growth, where now you've only really contributed 14% of the account. 86% growth, $3.5 million. Even for all my inflation hounds that tell me a million dollar is nothing, I'll tell you what, $3.5 million, it's something. And I'll

tell you what. You're going to quickly see that $35 million turn into four five $6 million because reaching you know $100,000 is a hard Milestone to reach. But once you reach that million, I think you'll be amazed at how your army of dollar bills work so much harder for you. Because you now have reached that escape velocity, that boiling point. And that's what I want you to understand, is the better you can get with your shovel of putting that money into your Investments, taking a little bit today for that great big b tomorrow, the better you'll be for the future. All right, Brian. So all these Milestones we've covered right now are worth celebrating and they are not insignificant. But now I want to shift and we're going to talk about some more. I'm going to call them Advanced Milestones. These are probably going to be like financial mutant Milestones. Again, you don't have to hit these in order to reach Financial Independence, but if you do hit these

it's worth internalizing. It's worth thinking through it and celebrating this, and the first one, this one I think is pretty awesome. Your monthly savings, the amount that you're putting into your investments on a monthly basis, is greater than your monthly debt payments, what you're servicing on all of your debts are on a monthly basis. I want you to internalize this. I think it's pretty common if you look, if you walk through your life in your 20s. Unfortunately, you're probably gonna have to deal with some debts, of course, and it always troubled me. This is why when we talk about 238, we always try, you know, there's always an asterisk to that. 20% down, don't finance longer than three years, no more than 8% of your income for your car purchase, but we also want your monthly investments to be greater than your monthly debt payment on your car, you know, on the car, because I think you think in account student loans, you think in account mortgage, you think about any other, you know, debt that you

might have out there. This is a hard thing to accomplish in your 20s and even potentially in your 30s as you're getting in the messy middle. But when you cross this from I want you to reflect, I want you to celebrate because this means that you're actually you're doing more for your future self than your past self. Because that's what debt is. You have obligated yourself, but now you are really putting money to work for you. And here's what the superpower of that is. You'll own your time that much sooner. Sooner that time, that margin, uh, is you're going to be able to buy your time and make decisions because you want to, not because you're obligated to. Now this is one of those that it's going to depend on your personal financial situation, uh, what your debt payments are. But if you just want some numbers to kind of like hang your hat on, Americans right now pay an average of a little under $1,600 per month towards debt. So that's

student loans, mortgages, auto loans - all the debt that you might be servicing. So if you are now saving more than that amount, it is something worth celebrating. This is something where if you and your spouse are working on this together and you just got a pay raise or you just paid something off, and now you see that the amount you have going into all of your different accounts as your F, the financial order of operations, are bigger than the Debt Service, you guys should go celebrate it. Go out to dinner, have a conversation around it, go for a walk, because that is a huge thing. You are now able to prioritize I the future more than you're catching up on the past. It's significant, it's something you definitely want to think about leaning into. Look, I don't mind, you know, we do need to be clear on this though. Some of us come out with more debt. I mean, if you come out of college with more student loan debt or you didn't have a reliable car, so you had to

go immediately get into some car debt. This is going to be a harder goal but I think it's worth repeating. You don't have to accomplish this to be successful, but it is definitely one of those milestones with your cash flow. When you cross over this threshold, I want you to go celebrate, 'cause it really is amazing. Your future self is going to cry those big tears and give you that big bear hug because you've overcome the past and all those other obligations to get to this point. That's something worth celebrating. All right BR, let's talk about our next milestone. This one again is one that you likely might not hit early on in your financial journey, and that's okay. But when you do hit it, it's worth celebrating, and that is maxing out your 401K, but maxing out your employer-sponsored retirement account, because what that means is that this year, if you're under 50, that means that in this single account, you're saving $23,000. If you're over 50, it's

$30,500. So, if you were to break that down into monthly terms, if you're under 50, that's almost $2,000 a month. It's $1,917. And for those over 50, it's over $25,500 a month. If you're doing this, that immediately puts you into a substantial savings position. Well, I mean look, these numbers are big, big. But that's why this is so powerful, is because we're going to show you all the elements that make money so powerful and investing so powerful, is that compounding growth, letting your money work harder than you can with your than your back, your brain, and your hands. When you have a, you sharpen up your determination and your earning potential and put more and more of it to work for you guys. This is what creates that automatic, inevitable wealth that we're talking about. This is why we actually love 401ks. But walk them through the big benefits of 401ks. Yeah, there are three things we think that make them huge. One

is that when you put money in, you either get a tax deduction on that employer-sponsored retirement plan today, or you don't get a tax deduction, but the dollars can grow tax-free. You get to choose: do I want my tax benefit today, or do I want it in the future? Well, then while the dollars are investing, the entire time they sit in the account, you don't pay taxes as they grow. So all of the assets will grow tax-deferred. And then our favorite thing, maybe the single best thing about employer-sponsored plans, is that a vast majority of them have some component of free money. They have an employer match in there that you can go grab. It's so important. That's why we made it step number two. Brian, can you know the thing up? Oh, yeah, it's why we made that step number two the financial order of operations 'cause employer free money is so, so sweet that you have to be capitalizing on it. Well, well, if you're maxing out your 401K, if you're putting $23,000 into it, you are certainly

maximizing that employer tax-free benefit and you're walking towards inevitable wealth. It's that automatic consistent behavior. Doesn't matter what's going on in the stock market, doesn't matter what's going on in the political world, doesn't matter what your fear or greed meters internally are doing. You're going to always be buying into that retirement plan and that's going to create inevitable wealth for your future self. So we love the 401ks. We talked about why they're special, but why for you behaviorally is this milestone important? Like why is it significant? Well, the first is this is not easy. It's not easy to save $223,000 into a single account, but what it does show is that behaviorally you are being intentional. You have chosen that I'm going to defer this much of today for some great big beautiful tomorrow and it shows that you are doing the behaviors necessary to have a bright financial future. Well, and also think about all research on millionaires. A lot of it shows that the first account that crosses into seven

figures is the 401K. This is one. And even when we do a survey of our own millionaires, the 401K, the employer-provided retirement account, is one of the biggest accounts. Because not only is it your consistent behavior that creates that inevitable walk, but it's also that free money when you can get a 50 to 100% guaranteed rate of return from your employer. These things all on top of each other, you're really accelerating the journey. And then the third thing that we love about this is now you're actually continuing to move up in the financial order of operations. You're no longer in Step six when it's max out your employer-sponsored retirement plans. Now you get to go to Step seven. You get to move to hyper-accumulation. You get to move to building up those after-tax Bridge assets. You are continuing to move along the financial path towards Financial Independence. So once you do that, once you've crossed this Milestone, it's certainly one that is worth celebrating. The next Milestone, this

one's an important one, especially for my financial mutants 'cause y'all know and we take a little flack for this. When people say, Hey, what do we need to be saving and investing for the future? We say, you know, obviously it depends on how old you are, but we always give a range of 20% to 25%. But the ideal is for you to get to 25% towards retirement. Now look, we give you some grace because it's not only your saving and investment, it's also your employer match and other things, but it is an incredible achievement and a milestone worth celebrating when you do cross 25% of your gross income going towards the future. It's wild. You know, we just said that 56% of Americans could not come up with $1,000 for an emergency. When you are now saving 25% of your gross income, you are already automatically an elite and unique company. That suggests that you are a financial mutant. This is a huge milestone to celebrate. And so why is

this important. Why do we say this? Well, there's three reasons, right? One, people are waiting longer to start saving for retirement. Right now, we know that the average that people begin taking finances serious and beginning to save is age 31. So, you better make sure that if you are not taking advantage of savings in your third in your 20s, and you're waiting until your 30s, you want to make sure that you have a healthy savings rate so that you get to control and own your financial future. Well, I mean, but there's a disconnect here, Bo, because this frustrates me a little bit because I want people to live their best financial life. And you know, 'cause you just shared people are waiting until they 31 to start saving ing, but then the same people will then fill out the survey and say they're wanting more flexibility, more freedom before they get to age 65. They don't want to do the traditional path of waiting to 65 and getting the gold watch. They want to do things on their term own.

their time that much sooner. But how can you say that this is the goal when you defer starting to build your army of dollar bills so they can work harder than you can? And that's the part where I would encourage you, challenge you, don't fall into this trap that's out there where people are saying, Hey, why invest? There's even this whole thing where people are talking about income leveling and spending where defer because you'll make more money in the future. And that's when you'll save and invest. No, do not underestimate the value of what time can do for you. This is the most valuable resource that you have, is your time, because if you can give it that extra five years, that extra 10 years of your money working for you is what is going to really amplify and compound your wealth. The other thing that we love about saving 25% is that there are so many things that are outside of our control. Do we have access to a pinion? What's going to happen with Social Security? Is the market going to be a

really positive. Market is going to be a negative Market. All of these outside of our control factors impact our finances. Why not maximize the things that we can't control? And one of the biggest things that we can control is our savings rate. And we know that likely no matter what age we start, but certainly if we start early, if we can begin saving 25% for the future, it's going to put us in a more secure financial future, and it's going to give us more options to live the life that we want to live on our terms. So if you want to know what can 25% do for you, I mean the first thing I want you to know, I want you to look at that. If you're looking at this visual that we have out there for YouTube, everybody who starts saving between 20 and 25, it's all right, all right, all right, all green lights. Yeah, 'cause it is green lights. So you can see it's green all the way across, whether you're saving 10%, 15%, 20%, it doesn't

matter because you got that time component and crushed it. 25, you're still going to be doing great even if you're doing 15% or greater. But notice we said that the typical person doesn't start saving investing until they're 31 years of age. You quickly start seeing that red and yellow on what 10% can do for you, what 15% can do for you. You better get serious and start thinking 20%, and then definitely by 25%. By the time you get to your mid-30s, don't let another day get behind you. I'm not saying look this isn't wealth building is in a game just for the Youth and the young. This is something anyone can do, but you got to be serious. The longer you wait, the more you're putting the responsibility on your income and your shoulders for discipline. The thing that I also love about the 25% is just like some of our previous steps. This is a line in the sand where you get to graduate through.

the food Brian you want to hold the thing up for me. You now get to go from Step seven hyper accumulation to now focusing on some of those prepaid future expenses. Brion likes to call them the abundance goals. Maybe this is saving for your kid's College. Maybe this is buying that vacational. Maybe this is investing in real estate. Once you're hitting that 25% savings rate, you then get to choose what you do above and beyond that. This is the first step. It's not exactly Financial Independence, but this is your first step to Financial Freedom where you get to do the things with your money that you want to do because you know you're checking the Box on the things that you're supposed to be doing. So this is a celebration Milestone at 25%. You get to keep moving forward. I got one more cash flow Milestone I want to talk about now. This one is aspirational. I'm just going to go and tell you this one. This one is definitely Financial mutant crazy and this is for a lot of my people.

that consider themselves part of the fire movement or fine movement. Next Endeavor that we like to talk about is this is people who let their investments, their monthly investments are seeding their spending. Yeah, this one's crazy. This is one and a lot of times we see it for like high-income individuals or folks who are in very unique industries where what they've done is their lifestyle has grown to a place to where, Hey, I'm comfortable. I can spend X dollar per month and I can live the life that I want to live and I can do the things that I want to do. But my income keeps going up or I get bonuses or I have incentives or I have stock options or whatever that thing may be and I don't want to increase lifestyle. I'm already doing the things I want to be doing. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to put those dollars to work for me. Well, when I actually add it up, I know that my monthly burn rate, what it takes me to live life is this, but then when I

think about my. I'm actually saving more than that on a monthly basis. That is unique, that is significant, that's a milestone worth celebrating. I do think this is one that's pretty exciting. If you think about the concept. And like I said, this is aspirational. We've already said this is crazy because for every year that you're saving, investing, you essentially bought another year of your life. And that's not even, that's conservative CU. You're not even taking into account the growth. But I do want to challenge people. This is the, I'm the older sentimental guy. I want you to maximize every decade of your life. So this is one that if you're making this decision and it's kind of drifting not from Financial mutant but into that dangerous Financial Miser, be careful 'cause I do want you to enjoy your 20s. I want you to enjoy your 30s. But I love it if you're still maximizing every one of those decades but you're still able to save at this healthy.

aspirational level. Good on you because you're going to own your time and live your best life that much sooner. What I love is that wealth building is a slow and steady journey, and there are milestones, you know. We do our annual net worth statement, and we get to celebrate those moments. And maybe the net worth doesn't change a ton year over year. What I like is that if we can figure out ways to celebrate not just the big milestones that we see on our net worth, but if we can also celebrate the cash flow milestones, the behavioral decisions that we're making that are allowing us to put ourselves in the situation where our future self is going to be able to be financially independent and live life the way that we want to live on our terms, doing the things that we want to do the way that we want to do them. Those moments are worth celebrating, and it might be those little celebrations, crossing over those milestones, that give you that fuel to keep going, that give you that fire to stay motivated. So I

hope that as you reach these milestones, you'll stop and celebrate. That the journey might be just as fun and just as exciting as the destination you're working towards. Guys, we've covered a lot of stuff that we share on the show. Um, with our resources, the financial order of operations, the wealth multiplier. I'd encourage you go to money.com/resources, download all this stuff for free. Because money is just a tool, it's not a goal. And what I really want you to kind of focus on is building your abundant life. This is where you combine both wealth with the purpose. And if you've got the understanding of what your why is and why you're even doing this, so you own your time that much sooner. Welcome becoming a financial mutant. I'm your host, Brian Preston, Mr. Bo Hansen, Money Guy team out.

7 Cashflow Milestones Worth Celebrating!

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Celebrating Cash Flow Milestones on the Path to Financial Independence

Saving $100 per month signifies living below your means and is the first step towards building wealth.

It's achievable through cutting expenses, challenging subscriptions, and adjusting consumption behaviors.

Making small decisions, like bringing lunch to work and making coffee at home, can have a significant impact on creating the necessary margin for your money to work for you.

Tips for Increasing Income and Building Wealth

Adjusting behaviors can help save an extra $100 a month, potentially leading to significant long-term impact through compounding growth.

The $200 a month challenge is designed to improve financial stability without requiring extra work or budget cuts.

Maxing out a Roth IRA with small, incremental contributions can set the stage for tax-free millionaire status and financial success.

Roth IRAs offer the opportunity for tax-free growth of your investments, as the account allows the growth of your assets to be tax-free.

They also provide a wide range of investment options, especially when using low-cost providers like Fidelity or Vanguard.

Additionally, Roth IRAs offer flexibility in contributions, with a provision for emergency fund access and a deadline of April 15th for funding, making it a powerful tool for building a financial future.

The Significance of Saving $1,000 a Month

Saving $1,000 a month is a significant milestone in building wealth, representing financial discipline and a strong savings rate.

By consistently saving this amount, it is possible to accumulate a substantial sum over the years, potentially reaching millions through investment growth.

Hitting the $1,000 a month mark signifies a transition to advanced financial milestones, bringing one closer to financial independence.

Prioritizing Investments Over Debt: A Financial Milestone

Prioritizing monthly investments over debt payments is a significant achievement for your financial future, signaling a shift towards prioritizing your future self over your past obligations.

The average American pays nearly $1,600 per month towards various debts, so saving more than this amount is a milestone worth celebrating, as it signifies a greater focus on the future.

Maxing out your 401K or employer-sponsored retirement account demonstrates a substantial commitment to saving and investing for the future, taking advantage of the power of compounding growth.

Maximizing Employer-Sponsored Retirement Plans

Choosing between tax benefits today or in the future is a key decision when investing in an employer-sponsored retirement plan.

Taking advantage of employer matches and tax-free growth can significantly boost long-term wealth.

Crossing the milestone of saving 25% of gross income for retirement is a significant achievement, indicating financial discipline and putting individuals on the path to financial independence.

The Importance of Saving 25% of Your Income

Saving and investing 25% of your income allows your money to work for you and compound your wealth over time.

It also provides a sense of financial security and offers more options for the future.

Starting to save and invest early, ideally in your 20s, is crucial for maximizing the benefits of a 25% savings rate.

The Concept of "Seeding Your Spending" in Wealth Building

Some individuals are choosing to keep their lifestyle expenses steady, despite increasing income, and instead, investing the surplus money.

This approach allows them to celebrate cash flow milestones and achieve financial independence while still enjoying their life.

The strategy is to maximize every decade of life, celebrating both net worth and cash flow milestones along the slow wealth-building journey.