Starting a Career Late: Financial Guidance and Community Support

John's late career start proves that saving 25% now can lead to financial independence and a comfortable retirement.

### Embracing the Messy Middle: Financial Guidance for Late Starters
* 💬 John expresses his concerns about starting his career later in life at 31 and feeling behind despite **saving 25% of his income** now at 34.
* 🩺 Many individuals, especially in professions like medicine, often begin their financial journeys later due to extensive education and training, realizing that their peers have a **significant head start**.
* 📈 It's important to recognize that **saving 25% of your income** can lead to replacing about **85% of your pre-retirement income** by age 65, indicating that John is **on the right track**.
* 🛠 The "**Know Your Number**" tool is recommended for individuals like John to assess their financial trajectory and determine if they're **ahead or behind** in their goals.
* 🕒 John is encouraged to set clear retirement goals and reverse engineer his savings strategy to align with his aspirations, emphasizing that **34 is still a young age to start planning**.
* 🤝 The community around financial growth is highlighted, with many sharing similar **late-start stories**, offering **support and camaraderie** through platforms like Discord and Reddit.
* 🌍 Lastly, John is invited to engage with these communities and utilize resources available at **learn.money.com** to enhance his financial journey and connect with others facing **similar challenges**.

[Music] We're going to move on to John's question next. He says, Hey guys, what would you say to those who start their career later in life? I started in the thick of the messy middle at 31 and now I'm 34. And though we can now live comfortably and save 25%, I can't help but feel behind after missing out on my most opportunistic investment years. Any advice, words of encouragement? Thanks for everything y'all do. Well, John, I don't think you're alone. I think a lot of people find themselves in the situation. Some folks, it might be because, you know, we see this all the time with clients of ours that are in the medical profession. They go to like a gazillion years of school and they have to go through residency, and they really don't start getting into their like good, quote-unquote, doctor money until they do get into their 30s. And they recognize that some of their peers who started in the workforce and started saving at 22.

23 24 now have almost a decade ahead of them. Or maybe you're one of those people just I didn't get it figured out in my 20s. I didn't take finances seriously until I got to my 30s. You're not alone in that, and the messy middle is a difficult time to figure that out. But you said something I love. You said, Hey, I'm 34 years old now, and I'm saving 25%. I'm doing the things that I'm supposed to be doing. I would encourage you to go to money.com resources. We have a deliverable called How much can or what can 25% do for you. This will show that even at 34 years old, if you're able to save 25% of your gross income, there's a really good chance that when you get to retirement, if you work all the way out until age 65, you're going to be able to replace about 85% of your pre-retirement income. So without doing anything else, you are going to be on track. That's why

We picked that 25% number, but rather than just basing it on the deliverable, I think one of the interesting things, and probably here at 34, is not a bad time to do this. You have to begin constructing, okay, what's the endgame, what am I working towards, am I working towards age 55 retirement, am I looking at a 65 retirement, what is my number that I know I need to hit, and then that will help you reverse engineer into, okay, did I really miss out on time in my 20s that I need to make up for, or will saving 25% at my current trajectory put me right where I want to be when I get to financial independence. First of all, John, I want to welcome you to becoming a financial mutant, um, a financial mutant who's struggling through the messy middle, and every, you know, and for those of you who are new, 'cause we know that we're picking up new subscribers all the time, when we talk about the messy middle, I think a lot of you probably identify

that because you're short on both time, you're short on money, and you're like, How do I make all this happen? And then you have this newfound skill, is that you're a financial mutant. You make your money work for you harder than you can with your back, your brain, your hands, and you want to own your time that much sooner. But you're quickly realizing, Man, I just don't know. Do I need to be saving more? 'Cause this feels good to save and invest and let my money grow, but man, I have so many things I need to be doing with my family to make sure I'm maximizing every second on this planet. Those things are in complete conflict with each other, and both, right? You can go to money.com resources and look at what 25%, but I think I want to go deeper than that and tell you, first of all, I want you to set yourself free. Um, 31, and now you're 34, so you've been on this track.

really hot and heavy for the last 3 years. Um, I don't want you to be too hard on yourself because everyone has a big regret. I mean, when we do our annual millionaire survey of all of our millionaire clients and we say, What's your biggest financial regret? every time, I mean, you can set your clock to it, they say, I wish I'd have started earlier. I wish I could go tell my 20-year-old self, 'Do a little bit more.' So, everyone has this big regret, so cut yourself off the hook to a degree, give yourself more grace. But then, I would go a step further than even the free resource. A lot of times, people wonder, you know, Why do these guys have these tools and courses? They already are financial advisers. They're picking up clients from you. You are the perfect case study, John, of why we created the Know Your Number course and tool, is because I was like, There's going to be a whole group of people that don't need a financial advisor, but they need to know, are they ahead of the curve?

behind the curve or right where they need to be. So, we needed to, we actually created a tool so you can put in all of your assumptions. You can even play around with rates of return. You can play around with inflation. You can play around with what happens if you save a little bit more. So now, instead of you guessing or just looking at a chart of what 25%, you can actually think about your real goals, your life, and know if you're ahead of the curve, behind the curve, or right where you need to be. And here's why this is so important while you're in the messy middle because you're balancing not only the financial stuff, you're balancing your relationships. Wouldn't it be nice if you actually know where you're going to, you're actually, you're guiding this thing, and you can communicate this with your spouse, and y'all can be united on this. And then maybe once you do the homework and you actually do the steps, you can say, Hey, we're fine. It's okay if we go on this.

trip. It's okay if we spend a little bit extra on these activity fees for the kids, you know, 'cause maybe you have a daughter who's in dance or some other thing that's expensive. You'll feel much better about it because you did the work, and that's exactly why we created the and the tools. So go to learn.money.com, and we'll hook you up. And 34, still young. Oh, that's great, right? That's not, it's not, 34 is not 54. Not that 54 is old, it's just 34 is younger. It's not, it's not old. There is still plenty of time. One of the things that I absolutely love is that as this question came in, I'm watching the live chat, and there's so many people saying, Hey, I didn't start 'til I was 30, or I got started at 31, or That's my story. This is so relatable. What I love about this little universe that we get to live in is it's an unbelievable community. So John, if you

like talking with other people and interacting with other people that are in a similar situation trying to solve the same types of problems. We have tons of areas where you can do that. I was trying to write them down, re and you got to correct me because I don't I don't know them all. Like we have the live chat obviously. This is financial mutants. But then we also have Facebook page. You can go be a part of our Discord exists where you can like uh participate in the Discord. We have Reddit that you can go do the Reddit thing on. These are all amazing places that if you want to like surround yourself with other Financial mutants, there's a medium for you to be able to do that. Yeah, yes sir. And if you want uh reddits out there, if you're a redditor, definitely go find our subreddit. It's just the money guy show I believe. And it's it's there's a lot of people in there. Like it's been really fun to see that Community grow. And if

you if you're interested in the uh private Facebook group. If you're a member of one of our courses, that's where everybody who's taking a course for the Money Guy show gets to talk about that, share ideas, swap information, and sometimes get uh exclusive announcements too, or early announcements from us. So definitely check out uh Reddit and then learn. money.com if you're interested in that deeper dive and that more exclusive conversation.

Starting Your Career Later in Life? (How to Catch Up and Save Big!)

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The Money Guy Show

Starting a Career Later in Life: Advice and Encouragement

Starting a career later in life is common, and many people face similar challenges, especially in professions with long schooling and residency periods.

It's never too late to start saving, and John's effort to save 25% of his income at 34 is commendable.

With consistent saving, there's a good chance he can replace 85% of his pre-retirement income by age 65, putting him on track for a secure retirement.

Setting a target retirement age helps in determining the necessary savings to achieve financial independence.

The concept of being a "financial mutant" emphasizes making money work harder and owning time sooner.

Balancing the need to save and invest with family responsibilities can create conflict, but it's important to find a sustainable approach.

The Importance of Starting Financial Planning Early

Many people regret not starting their financial planning earlier, a common sentiment among millionaires.

The Know Your Number course and tool were created to help individuals assess their financial situation and make informed decisions.

Having a clear understanding of one's financial goals can lead to better communication and unity with a partner during challenging times.

Building a Supportive Community for Financial Growth

The speaker emphasizes that it's okay to spend extra on kids' activities, as it can lead to a sense of fulfillment.

They highlight the relatability of starting financial planning later in life, with many community members sharing similar stories.

The speaker promotes various platforms, such as live chat, Facebook, Discord, and Reddit, as great ways to connect with others facing similar financial challenges.

Exclusive Community for Money Guy Show Course Members

The private Facebook group offers a space for course members to share ideas and information.

Members can receive exclusive and early announcements from the Money Guy show.

com provide opportunities for a deeper dive and more exclusive conversations.