[Music] A 20-year-old or a 25-year-old with $100,000 is completely different than a 60-year-old that has $100,000. So, why does nobody actually tell you, Hey, if you want to be wealthy while you're in your 20s, you need to have this. If you want to be wealthy in your 30s, 'cause they are different by every decade. We're going to answer those questions today, and I'm super excited to share. That's my all right here. We are. So, let's Jump Right In. Let's start at the very beginning. How to be wealthy in your 20s. Now, here's what's beautiful about your 20s. You're at the very beginning of the journey. You are just coming out of the starting blocks, and time is on your side in this decade and in this stage of Life. Yeah, we talk about this often. Um, I, I, I try to go through this quickly. Is we always say you need to respect the three ingredients to wealth building. Um, the

the number one is discipline. Can you live on less than you make? It's such an important thing in your 20s to kind of focus on those behavioral things because if you can live on less than you make, that creates margin in your life. That margin will give you the dividends of money. The second ingredient, and guess what, for all of you 20-somethings, the most powerful wealth-building tool that you can have is actually the third ingredient. You're a billionaire of time. You have so many seconds, so many minutes in your life that if you just point that in the right direction, you're going to be able to maximize the power of compounding growth through the most valuable resource of time. So in your 20s, being wealthy has a lot less to do with actual numbers and specific metrics, and it's much more about behavior. So we want to walk you through some of the behaviors that will define someone in their 20s being wealthy versus someone in their 20s that's not wealthy, and the very first

Behavior. The very first thing that is an indication you are where you're supposed to be is that in your 20s, you have a plan. You're not just letting life happen to you. You're not out there floating around, but you actually know what you want to achieve, and you have some understanding of the steps required to move you along on that path. Yeah, this is one, guys. We talk about the financial order of operations. If you want to get the free access point, just go to money.com/resources. We'll load you up with the non-steps. If for my 20s somethings, I would be crazy. There's a reason we have it behind me. We have it here. Go check out my book, Millionaire Mission, because this thing for a 20-something is turbocharged, because this will be the instruction manual that you'll look back in 20, 30 years and be like, That changed my life. So get out there and make it happen. And obviously, understanding the financial order of operations will walk you through what to do with your dollars. It's the nine steps.

tried and true of where you should put your money. But even in your 20s, there's something else that you ought to be thinking about when it comes to having a plan in place, and it involves your job. What is the thing that I'm doing every single day to generate income? And what we have found is that folks in their 20s that have figured this out, folks in their 20s that are doing it right, understand that they are in a career. They are working towards a goal. They're not just at a job. They're not just clocking in, clocking out. Yeah, we've done, and I want you to be purposeful on how you're spending your time because a lot of us, time is so valuable. And also, I've shared this, my own journey. The first thing that got me there was I did have to have a job that was actually making good income. And I didn't want to just have a job. I want to have a career. And you need to be very

deliberate about what you study in college, who you choose to work with, because when we found out this is something I'm just shocked by when I cover this stat is we do an annual millionaire study and we asked our clients, we said, Hey, of our clients that are now millionaires, how many of you actually work in your field of study from college? And look at this, guys, we have 74% of our millionaires actually work in their field of study, meaning they were very good resource allocators. They said, Hey, my time is valuable. What are my aptitudes? I took inventory, found the intersection point, and now have created the incredible opportunity of actually working in what I studied. Now contrast this, Bo, with what does the average American look like. Yeah, according to the New York Federal Reserve Bank, only 27% of adults work in a field related to their major. 74% of our millionaires do, but only 27% of the general population. What that means is I think a lot of folks don't have a plan.

They start out and say, Okay, I'm just going to go get this degree or start in this job or start with this idea, not actually planning out what's this going to look like for the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years. If you can figure out early on how to have a plan around what you're doing for the majority of the time that you're awake every day, I think you're going to be much more likely to set yourself up for long-term success. Be purposeful with your time, that valuable resource. Don't go along just to get along and just float through life and run up a bunch of student loan debt with a major that's just not going to be purposeful. Take an active role in this, and that's a beautiful segue. The second indication of someone that is wealthy or exhibiting wealthy behaviors in their 20s is that you have no consumer debt. You've recognized that credit cards are not going to be the way that you're going to get to wealth, that store credit and loans on

consumable goods are not going to be the things that are going to propel you towards financial independence. Really quite the opposite. They're going to move you away from your ultimate financial goals. Yeah, this is one of those. It makes me so sad for young people is because I get it. You're short on money, and yet there's all these things you're out there doing life. You're adult for the first time, and there's just so many things you want to do, but you just don't have the income to do it yet. And there's this false mirage of debt that says, Hey, don't worry. It's okay if you don't make it. You can fake it until you make it by just using the shiny little object of this credit card, and we'll be able to answer all your dreams. And don't worry. You'll be able to catch it up. You'll get promotions. No, this is a bridge to nowhere, guys. So I want to caution you when credit cards are charging you now 253%.

and you're hoping to only make 10% on your investments. This is not the way you're going to be wealthy, so don't fall into this consumption trap. Yeah, compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world, and it can either be your most amazing ally or can be your fiercest adversary. You need to understand that in your 20s. Well, what we found is that in 2023, the average non-mortgage debt for a Gen Z American, this is someone in their 20s, was $155,000 in the hole of money that is working against you, that we would rather be working for you. So, if you're one of the people who find yourself in this situation, we would encourage you to go back to number one and have a plan in place. How am I going to knock this debt out? How am I going to get out of this? And generally, there are two bodies of thought on the best way to pay off debt. You can go with the debt snowball, which essentially says I'm

going to spay pay off my smallest balances first, and it's going to give me some wins along the way. So, I'm going to pay off one, and I'm going to apply that to the next one, and the next one, and I'm slowly going to gain momentum. Or, if you're mathematically minded and you want to go with the optimal strategy, you can do the debt avalanche. You list all your debts, highest interest rate first. You begin paying on the highest interest rate, and then you move to the next, and move to the next. Because you need, if you have credit card debt, if you have any sort of consumer debt, you need a strategy in play so you can get out of that, so you can start getting your money to start working for you. Yeah, so know thyself, and then just choose the method. We don't choose favorites on this. I know our math-minded people, we like the debt avalanche, but if you're a person that needs a little attaboy every now and then to keep you going, just take

advantage of it. There's nothing wrong with doing the debt snowball. The biggest thing is to get out of debt, especially the Consumer Debt with the high interest rates. Let's talk about another thing that I see traps that if you want to be successful in your 20s is don't fall into driving your wealth around. How many people have car payments that are $700, $800, $1,000 a month? Guys, literally, if you were investing this amount of money, it is multi-millions of dollars in retirement. So don't drive around your wealth. So we've created a system to help people not fall into that trap. Yeah, when it's time to buy a car, we love that if you can pay for a car in cash. But for, unfortunately, for most folks in their 20s, that's not an option. We have to borrow money. We have to finance in order to be able to buy an automobile. So if you're going to do that, we want you to follow our 238 rule, which simply says you're going to put at least 20%.

down of the car. Whether you're buying new or used, you want a 20% down payment. You're going to pay it off in 3 years or 36 months or less. You're not going to finance it any longer than that. And then all of your payments cannot exceed 8% of your gross monthly income. So, whatever your car payment is, or if you're a dual-income household, dual-person household, you have two car payments, it cannot exceed 8% of your monthly household income. If you can follow those rules, you're going to likely keep your finances inside the lines and not let yourself be someone driving around the wealth. But that's not all. But wait, there's more. I always like to put these little asterisks out there when we're talking. When we think 238, we're thinking Corolla. We're not thinking about Land Cruisers. This is basic transportation to get you to your first wealth builder of that job. I don't want you, if you're trying to buy luxury anything, that is a

nice car. This is something I'm going to give you a little. It's same as cash. 12 months same as cash. Just like all the furniture salespeople and everybody else out there. But you got to. You're not using this for luxury. The second thing. If your monthly car payment exceeds what your monthly investments are. You're doing this wrong. We want to make sure that you're not driving around your wealth. So we've got to make sure what's going into your Roth IRA. What's going into your company 401K. Is exceeding what that monthly car payment is. All right. Now the third indication of someone in their 20s. Is wealthier. Is moving on their way to being wealthy. Is you're actually hitting your savings goals. You recognize. I need to be exercising discipline. I need to be putting money to work for me for the future. And you're actually doing it. You're not all hat. No cattle. You actually put your money where your mouth is. And your savings rate is starting to show that. Yeah. This is let

me give you a tool because this is so powerful. If you go to money.com resources, I want you to play around with our wealth multiplier tool. This is something so valuable if you know every dollar has so much opportunity to grow upon itself. Because here's another risk in your 20s. You're going to watch our content, you're going to read Millionaire Mission, you're going to get super excited when you find this. I just want to make sure that you keep enough go with it or stick with it through 24 months later, 36 months later. So we've got to have some way where you're actually building upon your successes. You get pay raises that you keep increasing what's going into your investments. And it's okay if you can't hit the number tomorrow. Start somewhere and wherever you start, figure out on what cadence can I improve. And if I start with $50 a month saving, when can I move it to 75? And then when can I move that to 100? If you start your 401k and

you start at 3% great. When can I go to 5%? When can I go to 10%? And figure out how you move through that in time because the goal is to get your money working for you, and the earlier you do that, the more powerful it will be. That's exactly what the wealth multiplier shows. So, by the end of your 20s, as you're rounding it out, if you want to be defined as someone who is wealthy in their 20s, we would expect to see a few things. Number one, no Consumer Debt. You have knocked out and gotten in control of your Consumer Debt. Number two, you've hit a savings rate of at least 20%. You've recognized the power in having your dollars work for you for the future. And then number three, from a savings standpoint, you've saved up one times your gross income in investment assets. So, whatever your income is at 29, you have that much in invested assets by the end of this decade. Now look, if you're 25 and

you're watching this. We know that this is aspirational. That's why we made sure we did every one of these decades. By the end of the decade, what does that transition threshold look like for you? So right now, if you're saving 10% of your income, let's shoot for next year when you get a pay raise. 60% of that pay raise, let's put it towards your investments and increasing your investments. 40% only towards lifestyle. You can get to 20% by the time you finish the decade of your 20s. Also, onetime gross income of investment assets, guys. We got to get that money growing upon itself. That compounding growth is going to require you to get to some type of level of critical mass or bowling point. Don't sleep on that. Let's make this money work for you.

How to Be Wealthy by Age! (20-Year-Olds)

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