[Music] 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 on Mr. Marrow shares that he walked in, and I still, 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 Hardy 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 been 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 100 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 May 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 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'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 in 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-interest debt, you know, if you're not, I say 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's something that we as Americans struggle with right now is we're way too comfortable with debt.

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 book Mission took it a step further. You actually issued a challenge to the readers, right? Well, think about it. The typical American can come up with 60% of Americans, right around 60%, can come up with $1,000 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, 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 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, 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. 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. Think about 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 stay 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 one, two, three, four, 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 stay 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.

Why Saving $100 Monthly is a Powerful Milestone Toward Wealth

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