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No one is guaranteed a job and a way to earn money in this day and age. Trying to live as debt free as possible is the way to go. Keep your mortgage, but pay of credit card debt and your car payment unless it has a very low rate.
To build your net worth, you need to have a job or profession that earns pretty good money. Minimum wage will not help you out.
Buy or rent a home that is cheaper than you can afford. Bank the difference until you have 6 months to a year salary saved up. This is your emergency fund. This is not for investment purposes. You may have to get to this money quickly.
I drove decent but inexpensive used cars my entire driving life. I now drive a beat up pickup that we bought new 10 years ago. We bought it in December and got a very low interest rate.
Pay off your highest interest rate debt first. That will save you money in the long term.
Work hard and take extra opportunities to maximize your income. My husband worked 80+ hours a week his first year out of college and saved half of it. I taught summer school every year until I had a child. I also tutored and sold kitchen wares on the side.
Investing your 401k, a Roth IRA, etc.... When you get a raise, invest the new income. You won't miss it. Take advantage of any matching opportunities by your employer.
Pare down unnecessary bills like going out for coffee. Just brew your own. If you eat out every day, brown bag it half the time. Have preparties before going out, so you can drink and eat less expensively.
Learn to shop at discount places like Marshall's! Ross, TJMaxx, and more. You will pay less.
I would also say, don't spend a dollar to save a nickel. An example: Don't buy an expensive juicer/coffee maker or whatever, just to save on buying it from jam a juice or Starbucks.
Don't buy an expensive bicycle just so you save on gas.
I would also say to enjoy your life and have fun, but try to do it in a cheaper way.
i made my biggest strides late in life when an opportunity broke for me as a partner in some very expensive real estate in manhattan.
i had to borrow 500k if i was going to buy in. my brain talked me out of it nightly and i knew it was trying to kabash the deal since it flung nothing but the negatives night and day.
well i resisted , became a partner in the venture and could not have been happier with the results. i paid off the loan the first year things went so well.
I graduated at age 22 with no assets and tens of thousands in student loans. I worked, lived cheaply, saved & invested, and became a millionare a few years later
My tip is to live way way below your means while you're building up your asset base. Drive beater cars, don't eat out that much, get into low-interest debt, and invest every penny you can. But be patient and smart about your investments. If you rush them, it becomes gambling. Do lots of research; there's much more out there than just stocks and gold. Low-interest debt is good!
Once you build up enough assets to generate significant income, you can live the good life that you had to sacrifice in your 20's when you lived cheaply. That's where I am now
josh u, how did you accumulate so much wealth so quickly? Accumulating over a million dollars from tens of thousands of dollars in debt in "a few years" is not possible for 95% of the people out there. What exactly happened?
Did you get lucky and win the lotto or a casino jackpot?
Did you get really lucky with stocks or options?
Did you receive an inheritance or lawsuit payout?
Did you start a successful business?
How exactly did you accumulate so much so quickly?
.......... A) $5 million dollars, net after-taxes etc., right this second, no strings attached, here you go, or B) I'll hand you a coin to flip, and if it comes up heads I'll give you 15 million dollars but if it comes up tails you owe me $1,000.
...........
Put me down for the $5 million, too. That's a sure thing in my hand and I can turn it into the $15 million once I have my hands on it, and do it with a lower level of risk than flipping a coin.
(By the way, first I want to know what would prompt you to give me $5 million. I want to know what the true cost is)
But what I jumped in here to say is that millions of Americans give that $1,000 to take that flip of the coin, hoping to win the $15 million. That is what people are doing when they play the lottery. Odds not nearly as good as flipping a coin, but they invest many of their dollars trying. I'm suspecting that most of them are low income.
josh u, how did you accumulate so much wealth so quickly? Accumulating over a million dollars from tens of thousands of dollars in debt in "a few years" is not possible for 95% of the people out there. What exactly happened?
I worked in tech so I made an above-average income. I had stock options and sold most to buy a house, which helped build equity fast. All the while, I continued to save & invest. That's how I did it. If I didn't have the stock options, it would have taken maybe 3 yrs longer. I received zilch from inheritance/parents.
Luck had some to do with it but it takes planning and discipline too. I knew a number of co-workers who had more stock options & salary than I had, but they had a fraction of my net worth because they sold their options early to buy cars, eat out, travel, etc. Some people convince themselves that they deserve everything right now, so they sacrifice their future for it. They don't understand a $40k car actually costs $120k over 10 years. I've been financially-minded since a teenager so I'm able to "see" these things
I worked in tech so I made an above-average income. I had stock options and sold most to buy a house, which helped build equity fast. All the while, I continued to save & invest. That's how I did it. If I didn't have the stock options, it would have taken maybe 3 yrs longer. I received zilch from inheritance/parents.
Luck had some to do with it but it takes planning and discipline too. I knew a number of co-workers who had more stock options & salary than I had, but they had a fraction of my net worth because they sold their options early to buy cars, eat out, travel, etc. Some people convince themselves that they deserve everything right now, so they sacrifice their future for it. They don't understand a $40k car actually costs $120k over 10 years. I've been financially-minded since a teenager so I'm able to "see" these things
Sounds like you are a programmer and worked for a tech start up? That is a very fortunate situation. The rest of us recent college graduates are considered lucky if we have a $40,000 to $60,000 a year job!
If my stocks went down, the first thing I would do is to buy more of them!
Buy low, sell high.
I like playing the "dead cat bounce" too.....
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