The Idiots Guide
Sometimes it's about "ADULTING" enough for the day, and other times it's about Keeping a job, Feeding the family, Educating the kids, and Buying the stuff.
Most of us were taught how to read, write, and math good.
But never taught how to file taxes, change a tire, or cook a meal.
How in the world have we survived?
Well, have no fear, the Idiots are here to guide you.
We don't know much more about all the stuff but we might be just a little further down the road than you.
Make no mistake, most of our advice is more like don't try this at home.
Hope it helps!
The Idiots Guide
Financial Freedom Starts Young Ep62 TIG
Imagine turning that first paycheck into a stepping stone for lifelong financial stability. Join me, Adam Richardson, and my co-host Joe Haslam as we share the exhilarating journey of teenage money management and entrepreneurship. We'll take you through the excitement of early jobs and the reality check of taxes, guiding you away from impulsive spending and towards smarter financial decisions. Discover how keeping track of your finances, whether through a digital app or an old-school notepad, can set the groundwork for avoiding future financial missteps.
Ever thought about starting your own venture as a teenager? We bring you a fantastic example of launching a lawn mowing business with just $300. It's not just about mowing lawns; it's about learning to expand your horizons, hire friends, and save consistently for bigger dreams. This episode sheds light on the power of entrepreneurship and the potential for young people to pave their own paths towards financial independence, minimizing the need for student loans and setting robust financial goals.
Good money habits are like brushing your teeth—essential and second nature once you get started. We share relatable tales of overspending and the value of a fun fund to balance enjoyment with financial responsibility. Dive into the world of teenage investing and strategic planning, where the lessons learned from small childhood ventures can translate into financial freedom later in life. With every story, we emphasize learning from mistakes now to ensure a successful financial journey ahead. Listen as we unpack the foundational steps to mastering your finances and securing your future.
Today on the Idiot's Guide. So you're 15 years old, Maybe you've got your first job or maybe you're out there hustling that side gig business. Either way, you finally got some sweet, sweet cash flow. I'm filthy, stinking rich. Before you blow it all on snacks, DoorDash or that game you'll probably play for five minutes and shut off. Let's talk. Yeah, it's time to talk about what to actually do with your money. Spoiler alert blowing it all on sneakers and snacks may not be the best plan for your millionaire future. So stick around and we'll show you how to make that money work for you.
Speaker 1:I'm your host, Adam Richardson, aka the Profit Hacker, and I'm joined by the man in charge, Mr Joe Haslam. Welcome to the Idiot's Guide. So I think what I want to talk about, this feeling right when you, you, you get this, this job, and you're, you've, you've mowed, you're the best lawnmower out there. Okay, I was that kid, All right, and I, you know, I, I, I went and secured the deal or the contract with so many neighbors that you know, without me, their yards would be a catastrophe, and I knew that. So they were completely dependent on the quality labor that I presented for a Measly amount of money. And in the day. Now that I think about it, I should have charged way more, but I'm rich quality labor.
Speaker 2:This idea of 15-year-old quality labor Okay.
Speaker 1:I know now that I have what I was like. The quality part of that is definitely questionable. So you have your first paycheck, or you get this fistful of cash that you've been able to make because of whatever gig you're doing, and you've been working for what feels like forever at your age, of course. You've been working for what feels like forever at your age, of course and finally you get that wonderful feeling of just a large $20 bill. It's so amazing, but let's say it's not cash, let's say it's in a check. You have this job. You're maybe 15 and you have an actual job. You know, like I knew back in my back in my day, back in my day, back in my day.
Speaker 2:I had to walk to school in the snow uphill.
Speaker 1:both ways I had to paint my feet brown because I couldn't afford shoes.
Speaker 2:We have entered the old phase.
Speaker 1:Except for yeah, it's terrible, it's an embarrassing phase. Back in my day they had this you know you could be a grocery store bagger at 15 years old. You could go in and work. Now they require you to be at least 16, but you're bagging groceries and pushing carts and that kind of stuff, helping people put their groceries in their car. You know that was, that was the honorable thing, or a newspaper route. You could get that even younger, but you got this paycheck. And then all of a sudden, you're looking on that paycheck and you get well, I worked 20 hours this week but it feels like taxes did some damage, man. It feels like the government just took, you know, like they worked, 10 of those hours. Holy cow that that that sucks. So now I'm like well, what do I do? Like you know just the idea of this concept of like what at this age I shouldn't have to do all of this stuff that you know I, I see my parents maybe have to do and deal with, right, right joe, no, that's not right.
Speaker 2:That's what every teenager thinks. But one of the important things is you have to recognize that when you get that first check, when you start making that money, you've got to start getting that checkbook. You balance your checkbook, that's what it's called.
Speaker 1:Okay, hold on just a sec here, because I am from the 1900s. You are too Gen Z. Even a 15-year-old now does not know what a checkbook is, let alone the fact that even me, at the age that I'm at, I'm not even going to say my age when I go to go like oh, you guys only take check and I've got to write a check. I have to find the checkbook. I have no idea where my checks are.
Speaker 2:I'm not talking about actually writing checks, because I don't write checks. I don't write checks. I write one check every two weeks and I am consistently late on writing that check because I don't write checks.
Speaker 2:But no, when I talk about reconciling your checkbook, all I'm talking about is keeping a ledger of your income and your expenses, because we don't write checks anymore, so you don't need to necessarily even go that route, but all you're doing is you're just keeping track of it. So if you want to see what one looks like, see this ledger book up here.
Speaker 1:That's a ledger book yeah, that's in the camera shot. I can get that it's in the.
Speaker 2:That's a ledger book. Yeah, that's in the camera shot, I can I can get that, but it's not.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's not in the shot, okay never mind, I'll get a picture of it and put it out for the people but a ledger book, uh, or just a check register.
Speaker 2:What you're doing is just recording everything, because then you know how much you actually have in the bank and you know how much you have to spend, and you know when your next check is coming, your paycheck so you know how long you have that money for and and these things. Learning these really young when you get your first check is so important, because that is the number one reason why people get into financial problems is they don't know how much they actually have. They don't know what their monthly expenses are.
Speaker 1:And I know, like in a checkbook, like even a ledger in that I had when I was a kid, I had it wasn't a check, like I couldn't write a check, but I had the ledger. It was a little thing that did the same size as a check and I could keep track of, like, okay, I got a check, so I deposit, I mark it as an in into the account and then if I went and spent money off of the account or back, then I didn't have really a debit card I had, you know, I had other. I had to go get cash. So anytime I got cash out I would mark how much cash.
Speaker 1:That doesn't mean that, like you know, I wouldn't spend it on five or six different things because, you know, because of whatever it was. But but that's how I maintained the account was, with that just a line saying, you know, withdrew $20, you know, and then marked it on the side, did the math real quick, I was pretty, I was, I was a good math, or um, and then but but this, this thing is, it's. It's something that I don't think we consider when we talk about just simply the idea of having to pay taxes at 15 years old and paycheck.
Speaker 2:And you don't really pay a lot of taxes when you are that young. So there are four different types of taxes that will come out of your paycheck. Okay, so there is federal withholding, so that's the federal income tax. So that's when your parents complain every year about having to do their taxes. That's the federal income tax. And that's the federal income tax when your parents complain every year about having to do their taxes. That's the federal income tax, that's the state income tax, and so those come out of your paycheck.
Speaker 2:Now, if you're making less than as of right now, I think it's $13,000 something. If you make less than that in an entire year, or, as it calculates, throughout the year, if they take that over an entire year, it's less than what that's going to be. Those don't come out of your paycheck, and so you don't have those if you make too little. But those are the first ones that come out, and then the next two are a grouping called FICA taxes. This is the boring part. I'm sorry, but it's better to know this stuff. Those FICA taxes are Social Security and Medicare, okay, and the combined rate between those is 7.65%. That is it. You will have 7.65% taken out of your check, and so you're not losing 50% of your check on your withholding. You're probably going to lose maybe 20% at most out of your taxes at 15.
Speaker 1:I think recognizing the fact that taxes are going to come out is or just accepting the fact it doesn't go away. If you have a job, it doesn't go away. If you have a job, it doesn't go away. And even if you don't, you know it doesn't come out of your check. Some way, shape or form, it's going to be informed to the IRS and they're going to take a portion of it. So you know.
Speaker 2:It's important to know. And the reason I say 20% is because it's maybe a little high on the estimate. But when you're working, you know you're thinking okay, I'm making $10 an hour and you work 10 hours, you think my check is going to be 100 bucks.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then you get your check and it's only 80. And you get deflated, right. But if you start understanding, okay, 20% of this is going to go to taxes. Now I know, if I'm working 10 hours and I'm making $10 an hour, 20% of that is going to go to taxes. Now I know, if I'm working 10 hours and I'm making $10 an hour, 20% of that goes away. So I'm really only making $8 an hour. Take home cash. So I look at that and I say, okay, I work 10 hours, I'm making $8 an hour, I'm getting 80 bucks.
Speaker 1:And then when I get my check and it's $85, cause it was less taxes when and that's a good way to look at it is like suddenly you know right now everything is calling your name, everything you thought you needed is now calling your name. And so you know you want that special limited edition hoodie or that spicy chicken sandwich, whatever you want, yeah. And then you know, like all of it's going hey, hey, look at me, I want to spend me over here. But but then, thinking of having that perspective, you think like, okay, what's 50 dollars actually going to be? It's more like 40. That's a safe bet. Um, and then, like you said, it allows you also that wiggle room so that when it comes back and your taxes are taken out and it's $45, you're like whoop-dee, I can buy that spicy chicken sandwich I was looking forward to.
Speaker 2:It's all about a mental shift to one take into account taxes are going to come out. You can complain about them all you want, but taxes are going to be taken out, and so it's something that you just have to anticipate for. And if you anticipate that, on the front end, it is so much easier to plan and budget and be able to get more of what you want. Right, and so that's the best way to do it. When you start getting that job, just immediately start thinking those taxes are going to come out. I'm going to anticipate that, and in the end, you're going to win and you're going to have more money in the bank.
Speaker 1:My kids are kind of in that want phase right now. They're like, oh, do I want this? Yes, I will get that, you know, and thank goodness for Amazon, because they just do whatever they want. But it's weird. I think a better way of doing this kind of changing the perspective as soon as possible and it's kind of changing the perspective as soon as possible at 15, if not sooner is about how you can get money to work for you and think of it like a pet. If you want that pet to grow up, to be healthy and strong, you have to feed that pet, you have to nourish that pet. Well, if you want your uh, your, your money to be, you want millions, if you just get rid of it every single time you get it, you're not feeding that like a savings or or or different things. Like I'm not necessarily saying, like you should start your retirement fund and you know I remember I started my 401k at 15 years old Like no, oh, I'm an advocate of that. You're like I see nothing wrong with what you just said.
Speaker 2:You should be putting all that aside.
Speaker 1:But if you spend it all, you know you don't have anything to go into that future. And that's the same thing as if you, if you didn't have any, or like if you, if you didn't consider the fact of feeding the dog, and the dog doesn't, doesn't get fed. Well then you know what happens to the dog or the pet. You know it's sad, right, you lose it, it's gone. And so like, like I think the idea of it is to go like I don't want to maybe start a 401k, because that might be a little bit of a big bite to chew, but maybe start something smaller.
Speaker 2:Well, and here's. So. This is the example that I always, whenever I talk to young people, when they're getting their first job, when they're starting to look at you know how do I spend my money wisely, all those kinds of things. I use this example every time. If you have let's say, you work a job and you're able to set aside $300, okay, $300, that's maybe a couple of months of working hard, getting some of that money setting it aside, you can take that $300 and you go and buy yourself an electric lawnmower. Okay, now you have an asset. That asset, you can then start your own business mowing lawns, yeah. So now you've got this $300 lawnmower and let's say, you get 10 lawns to mow in your neighborhood and you charge $25 a week. That's now $250 a week of lawn mowing, yeah, and so?
Speaker 2:now you've doubled, you've paid back your investments and everything, and you have $250 that you can then maybe go get a second lawnmower. Give it a month, so now that's four weeks. So you've got $1,000 after a month of this hard work with this lawnmower that you paid for. Yeah, okay, so now you've got $1,000. You take $300 of that. You go buy a second lawnmower and you hire one of your buddies.
Speaker 2:Now you're 15 years old, you go and hire one of your buddies and say I will give you $15 every lawn you mow. And so he goes out and gets 10 lawns to mow and so now you're making $10 on every lawn he mows and you're not doing anything other than your own lawns to mow, lawns to mow. And so in another month you've made a thousand dollars plus an extra four hundred dollars off of that second lawnmower that you bought. And so in two months you took that three hundred dollar investment and you turned it into an additional. So you've got the seven hundred dollars from that first month because you bought a second lawnmower. Sure, a thousand dollars from that second month of you working your lawn mowing and four hundred dollars for your buddy that's mowing lawns. And your buddy just made fifteen dollars every lawn he mowed yeah, he just made six hundred.
Speaker 1:He made 150 a week. That's 600 bucks a month.
Speaker 2:So your buddy, your friend is like now, your best friend yeah, and you just made 2100 outside of your investments and you have two lawn mowers yeah and so by thinking ahead now, lawn mowing is just an example of that.
Speaker 2:There are so many things that you can do as a young person to build that investment and you do that for long enough. Let's say you do that for three years and you're making $1,000 a month. If you save all that money and set it aside, just do the lawn mowing on Fridays and Saturdays. Work your regular job through the rest of the week and just do the lawn mowing on Fridays and Saturdays. Work your regular job through the rest of the week and just do the lawn mowing. So you're setting aside all that money.
Speaker 2:By the time you're 18, if you start at 15 years old, you have $36,000 of just your own money. Okay, that's $36,000. Plus, if you got your buddy or multiple buddies now you're looking at not just $36,000 by the time you're 18, you're looking at probably 50, $60,000 that you've set aside by the time you are 18 years old and helped your friends to make money. And so you go to college. You don't need to get any student loans, you don't need to pay for it. You've got 60 grand sitting aside just from mowing lawns. So it's being smart with your money. You don't have to put it into 401k. You don't have to put it into these investment funds. Just find ways where you can make that money. Make more money for you right.
Speaker 1:I think the concept that you're that you're talking about there is absolutely like it's it's pretty simple math. It's it's even in the application of what you're talking about. It's a in the application of what you're talking about. It's a pretty simple application. However, you know, I I, while you're going over this, I've I've had this same exact conversation with my kids and them doing them at tracking the entire time going and then at the end I'm like doesn't that sound great? Meh, no, and I'm like why are you my kid, you know? Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it doesn't have to be. I mean, if you really want to go hard, that's how you can do it. But to get that original $300 for that first lawnmower, let's say you make $250 a week. Okay, so you're making $10 an hour and you're working. Well, let's say, just say, 20 hours a week minimum, you know, uh, part-time. So you're making $200 a week. Take your 20% out of that. Now you're making $160. Set aside $20 of that, yeah, $20 of that every week. And now, after what is that? 15 weeks, so that's three and a half months, four months, four months. You've got that 300 set aside. Yep, that's how you save and all that's doing.
Speaker 1:You're just saving 20 a week and I think that's a good, good, uh, an also good example in the sense of you can see in an entrepreneurial sort of way how this can just exponentially grow. But even at the simplest way you can say, okay, well, if it's a 9-to-5, you work well, not a 9-to-5 because you're 15 years old, so they can't. But let's say you get in 20 hours a week, like you said, and you have that part-time and you have taxes taken out and you're coming home with 160 bucks and um, and, and from that you take a small portion and you're putting that aside, even that little portion that you're putting aside, um, and you're not spending it. It's the idea that it's like, like that still gives you the opportunity to buy the huh, I wonder if I want to buy the bag of marbles, or do I want to get the new card collection?
Speaker 1:And you're like I, like I can't even think about that. Like for me. I'm like, okay, is this paid, this paid, I gotta be this, like this, and like, granted, there's, there's a, there's years of difference there. But but I, I look at the way my kids just buy and you know, I'm like I have a doorbell camera and so I see DoorDash when it shows up and I'm like what'd you get today? You know yeah.
Speaker 2:And and you still have. In that scenario, you still have $140 a week to have fun. If you're a teenager, have fun with the money, yeah, but learn to practice these things. I mean you, you take that twenty dollars and in a year that is fourteen hundred dollars. Yeah, that you have set aside fourteen hundred bucks. You know how many video games and video game consoles that'll buy you just by setting aside $20 a week. That's spending all the other $140. If you can do more than $20, great. If you do $40 a week, you're looking at almost $3,000 a year that you've set aside. After three years, if you start working at $15, that is going to be almost $4,000. No, no, $3,000. That's almost $9,000 of money set aside, $9,000 by the time you're 18.
Speaker 1:Just by $20 a week, just by setting aside $40 a week.
Speaker 2:$40 a week, $40 a week. It really adds up. And that's the key here is that when you look at the long term and you think about how is this going to add up, that's the compounding. And then so here's another funny idea If you don't like to mow lawns, set aside $40 a week. You've got this $2,800 at the end of the year. Get some of your friends to do this, to do this, and now you can sit with four friends in your uh school auditorium and do your own youth shark tank. You know you have your friends come up and pitch ideas to you, like a lawn mowing service, and you've got three thousand dollars here sitting in a little pile that they're coming to you and they're gonna be pitching these ideas don't do that.
Speaker 1:My son's going to do this. He is. He will absolutely do this. This is great.
Speaker 2:I mean, this is exactly how you build futures. Yeah is because not everyone is going to be the one that wants to go out and do all the hard labor. Not everyone is going to have the savvy to be able to sit up there and say, okay, I'm going to give you $1,500 for 20% of everything that you make, plus 10% interest on that money until it's paid back. That's what a shark does if they're willing to invest in your business. It gets young people thinking about what kind of things could I do to make money if I had that Right? How could I make my money work for me if I have a part-time job and I'm sitting on this?
Speaker 1:lot of cash.
Speaker 1:Man like I, I think about.
Speaker 1:The idea is, like, if you don't want to mow lawns, but you like, even if I became the facilitator, like I ended up buying the lawn mowers and having employees, I don't personally feel like I'm obligated to mow the lawns, I just have employees that do it for me. So like, even like to the point where, if I had that kind of cash, I may say, like, this is what I want to do before I buy the lawnmowers, knowing that this, I need these individuals, I'm going to hire you for a little bit less an hour for the first part. Go beat feet and go get 10 lawn lawns to mow, and then, after that, you will have your lawnmower, and then all of that comes back. Like, for the first little bit, I'll pay you this much. That pays the lawnmower back to me. After that, though, that's your lawnmower, I'm going to give it to you, you know. So, granted, if you, you know, like, like, there's some, there's some shady stuff in there that you're like, all right, but non-compete clod you can't go into this neighborhood because that's my turf.
Speaker 2:You know like you could get really gray and risky, but the idea here is, you know, when you think about the big picture and you think about the long term, you think about the potential. Yeah, that's, that's the key I would. I would love to see in our high schools all across the US these mini Shark.
Speaker 1:Tinks. Baby Shark Tink, Tink, Tink, Tink, Tink. No, Baby Shark Tink.
Speaker 2:Tink, tink, tink. What? What is it? The um, uh, the master chef junior?
Speaker 1:yeah, this is like shark tank I know a kid that actually won.
Speaker 2:Master, there you go, shark tank junior all across high schools in the united states. You think about how much work could be generated by the youth of today, the money that could be made. I mean the entire economic plus that comes out of something like this. And all it takes is young people thinking about the potential of what they could make with just a few dollars. Remember I'm only talking $40 a week to set aside. That's so little of the money three hundred dollars to buy a lawnmower. You know the. The potential is there. If you think about the potential, it's, it's being able to think about the future and setting it aside. You don't have to put it in a 401k well, I.
Speaker 1:I think it's also to say like this isn't us saying no to fun, you know, it's not, it's not shutting that down. It's also to say like this isn't us saying no to fun, you know, it's not, it's not shutting that down. It's it's really just kind of saying like you can set, set a little bit aside. If this week you can't hit that because you have something bigger that you want to, you know, spend money on, that's okay. It's just you're developing the habit of putting that aside so that in the future you also have this in addition to your normal income. That you can, you can rest on. And it's that peace of mind knowing that, like for the future there's. You're setting yourself up for a lot better success when, when it really starts mattering and 40 a week becomes challenging.
Speaker 2:Yeah and remember you've still got, if you're making that $160 a week after taxes, set aside $40, you still got 120 bucks. Yeah, I mean at $20 a pop. That's still six nights of DoorDash. You're still getting. Every single night you got DoorDash coming to the door even though your parents are making your dinner for you's the most infuriating part.
Speaker 1:You're like no, don't worry, uh, the guy's almost here.
Speaker 2:And then ding dong, oh my gosh if you do doordash three nights a week, you still got 60 bucks every week, after taxes, to go out. You can buy a new video game every single week, that's true, and you're still doing three nights of DoorDash. You're still setting aside that $40 for your Shark Tank Junior program. You've still got so much. Any youth out there that want to start this kind of a program, that want to start a Shark Tank Junior, you reach out to us. I will help you facilitate that. I will help you get that going. I will give you what you guys need. Yeah, I mean, we'll make a whole program out of this if you want to get this going. And there are so many other potentials. I mean we could have hedge fund juniors.
Speaker 1:Could we present on Shark Tank an option to do Shark Tank Jr.
Speaker 2:Once we get this started, once we get two or three of these prototypes in place, I'm sure they would love to see us come on there and and talk about making this a national program hey, guys, if you like what you're listening to, like what you're watching, like and subscribe, um, leave a comment or two.
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Speaker 1:So all of the stuff that we've we've really gone into is we've talked about, okay, the taxes. We've talked about, you know, maybe, savings and really kind of setting aside enough to where it creates an impact in the future, a future impact. So now, though, it's one of those things where it's like but I have this terrible habit of spending all of it on DoorDash, and so you know, like I would say in parallel, all we all know how to brush our teeth, right, do you know how to brush your teeth, joe?
Speaker 2:yes, okay, I would hope we all know how to brush our teeth by the time we're 15 yes, definitely that's that is well managing money is is very much like brushing your financial teeth.
Speaker 1:That sounds terrible. I don't like that. Um, do you have financial teeth? I guess if you, if you're older and you need teeth, there are financial teeth.
Speaker 2:I've got the image in my head of just gross financial t. I mean just a bad image if you have like a grill.
Speaker 1:You're like you can't say grill because it's not. That's the word is not grill, it's grill in ebonics. Grill, okay, it's a w it, you know, but that's. There's a lot of money in that. That's a financial. Those are financial teeth, but uh, really, the idea is it's. It's very much like maintaining your finances in a healthy way to have like I hate the fact of like brushing your financial teeth. I don't like that. Yeah, you know, but go with it. But but basically, if you don't and it gets out of hand and you don't have good habits, it gets gross. You don't like it and you don't have enough money, you don't have enough savings, and you know, if it's, if it's in contrast or parallel to to teeth, yeah, you don't take care of it, your teeth are gonna fall out.
Speaker 2:You're gonna lose them all yeah, and and I think probably a better analogy is uh, like learning how to walk. Okay, you know, when we're infants, we don't know how to walk, we crawl, and even before then we don't know how to crawl, but eventually we we learn how to walk. And now today, as adults, as 15-year-olds anywhere in the stage of life you don't have to think about walking. It's just natural. You walk, you learn these things and they become so habitual that you don't even think about them. And that's the key with financial stuff.
Speaker 2:Now, when you're 15, you're still learning. You're going to stumble, you're going to make mistakes, you're going to order way too much DoorDash one night and spend your entire paycheck on one DoorDash meal. Yes, I have had a child do that. But the more you practice at it, the more you do it. It will become just natural, just like walking. And so by the time you're 19, 20 and getting into the real world, it's just going to become such a natural habit to take care of your finances that it's not going to become a problem.
Speaker 1:yeah, if you learn how to control that, your financial aspects at that age, when the choices aren't massive they're, they're small, you know so, and that doesn't mean that, like you, you don't have big choices, it's just when it comes to your financial part of your life, a lot of its parents, parents are going to be kicked in for a lot of it, you know. But the the money that you're making, the parents can be there to to help encourage good savings habits and whatnot. But making some of those small choices to put aside a little bit is going to pay off significantly later when you're talking about managing a car payment or going to college or getting your own place, all of those things. The price tag for that is much more than 40 bucks a week, you know so. So it really it pays off in dividends when you're making tiny little. You know have instilling tiny little habits when you're, when you're 15 years old.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so yeah, and I think one of the biggest habits to establish a lot of people get into trouble is having that fun fund. You're setting aside money so that you can have fun. Because if you're always, just constantly just grinding and struggling and never taking time out for fun, or you don't have money in your budget for fun, you're just gonna get lost and so you have to set aside money.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for doing those things you love and I think you know. Just don't let it take over your entire paycheck.
Speaker 2:Be a part of what you spend your money on Not everything that you spend your money on, but make it a part, and make it a consistent part of when you spend money. Yeah, so that it doesn't come to the point where you're just always so constricted that you blow the entire paycheck on one door, dash massive meal and then you overeat and you run into problems. That way you want to make sure it's balanced and you want to make sure that it's consistent.
Speaker 1:So we haven't talked about this one in a minute. It's been. It's been a bit but um on this channel. So this is the idiot's guide that we're doing, but it's part of hot potato finance. Yes, okay, which is our channel that we have? But I think we have fan or fans Maybe two, we'll see but you ever wanted to level up your tater game? Well, now's your chance. You can join our Patreon and be part of the ultimate potato patch.
Speaker 2:Oh, this is getting bad.
Speaker 1:For just $1, become a spud and get inside access. Or go for couch potato Uh, that's $10 a month and you'd see your name at the end of our video. But if you're ready to, uh, be a spectator with the $20 membership, are you regretting the titles, these potato?
Speaker 2:puns are pretty unpalatable.
Speaker 1:$20 membership gets you exclusive perks like special behind-the-scenes content, private feedback forum and more. Join today and become the happiest tater on the block, because here our members get the best benefits and we're stoked to grow with you. That's patreoncom forward slash T-i-g underscore h-p-f. Okay, enough enough about that. That was, that was excruciating. Oh yeah, are we done? Yet we're not.
Speaker 2:We're done, we, we're done, we're done with the potato puns.
Speaker 1:Okay. So let's, let's do this. Let's let's say imagine you at 25, you know, I, if I, if I was set up at 25 years old from doing what we're talking about at 15. And you know, I grew up my parents owned a business, so I grew up at a young age making. I remember my mom offering, uh, minimum wage at the time, national minimum wage was like three dollars and 25 cents. It was disgusting. Yeah, I'm not terribly old, but I got paid three, 25 and say, like, I was like eight years old. So, um, no taxes. I just I felt really awesome to have a job at that age.
Speaker 1:Okay, um, doing some basic things, clean up and that kind of stuff, helping around the business that my parents owned. But, um, but but think about this, like if I took on that task and implemented as a teenager the things that we're talking about, and then I look back at 25 years old to that teenager, me and go man, I was stupid. But thank you for doing that. You know that was so responsible of me. Wow, I'm a, I'm incredible, you know.
Speaker 1:And all it was was maybe an extra 10 or $20 a week now, but now, like, I can afford to eat something other than ramen in my little tiny apartment that I'm having, because I've put aside, like you said, you know, if it was an enterprise, I probably am not going to be ever dealing with a ramen in an apartment. It'll be my you know millionaire future by 20, you know, because I've I've purchased 75 electric lawnmowers and I actually own the electric lawnmower company now and you know, you know, like so it just continues to grow, like the opportunity is endless, but but it's really going like man. I hate that right now I sit here and go. Hindsight is 2020, like I can see clearly. I probably should have done this, you know you know.
Speaker 2:I remember as early as I think I was in second or third grade, I had a friend who was a really great artist and he would draw bookmarks and we sold those bookmarks for 50 cents a pop and that was my first business venture when I was in second, third grade, was you know it's? It's something that simple that when you start that young you, you learn the skills, you learn the techniques, you learn everything to be able to apply it later in life. And I shared I shared a really long example with the lawnmower earlier, so I'm not going to share another long example of the math behind how all this compounds, but the math is there and when I talk to younger people who are probably a little bit older 17, 18, I write out the math and show them how, if they set aside, if they're still living with their parents, and they set aside all of the money that they make because by then you're probably working more, you're making more money they could go to college without getting a single student loan, finish college and immediately be able to buy a house and the car of their dreams. And all it takes is setting aside money Now. It takes a lot of time to do that. So when you're in college. It's also working while you're in college.
Speaker 2:But saving that money, setting it aside, that is a really strict environment.
Speaker 2:So it's not necessarily for everyone, but if you work really hard at it, you'd be able to graduate from college after four years with a house and with the car of your dreams. I'm talking like a $90,000, $100,000 car, like. I'm not talking like a cheap $20,000 car, nice car, and so by setting that time, by putting in the effort and you don't have to put in that kind of effort because you don't have to graduate college with a house and a car um, give it time. But the more you practice now, the more your future self will come back. And thank you, yeah, because you have that. When you see all your other college buddies sitting there eating their ramen, you know you're gonna be sitting there with your five course feast and just enjoying life while they're, you know, looking at you with those drool coming down eyes you know, and it's, it's one of those things like I, I'm, I'm, I'm, nobody, and if I said trust us, but, uh, I mean, in fact we are, the name of our podcast is the idiots guide.
Speaker 1:So you know, like there's a little bit of distrust in just the title alone, but but, but the idea is like we've talked about the, the financial aspects that we do. We've been able to math pretty good in a lot of stuff. So you know, in a lot of these episodes when we are talking math, I feel like we've we've proven our quality and also, math is something you math every day, so every day, all day. So your mapping capabilities are far superior to mine and so like, in that sense, it's still, I wouldn't say trust us, but but know that it's not us that you need to trust. I want you to trust the money that you're putting aside, knowing it's going to do what we say it's going to do, because that's all it. All it's, it's made to do, it's designed to do that way. It's just knowing these tricks and techniques that make it exponentially compound, and it's, it's, it's good and so. So it's something that is is absolutely doable because it's been done over and over and over.
Speaker 1:But I think probably the the most important part about this is just kind of, you know to to recap on what we, what this is like, what, what what this element or this phase of your life, 15 years old first job is don't blow it all. Save some of it, spend some of it and definitely have some kind of a game plan. So you know what you're doing with it, right? Yeah, you know. It doesn't mean that you are losing any freedom in this. Honestly, what you're doing is securing even better freedom later, because you have the freedom to do what you're doing right now, but investing a tiny amount into something of the future, you is only going to benefit even greater later even greater later.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is the first phase of your financial life. When you're 15, whether you have a job or not, whether you do anything with this phase or not, this is the first phase of your financial life, and if you succeed and do well in this first phase of financial life, all the other phases of your financial life will be that much better, and so by working hard now in this first phase, you're going to be so much better in later phases, and so this is such a critical time to think about this stuff, to make the mistakes now instead of phase two or phase three, so that you can learn, so that you can grow, so that you can really solidify the rest of your life.
Speaker 1:Do you have a joke for me?
Speaker 2:Oh, so we've got.
Speaker 1:It is time for the dad joke of the week Dad joke, bad joke, bad joke, dad joke.
Speaker 2:All right. So what's orange and sounds like a parrot?
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 2:A carrot. I love that one. I have nothing else.
Speaker 1:All you Well, we've reached the end of our show for today. Thank you, guys, for listening. Thank you for watching. Don't forget to like and subscribe. Life's too short, so keep laughing, keep laughing, keep learning and remember idiots have way more fun. Check your shoes.