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
Your Twenties Toolkit for Money and Dating Ep64 TIG
Discover how experimentation and self-discovery can be your best allies through the whirlwind of your 20s, as Adam Richardson and Joe Haslam share their journey's from juggling military duties to managing substantial assets at a young age. This episode offers a comprehensive guide to navigating critical financial and career decisions that lay the groundwork for future success. Whether it's saving for a house, planning meaningful travel, or understanding your career aspirations, we emphasize the importance of embracing diverse opportunities during this pivotal decade.
Relationships and finances can be a tricky duo, especially when societal pressures urge you to settle down quickly. With a focus on authenticity, Adam & Joe explore strategies for dating without breaking the bank, advocating for budget-friendly yet meaningful experiences like hiking or cooking at home. By prioritizing genuine connections over extravagant outings, listeners are encouraged to enjoy the dating process while being financially savvy, reserving splurges for truly special occasions. It's about building authentic relationships while keeping an eye on the budget.
Laying a strong financial foundation in your 20s is crucial, and this episode is packed with practical advice on setting up strategic savings accounts and building good credit. From emergency funds to "future you" accounts, Adam & Joe discuss how small consistent contributions can lead to significant outcomes, like buying a home or investing in your dreams. We also talk about the importance of planning for the future, considering life insurance, and starting retirement savings early. Get inspired to make smart financial decisions today, ensuring that your future self will be grateful for the foundation laid in these formative years.
Today on the Idiot's Guide. So you're 25, juggling a job, dating, maybe even thinking about settling down or just trying to keep your bank account from flatlining Sounds about right right Now. While brunch dates and weekend getaways are great, your 20s are prime time for setting yourself up for bigger goals, like buying a house or traveling the world without your wallet breaking down in tears. You might think that after you've reached that quarter century, it's smooth sailing until your 80s. Actually, I don't think anyone thinks this. I hope it's definitely not. But today we're going to talk about ways to build the right foundations now that lead to legacies later. So let's dive into how making the right money moves can keep you thriving, not just surviving.
Speaker 1:I'm your host, adam Richardson, aka the profit hacker, and I'm joined of the things that you know.
Speaker 1:I haven't been in my 20s for a little bit, but you know we really want to kind of zero in on that today, in thinking about the choices that we make when we are of that age. And sometimes you're you know, you're like you're still. You might be wrapping up college by this point in your early twenties. Unless you're a doctor, then you'll be, you know, wrapping up college by the end of your thirties, um, but like you know it's, it's all of this stuff that you can really kind of look into, Like I think, about my financial decisions that I made back then. I was really dumb, made terrible choices, made some mistakes and paid for them later. But I think our goal in talking about this stuff is to kind of give some insight into maybe what's good practice to do, what's not good practice to do, and at least you know, if anything, just to give some or provide some, I don't know, like I'm not really sure you know exactly how to kind of intro into this.
Speaker 2:Well, it's just, it's guidance on you, guidance on where you're going, where you've been. The last two episodes we talked about your teenage years. We talked about just very beginning, becoming an adult at 18, and strategies to do Now. If you're already past that stage, that sucks. You didn't do those tactics that we talked about. Hopefully, if you're in those stages, you're going to take some of that advice and be able to move forward and learn with that, and then we'll talk about how to capitalize on some of those older ones, the last two videos, some of those activities and things. Hopefully that will lead you to a much better future. But if you're just starting out right now and you're looking at, okay, I'm in my mid-20s, what do I do now? I haven't done anything.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, I mean, like I remember having a tremendous amount of success. I joined the military, so that was part of it. Coming into my 20s, I had already been in service for you know three years, because I joined when I was 18. You know three years cause I joined when I was 18. So you know, I I was, you know, into my twenties I was going to school. I had two jobs. No, I had, I had one good job.
Speaker 1:I was also in the military, uh, so I was a reservist and I had two cars and I had my own apartment and all that stuff. I felt nice. It was really good, especially in my young twenties. Um, you know, paying for college and you know all of those other things. That was pretty, pretty hectic. And then I got deployed and that wrecked everything.
Speaker 1:But, uh, but you know, from from that, my experience of being a diesel technician in the military led me to a job by 24 years old that I was, I was working for budget truck rental and I had a very, very large amount of uh asset value that I was responsible for. So, for budget working, I worked under special projects for the vice president of maintenance in in budget truck rental at the time and so that was quite a few years ago. But I was 24 years old and somewhere to the tune of 50 million plus asset value for me that a 24 year old was responsible to answer for, and that's. That's a lot of responsibility. Don't ever take on that responsibility if you can avoid it.
Speaker 1:But if you can handle it, then you know it looks really good on a resume and I think that's really kind of what you're looking at now. Is you're not going burger flipping and you know, kind of getting your feet wet as far as employment looks now you're going. Okay, what does a career look like? What do I want to be? And I think for that really catapulted me into my ability to understand financial numbers a lot better, because that was, oddly enough, even though it was maintenance and diesel tech stuff, it was also numbers and tracking, a lot of the numerical stuff uh, to be able to do that. So it was kind of hand in hand, yeah.
Speaker 2:In this stage, I mean, there's a lot of discovery going on. Uh, so you talked about it. People who are graduating college or maybe coming out of the. So it was kind of hand in hand. Yeah, In this stage, I mean, there's a lot of discovery going on. So you talked about it.
Speaker 2:People who are graduating college or maybe coming out of the military, whatever your stage, whatever, if you've just had fun for the last four or five years since graduating high school, this is the opportunity where you're going to be trying a lot of different jobs. Hopefully, in college you've tried different classes, You've experimented with new opportunities and kind of figured out what you think you want to do. But a lot of times what you think you want to do is not really what you actually want to do, Because then you get out into the world and you're going to get that first job and it's like, oh crap, okay, I really don't like this, this isn't really for me. Other people, it's like oh crap, Okay, I really don't like this, this isn't really for me. Other people, it's like, no, this is what I wanted to do. And you get out into the real world and it's like, no, yes, this is exactly what I want to do. That's what happened to me.
Speaker 2:My first accounting class was my junior year of high school. Before then, I had a completely different career path and then I took that class and I'm like, oh, this is amazing.
Speaker 1:And I I, you know college and everything went into that as a career and it's exactly what I wanted to do. I mean, when I was in high school, I took automotive and so I was. I did a lot of of that and then I went into college doing the same thing. I thought about being an automotive engineer, so, and then I figured out how much math that is and it's way beyond math, math, you know. So it's it's, it's an uncomfortable amount and, honestly, when I think of a, you know, automotive engineer or a, uh, I can't remember the like, oh, it was mechanical engineer, that's what it was. Um, so mechanical engineer was like it's just, it's not necessarily talking about the automotive field, and I really excelled in that. So that's why I shifted gears in college to go to just becoming a master technician rather than uh, rather than looking at the engineering levels, yeah, and so this stage in life, you know, hopefully you've come to a lot of those realizations and now you're getting into the nitty gritty.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now you're getting into the jobs, and if you transition jobs multiple times, that's fine, because you want to find what's good for you, and this is the great time to do that, because you don't have necessarily a lot of responsibilities at this stage. Yeah, you know, you don't have a family. You don't have necessarily a lot of responsibilities at this stage. You don't have a family, you don't have a lot of those things that are requiring you to do a job that you may not like, and that's an important thing. Make sure at this stage that you are in that position to be free. Otherwise, you're going to be locked in on that position that you may not like because you have to, and so it's really important that right now, you're taking the time to look at these different positions, build those skills and invest into your career, because you're going to be taking a lot of different classes, you're going to be doing a lot of different things continuing education, things like that to find out exactly what it is that you want to specialize in.
Speaker 2:Now you mentioned doctors. This happens to doctors a lot. They go into, they get a general specialty or a general medical background and then they go into specialty. And that's only after they've been in the career for a while and they realize, okay, yeah, this is what I'm really good at. And then they go into that specialty, whether it's like gastroenterology or endocrinology or whatever it ends up being. That's what they end up tailoring to, and that's essentially what this stage is all about is finding that right career, building that structure and and just, you've got the foundation.
Speaker 1:Now you're building a little bit more on that foundation for a long-term structure a friend of mine that uh, I've had a number of years been friends with him. He got a bachelor in science for uh, chemistry, so like all this, and I used to make fun of him because we lived in colorado and I was like, so you're just gonna go check carbonation levels at Coors, like that's your career path, like that sounds exciting. He like from that, literally his degree was that Never once in the field, never once. I think it was just literally and honestly, like, looking at his like earlier years, I don't even know why he chose that, other than the fact that he's pretty smart. But he works in the stock market, he's been. He's like a big, big guy, big wig guy in in some, some of the big firms that you can imagine. So he's, he's doing fine.
Speaker 1:But it started way back in the day when he graduated from college with a bachelor's in science and chemistry and yeah, it was just, it was really interesting.
Speaker 1:I just I loved picking on him but man, that dude is successful, so yeah, but it's it's one of those things where, like during those years, even after college, it doesn't necessarily say like because I did this in college, I do this professionally, like that example I just gave. But imagine if you find something that you are good at and you enjoy and you excel, then it's finding and identifying especially nowadays, the information that is available to us at our fingertips for free is only to improve and build upon what you enjoy, what you like doing, so that you can really become the expert in that field. And when you become that expert you basically can write your own ticket. So those are really good opportunities to kind of go all right. Not only do I want to excel, like I want to do a good job and have this great career, but I want to continue to add value to why I am in the position I'm in and that's, you know. I think for me personally that's an everyday all the time. You know process, but that's just my personality.
Speaker 2:And once you find that position, once you find that job and you start to excel, you're investing in your career, all those things. That's when you start the savings, Because now you're going to be transitioning in time over to the next stage, which we'll be covering on our next podcast. But this is the time where you're building that savings. Where you're building that, you know you're investing in your career, you're pushing yourself further, you're building that financial savings, You're building that investment pool so that, when you get to that stage, you've got the resources to be able to enjoy that part of life.
Speaker 1:When you're making or investing or, let's say, depositing into your skill levels, then that opens the door for those newer opportunities, the promotion levels. Then that opens the door for those newer opportunities, the promotion. So you know you might be really good at customer service, but you don't want to stay the person that is just on the phone every day. Some people sure that's your bread and butter and that's what you enjoy doing is like there is no responsibility above my head or below me. I'm just golden right here. I don't have to check in and out of anything else. But some people pursue that where you can become a supervisor, a team lead, a manager, a vice president. You know those are all really really key positions within companies to make a difference and help that. And you know, developing your own skill level will always add to the opportunities that can come up because of it. So you know, though it's also adding you know value to your skill level. Well, I guess, though it's also adding to your paycheck amount so you can add to your bank account, and that's a plus to it. It's it's increasing your opportunities elsewhere. So if, if a business goes under and you get laid off, you are still a very valuable asset for some business because of those skills. So there's lots of different things that you can see because of the, the, the things you're putting in place and the skills you're developing right now. So you want to add anything else? Nope, all right.
Speaker 1:Well, if you're enjoying this episode and want more tips on leveling up your finances, hit that subscribe button. We're all about helping to make you, you know. Help make the smart money moves that set you up for future wins. Whether you're saving that for that first house, planning a big trip or just trying to get your finances in order, we've got episodes lined up just for you. So subscribe now. Don't miss out on any of the insights that future you will thank you for. So the, I think the biggest part about your twenties maybe may like and I know depends on the context you live in. Here in Utah, where we live, everybody is in a hurry to get married. I don't know, like you know. Okay, so purity culture I don't know what it is, like you know, and that has jokes in and of itself.
Speaker 2:I don't think that's necessarily it. I think one of the big things here is, you know, we're talking about stage three, and I mean there are so many great things that happen in stage four of life. So we break these down into different stages, stages one through seven. But in stage three it's kind of just like this transition stage, and so it's like, okay, I don't want to be in here forever, I want to get to stage four, I want to get to all this other stuff. So I think there's just this rush to get through this stage to the next one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and honestly, like I, I, I got you know I hurried to stage four. Uh, before I got you know, I hurried to stage four. Before my mid-20s I was already in stage four. Well, ish, you know so in this one. So I mentioned at the very beginning maybe considering settling down. Let's use that as the application. I had settled down. That was where I was at, but it wasn't until I made stage four, which we'll talk about in our next week's episode. But stage four was like, I made that by the time I was almost 30.
Speaker 1:So I'm good, I feel like that's a good middle ground. But right now you're talking about like, okay, well, I'm making money. I might be making decent money, really good money. You know I'm. I got a college degree, maybe, maybe I don't. I just have a successful path that I've really built for myself and I start seeing that. But I think that people are cute and attractive and I want to see if I can spend some extra time with them. Well, spending extra time with them means dating, and dating means that I'm going to have to try to treat them to something nice. They like nice things. I'm going to have to try to treat them to something nice they, they like nice things, I'm sure, but at the end of the day, like that, oh man, like that's it's expensive, it's really expensive.
Speaker 1:And you're trying to show off how fancy you can be, and maybe that's a little bit too much for your. You got too much fancy going on for what's going on. So so, dating, it's it's. It's impressed, it's good to impress, but don't go broke because of it.
Speaker 2:That's really the biggest part. Yeah, fortunately, one trend that I see more now is there is more of a push on uh going Dutch in dating, so there is the idea that whoever asks is the one who pays uh. But more and more we're seeing that it's more of a shared expense yeah scenario, which makes it a lot easier than either the guy or the girl uh asking someone and then being required to pay for everything uh. Historically it's just been always the men paying uh. That has changed now to uh hopefully being a little bit more equal uh to men or women whoever asks, like I said, um. But again, there is this trend more for uh Dutch, where you pay for your own uh as part of that dating process.
Speaker 1:I would honestly add to that the fact that it doesn't have to be like this wine and dine scenario that you know more and more people are looking for. How creative you are as an individual. You know how fancy this, this nice dinner, is that you went to and we went to this beautiful place that you know they they placed the napkin on your nap, on your lap, for you and made the salad right in front of you, right there. You know, and you're like it's whatever. You know like it's not impressive anymore. You know like it's, it's the, it's more of the, the intentional side of. You know like it doesn't have to cost a fortune.
Speaker 1:You can go get coffee together and go on a hike. Or you know, even in the idea of maybe, if you're dating and you've had a couple of dates, that you can consider cooking a meal together in one of your places. You know like that, like stay home, cook a meal, bring, bring ingredients and put that together at home, like what a cool, interacting, you know element that kind of helps build a bond in that relationship as well, that you're not going to get from just this fancy dinner somewhere that you're trying to like it's. It's too much dog and pony. Nowadays they pick people read through it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean you, you've got to think about long-term. If that's where you start, then that's where you have to stay, and it's very hard to go back to eating at a McDonald's for a date if your first date was eating at Fleming's Steakhouse. Yeah, you can't spend $300 on a first date meal and then go back down to three. Yeah, it's just, it doesn't work. Now, that's not to say that having those really nice fancy dates is a no-go For special occasions. If it's Valentine's, yeah, do a really nice dinner, go out to a steakhouse, do something like that. But for every day, just have fun with it. That's what dating is supposed to be about. It's about having fun, getting to know someone, and that's done a lot better when you are in casual environments. You get to see who they are in a casual setting. Yeah, and that's much more financially friendly. And so you're going to be spending less, you're going to be using less of your savings, but at the same time, make sure that you're proactively planning for those activities. Just because you are living in a world where you may not have a lot of money or you're trying to set yourself up for the future, doesn't mean you can't have fun. That actually destroys budgets. There are a lot of financial planners out there who say, oh, you're not allowed to spend money, live as frugally, live really constricted, and that doesn't benefit people in the long run. It may help in the short term, but in the long run that is more damaging than it is saving, because it's not sustainable.
Speaker 2:You have to plan, you have to proactively plan for fun. That's how we live. Now I'm not saying go overboard, but if you are proactively planning, great. You know that it's January 10th and in a month you're going to have a Valentine's Day dinner and you want to take your date out for a nice steak dinner. Well, you got four weeks to plan for that. Set aside a little bit of extra money, set aside $100 a week extra and now you've got $400 to go and have a really nice night out without breaking the bank because you proactively planned for that.
Speaker 2:If you're proactively planning, if you're thinking ahead, that makes such a huge difference for being able to do these really nice fancy things. But also plan ahead for the small things. You know, if you're going to be spending an extra 20 bucks for a picnic in the park, then plan for that, put that as part of your financial plan, and that's how you're going to be able to succeed in not just dating, but also finding people that are really good for you and understand your method of proactive planning. Yeah, and so more opportunities to really get to know who someone is and, uh, what their, what their financial life is really like too.
Speaker 1:You know, um, it's. It's really about just making sure that you're not just locking yourself out and, and you know, keeping it down to this, I'm strict. I have to not have fun. I have to, you know, not experience life One thing it's going to crush your dating life because you know if you're not fun, nobody's going to want to date you. You know, like that's better. I think part of the thing is making that other person that you're. You know that you're interested in making them smile, making them laugh, and you know that doesn't cost much. But but you know it takes some personality and honestly, if you are just so locked down, I don't think you have enough personality to go date anybody. That's just a personal opinion. Maybe there's some charisma in that, I don't know.
Speaker 1:But hey guys, if you're not aware, our Idiot's Guide podcast and channel are basically the podcast that we have on our YouTube channel. Youtube channel is called Hot Potato Finance. So for our fans, if you want to join, if you're wanting, if you want to join the happiest tater community on the web, now is your chance. So for just $1 a month, month, you can become a spud and get exclusive access to us. Your podcast hosts here. But if you're looking for more, you can upgrade to commentator fifty dollars a month for quarterly merch and the power to vote on your next, on our next video concepts. Now, if you are feeling fully loaded, become a mash tater at $100 a month. Not only will you have all the benefits of the other tiers, but you can join our monthly Zoom calls plus get shout outs in our videos. All members get a little gravy for supporting us, like having their names displayed at the end of our videos, access to a feedback form, having their names displayed at the end of our videos, access to a feedback forum and for some, even one-on-one consulting. No small fry here, wow. Truly, our members have the best benefits. So join us at patreoncom forward, slash T-I-G, underscore H-P-F and be a happy tater.
Speaker 1:Today I'm gonna sit here and just bask in the atrocity that just happened. All right, so last but last couple, but at least there's a few more here. But now we want to talk about some foundation building, because we've straightened out the career idea maybe some self-im human being, and whether they're going to remain interested in you for whatever reason. Career path is important. That looks like you know the reason why that's important. Just so you know is the word is stability. If you don't appear stable, nobody's going to like you. You know you're just a dependent at that point. Now, maybe culturally there's some differences there, but at the end of the day most everybody looks for that kind of doing those things. You have to start building the foundation for a future that you want to have. You know the, you know like the future. You is counting on current you to think ahead so that you know your, your. Your twenties are more like the, the foundation years for everything you want later, like a house, a car, travel, maybe even retiring early if you play it right. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Retirement early is great, I mean, yeah, it's. You know when, when you're thinking about the, the, the longterm. Like I said, this is a transition phase of life. You're going from, you know, teenager and early adulthood, where you're making a lot of mistakes, and you're heading into the phase of much more responsible adulting, where you're responsible for someone else, whether that's a spouse, a partner or children. You're entering into that phase. You're entering in that phase. So this phase right now is you're going from that more innocence to that more responsibility, and there's a lot that has to happen in this phase to be able to make it as successful as possible. So we talked about saving. We talked about investing in your career.
Speaker 2:Setting up a savings account Great, there are a lot of additional savings accounts that you can set up. So, setting up a future you account, and so you've got your regular savings and then you've got your future you account. So you're going to be setting this up as a potentially a separate bank account, but that's what you're putting into so that you have that set aside to develop yourself even in the future. And so, in addition to that, you set up emergency funds. So you have your savings account. That savings account is going to help you to get the house, get the car, whatever those future opportunities are. The future you that's if you want to get more education, so you've got a bachelor's degree. Maybe you want to get a master's degree later, so that's going to set up for future you. Maybe you want to try other things, new hobbies, different things, but then you're setting up your emergency fund, which is a whole different account where now you're setting up for emergencies If something happens that you didn't plan for. You don't want to take it out of your future you money. You don't want to take it out of your savings account, you take it out of your emergency fund.
Speaker 2:And so this is where you start. That I'm not talking about. You need to have $20,000 in each of these accounts. Small amounts add up. Put $50 a week into each of these accounts, it's $150. It's not that much. If you've got a good career, Even if you don't have a good career, start out with $25. $25 a week into each of these accounts, that's 75 bucks. It's really not that much. And now you're setting aside that money for the potentials for the future and you're going to be in a much better position. And so I work with people that are working retail jobs and they start doing this. They're not making a ton of money, they're maybe making 15 to $20 an hour and they're still able to set aside hundreds of dollars a week in order to build this potential for the future. I've got one guy. He's planning on paying off his car next year and he just bought it earlier this year because he's sending that money aside and then he's going to have all that money that he is paying on his car payment right now, that then, once his car is paid off, he's going to be able to take that and use it to buy his own place. And then, once he has his own place, he's going to buy more places and start renting those those out. And so he's taking that little bit of money and he's setting it aside for the potentials in the future, for emergencies that may happen if he needs to repair something. And that's the long term. Even if you're making a retail wage job or we took retail wage you're gonna be able to set that money aside and be able to build yourself a future.
Speaker 2:The other thing that's important to talk about here is building credit, and we talked about in stage two. That's where you are getting your first credit cards. You know you're putting a little bit of money on there maybe your gas, maybe your groceries and paying that off every week, and that's going to help start that credit. This is when you're building that credit. This is when you're going to get that first car. Get credit for that car.
Speaker 2:Credit is not bad inherently. Bad credit is bad. Good credit is good, and so you're going to maybe put a little bit more. Go on a vacation, put that on your credit card, take a little while to pay that off. Or go on a vacation, put that on your credit card, take a little while to pay that off, because what you're doing is you're showing that you have strength in your credit usage so that you aren't going overboard. You're still able to pay it off, but the credit card companies are still making a little bit of money off of you.
Speaker 2:And so the important thing is here it's not just about always paying off your credit card, because then credit card companies are like I don't want to lend to you because I'm not making anything on this, and so you've got to show that you're able to do a little bit of interest on that, but you're still going to pay it off.
Speaker 2:You're not going to rack up big bills. This is also when you're going to get some small time loans, because you want to show banks that you're good credit risk, that you're going to pay off your loans, but that you're also using those loans. So it's a give and take here to be able to work with banks and credit card companies to be able to show yes, I am responsible with debt, I can pay it off. I'm also willing to use it, because if you don't ever use debt, you don't have any credit score, and that's not a good position to be in. You have to use and get debt in order to build that credit score for the future, and so you just got to be very responsible with it.
Speaker 1:Here's a question about at this age range, because I did this to a point. I bought a car it was a newer car but not, like may, majorly new and when I bought it it I financed it, um, and I bought it, you know, through a dealership, um, and it gave me an opportunity to get an auto loan. But I didn't stay with the dealerships auto loan. I went to my own bank that I had a relationship with and I think that that's kind of where I feel like I did banking for years and I always would encourage individuals. If you have your, you know what they call bank credit. It's a little bit different than your credit score. It's not necessarily scored the same way. It just means that you have a good history with the bank and so they have an independent scoring system that typically banks will have, and this is universal. Everywhere you go, they will have their inside scoring system somehow and that just means that if I get an auto loan from a dealership and I want that to be part of my money that I have or access to my funds within the relationship that I've already established with a bank, then I'm going to try to move that auto loan over because it's also going to merit probably a better interest rate than that dealership would even come close to and make it more of a manageable. Come close to and make it more of a manageable, you know it helps manage the payment process. It kind of gives you the ability to negotiate a better term or the terms for that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:So you know I started doing that early. I wasn't getting the top notch, most expensive vehicles on the market. I think I started started with like like, one of my first ones was, you know, two 2001. I had a jeep. I bought a 95 jeep wrangler. So, you know, just fancy little lift. You know I could go topless. That was fun, you know, there you go. But but but the reason why I say that is not not so much the vehicle, it's just I was 20, I was 19, 20 years old. So coming right into my 20s, 21 years old, and I'm getting uh, I'm getting this, you know, like a credit scenario with my bank because of my auto loan, not necessarily not the credit card thing.
Speaker 1:I did stupid things with credit cards then most people do but but it's that idea where we're like trying to build small steps that aren't massive, um, not huge commitments, that if, if, if you know and that you can, they're smaller bites than you know in comparison what my car payment is now compared to back then. Right, you know my car payment is actually not that bad now, but it's uh, but still it's. It's one of those where, like, if you don't want to do that and you just want to get your car and then pay it off, you don't even have to have a car payment by this age bracket, this age stage.
Speaker 2:I don't have a car payment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you don't. Yeah, this age stage, I don't have a car pay. Yeah, you don't. Yeah, your car is paid off. Yep, so I'm getting there, I'm real close, but um, but yeah, the idea is just kind of aiming in that direction, with responsible moves that are overwhelming but are are well managed and with and it's a basically on purpose yeah, and it's building that because you, you want to buy that house, you want to buy that, that nicer environment, uh.
Speaker 2:And so what you're doing buy that house, you want to buy that nicer environment. And so what you're doing now is you're setting yourself up for that future, and that's the key. You don't want to go overboard because that will detriment you later. You want to be in that good position where you're smart about it, not going too much to the extremes of either side.
Speaker 1:So there's a word that floats around when you not, not nearly in your twenties barely, you start hearing it when you're about my age now, where you're like, well, yeah, well, what do you want to, you know, build a legacy for your family? And you're like legacy. That sounds like old people, things you know, and it absolutely is true that you know and it absolutely is true that you know like, hopefully you're old before you pass on the legacy that you, that you've built. But you start that foundation for that legacy in your 20s.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can start it earlier if you're really ambitious, but you know it's that this is the space that you can have to make some mistakes. Not really, you know, not not really have, like, this Uber buckle down, no fun life because you're trying to build a legacy by 32 years old. You know. No, that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about having a better perspective going into, you know, going into your later twenties, about knowing you're building a legacy for the future. You, or, if you decide to make more of you, yeah, this is when you start looking at.
Speaker 2:This is the perfect time to start looking at things like life insurance. Getting life insurance at that age is much cheaper and you can get good policies for the rest of your life. You're looking at your IRAs. I'm not a big fan of the IRAs. I think there are better ways to save, but it's an easy way to save, and so this is something that you can start putting into those IRAs, you can put into your retirement accounts, you can put into your 401ks, you can put into your retirement accounts, you can put into your 401ks All these things that allow you to set some money aside for the future. By having a lot of that set aside, by doing a lot of that work now, in this stage of life, you are setting yourself up so that you don't have to work as hard to make it work later. This is all about being proactive, about pre-planning, about thinking ahead and setting everything up for the future.
Speaker 2:If you know you want a house, this is the time to start thinking about. Okay, if I'm going to buy a house in five years, what does my down payment need to look like? How do I start saving today to buy that house five years from now, and that's where the savings account comes in, and then you can break that down. If you need, let's say, $50,000, to do a down payment on that house, it won't work backwards. You've got five years. That means that you need to set aside $10,000 a year, and so if you've got $10,000 a year and you've got 12 months to do that, well, that's less than $1,000 a year. You're probably talking about $800 a month, yeah, and so if you've got $800 a month, well, let's just break that down even further. Now we've got to do $200 a week. $200 a week is doable, and so we just broke down how to get a $50,000 down payment just by setting aside $200 a week for five years.
Speaker 1:And you have to realize, like, if you utilize things like, uh, iras or retirement funds or other, more aggressive you know funds to be able to put that money where you know where, where your goal is. You know if, if you've set the target, you have that plan in place, but you're using something with a little bit more aggression in it. You know there's some that you could talk about, certain investments, markets, different markets that you could get into and that can, you know, sometimes not be a great idea, but but but a lot of times there's some really really safe, consistent funds that are just consistently growing at a little bit higher rate than a savings account would be, so that $50,000 gets there faster, not significantly, it's small, but you know that little bit that you're doing that's just slow and steady into that kind of a contributing or that kind of an account. Those contributions end up with massive results. Yeah, they do. So it's a really good benefit and it's not something that I think one of the messages that we've kind of started with from the very beginning is just bite size. It's not we're not talking about. You know, sell the farm. Every single time you're trying to do something, you know you're, you're literally just kind of going, okay, and an inch at a time, and you're going to find out how much faster you get that mile, you know, even if it is just an inch at a time.
Speaker 1:Um, it's being patient and knowing that you know you, you already have that plan in place and you just focus on the today, because if you stay connected to what you do today, that tomorrow is going to look so much better. So it's this thing. What did we talk about today? So we talked about dating smart, saving smart, working smart, being employed smart, get a good job, smart. 20s are your best time to build that future you dream. So it's, it's really a great thing, but the legacy isn't, isn't built in a day. It's. You know, it's these little, little financial choices that you're making today that are laying the bricks for tomorrow's mansion. Yep, so it's, it's really and honestly like the future. You's going to be like wow, I'm kind of impressed with myself, you know so. So who? Wow, I'm fancy. Yeah, so let's aim to keep the wallet happy and your future goals even happier. That about right, that sounds great. Anything else you want to add? Nope, all right, jokes with Joe.
Speaker 2:Here we go Okay, here we go, dad joke for this week.
Speaker 1:What is a door not a door? What is a door not a door?
Speaker 1:I think I know, but I'm going to figure this out, let's go for it when it's a jar, funny, funny side note, my wife wants to, uh, she's always wanted to be that little like voice. Whenever it says, like analysis things like the voice if you go on to light rail or they call it tracks here, and it the door is open, it says the door is ajar. The door is ajar, it's like no, it's a door, but she's always wanted to be that voice I'm like oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Anyway, we've reached the end of our show for today. Don Don't forget to like and subscribe. Thank you for listening, thank you for watching. Life's too short, so keep laughing and learning and remember idiots have way more fun. Check your shoes, you.