I’m 24, Got My First Paycheck, When Can I Retire?

First paychecks feel like a win… until taxes, rent, and loans show up. We break the noise with a clear playbook for 20-somethings: how to build a budget that actually sticks, why “free money” from your employer match comes first, and when a Roth 401(k) or IRA can set you up for decades of tax-free growth. Along the way, a nostalgic detour through baseball and Pokémon cards shows how small choices today can turn into big regrets—or big wins—tomorrow.

We run the numbers: start at 24 with $500 a month and a modest 6% return, and you could cross seven figures by your mid-sixties. Wait ten years and the result is roughly half. That’s the quiet math of compounding and the real cost of delay. We also map out the pillars of a resilient plan—an opportunity fund with three to six months of expenses, a growth-focused portfolio that matches your long time horizon, and a cap on speculative bets like crypto and private equity so they add spice without burning the foundation.

You’ll hear why boring often beats viral, how to avoid common traps new earners face, and where a seasoned coach can help turn scattered advice into a simple, durable strategy. Whether you’re 22 with your first offer letter or a parent guiding a new grad, this conversation translates financial literacy into practical steps you can take this week: secure the match, automate contributions, favor Roth when it fits, and invest for growth with patience.

If this helped you see money differently, follow the show, share it with a friend who just got paid, and leave a quick review so more young listeners can find smart, no-fluff guidance. Got a topic you want us to tackle next? Send it our way and subscribe for more actionable episodes.

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Disclosure: Information contained in this podcast is for entertainment and informational purposes only, and should not be considered as financial advice. Financial Planning and Advisory Services are offered through Prosperity Capital Advisors (“PCA”), an SEC registered investment adviser. Registration as an investment adviser does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Keystone Financial Group and PCA are separate, non- affiliated entities. PCA does not provide tax or legal advice.

Transcript

Welcome And Why Gen Z Money Matters

Announcer 0:00

The financial huddle does not provide tax, legal, financial, or other professional advice. Listeners are encouraged to consult with their own advisors in these areas.

Brian Minier 0:06

Alright, everybody, huddle up. Play calls in. This is the Financial Huddle. Ready?

Card Collecting Lessons And Missed Value

Ryan Fleming 0:13

Well, welcome back, huddlers. Happy New Year out there to everybody. Hope everybody had a great Christmas and we're off to a good start to the new year. You know, today we wanted to take a moment and actually have an episode geared towards our 20-somethings out there. Maybe Gen Zers, if you would call it that. The youngsters. The youngsters, you know. So, you know, I'm 24. I got my first paycheck. When can I retire? That's what we're going to talk about out here today. Never easy, right? Never. So for all of you uh 20-somethings out there, um, low-key, this is gonna be a really, really good message. So lock in. Lock in. This made me think about uh something recent. You know, I have a 22-year-old, and uh recently we were up in our crawl space, and back in the day, you guys might remember this. Uh uh trading cards, baseball cards, sports cards were like really, really popular. I was really into it. Maybe you guys were too. You say used to flip cards way back in the day. Okay, yeah. Pokemon too. Tops or fleer. Oh, or Donruss. All of them, man. I was a collector of all of these cards. Um, then you know, we might remember Pokemon out there for our listeners out there. That was absolutely incredible. Um, but one of the things I remember is, you know, back in the day with these baseball cards, um, it was a big deal. And there was opportunities to like maybe make a lot of money, or at the time they were a lot of money. But I remember like some people would put like Mickey Mantle cards in their tire of their bicycle to make it sound like a motorcycle, and now today it's worth like three million dollars or something like that.

Ed Beemiller 1:47

No, it's not worth three million if they put it in the spokes of their uh bicycle.

Ryan Fleming 1:51

So, so like so some people were mindful of that, some people had no idea. But I was really my my hero growing up was Ken Griffey Jr. and I wanted to be like him, so I collected a ton of his cards, had a lot of his rookie cards, and I was uh trying to talk to my kids about this because they're into it now. And I one of the things I told them is I just I really wish I would have known then what I know now. Um I wish I would have taken more care of them. I would I wish I would have investigated them more. I wish I wouldn't have sold some of these cards that are worth like thousands of dollars now.

Ed Beemiller 2:23

So so you basically uh sold low.

Ryan Fleming 2:25

Yeah, and I also sold some that were high at the time where it really didn't make sense, and I wish I wouldn't have done that because I lost, right? But yeah, you know, nevertheless, um whether it's Mickey Mannell, Ken Griffey Jr., the Pokemon, the Charizard, I think, is like I mean obscene amount of money now, Charizard.

Brian Minier 2:44

I it you see the Logan Paul video where he spent like he had a briefcase of like six figures to complete his collection. Exactly.

Start Early: The Power Of Compounding

Ryan Fleming 2:53

Yeah, so my whole point about this is that for you 20 some some somethings out there that are really kind of getting into the workforce, it it's important to understand kind of what's going on right now and and positioning yourself so that you can be as prosperous as you can when you start getting your first paychecks. That now's the time to start.

Ed Beemiller 3:11

Yeah, don't don't start when you're 30 or 40. Just you know, life is fickle. Life relatively is short. Yeah, the earlier you start, the better.

Ryan Fleming 3:20

And these 20-year-olds are entering into a world that it's it's it's crazy. And so we wanted to focus on that today and really bring some brevity um to these young people out there because they're the future. Yeah, they're the future.

Ed Beemiller 3:31

Quick quick question I had is what what is the value of your uh rookie card? My rookie card. You know, um is there any estimated values in there in rookie cards? Is it actually traded still?

Ryan Fleming 3:42

Yeah, there's several out there. Um I've seen some on the internet for a couple bucks. I saw one for like $12.95. $12.95. But you got to pay postage.

Ed Beemiller 3:53

They're not paying postage in that that that figure.

Ryan Fleming 3:56

I you know, I don't know what they're worth nowadays.

Brian Minier 3:58

It's a personal thing, but if you give me one, I'll keep it. I'll buy and hold it. There you go. Buy and hold strategy. That's right.

Ryan Fleming 4:04

Hey, everybody out there, just keep your money in your wallet. Don't go buy any of my cards.

Brian Minier 4:09

Well, we all we all have uh young adult children. Eds are a little bit older, but still I got one still in the 20s.

Ed Beemiller 4:15

Still in the twenties.

Brian Minier 4:16

So still in the principles, I you know, it still applies. Right, right. So we all try to talk to our our kids about good, solid financial principles. And we've talked to them about Roth IRAs and the importance of saving into that over the over the course of their working career. And I and I ran some numbers that I thought was really interesting. So I I looked at if you contributed six thousand dollars a year for age twenty from age twenty-four to sixty-five, so thirty-one years.

Ed Beemiller 4:48

So five hundred a month, just let's break it down. Sometimes you say six thousand dollars to a twenty-year-old, and you say, Oh my god, we're yeah, how am I gonna get that amount of money? No, and that's smart.

Brian Minier 4:57

I'm glad you I was gonna glad you did that. So five hundred a month, six thousand a year. When you look at that over a 31-year period, at six percent, so not even quite what the market is doing, a little over one point one million dollars with that compounding interest. Wow. I wonder what it I wonder how big it would be. Hold on, not yet. So then I did the same exercise but waited 10 years. Oh, okay. So from 34 to 65, $578,000.

Ryan Fleming 5:26

Wow.

Brian Minier 5:26

So half of that with a 10-year head start with 24 versus 34. Yeah. Wow. Just the significance of starting as early as you can.

Ed Beemiller 5:38

Yeah. Right. And to give even go further there, if they waited to 34 and they wanted that 1.1 million, how much would they have to put in? They're gonna have to put in significantly more because they missed that 10-year-old.

Ryan Fleming 5:52

So what would have been probably at 7%? Six?

Ed Beemiller 5:56

Wait a minute. Wait, did you just say six and seven? Six and out there for all you listeners. Well, we understand. Yeah, we get it.

Ryan Fleming 6:04

It probably would have been a profound difference.

Brian Minier 6:05

It would have been a profound difference. Okay. Yeah. That's fire. That is fire.

Budgeting Reality: Paychecks And Bills

Ed Beemiller 6:09

That is fire. That is fire. It's fire. That is fire. So we we we kind of go into and kind of the purpose of this episode here is you know, I I I reflect as my kids are 30 and 28, so kind of on the upper tier of who we're talking to. But you know, I'm 58 years old, so you always hear, you know, from adults, boy, if if I could talk to my 20-year-old self, what would I what would I tell him or her? You know, life lessons, what what wasn't told to us, or what, you know, what what type of information can I provide to my you mean like don't put a Mickey Mantle rookie cart in your bicycle spokes?

Ryan Fleming 6:51

Good advice.

Ed Beemiller 6:52

That'd be uh point number one. Okay. But you know, some of the things that that we've talked about, you know, is and this is something I did with with each of my my kids, is really to track uh spending and and do a budget, you know, which which we do with our clients when they come in, but most of them, you know, can be in their 40s or 50s. It's very important because those kids are going right from college, they get the first job, and then they're getting that regular paycheck, you know, they open that paycheck and say, Oh, what the hell is this? You know, well, what it is is taxes, right? Now all of a sudden they thought they were getting 2,000 or make this FICA guy. Who's this? What's going on here? So hey.

Ryan Fleming 7:31

Six months later, Sally May shows up on their doorstep.

Ed Beemiller 7:33

Yeah, and tells them they got to pay more on their student loans because it's all based on income. Yeah. So understanding, and I did this with my son, because after he graduated, he came back home and spent about a year, and and that's what I call, he should have called it, that's the good life, man. I mean, didn't have to pay any rent, you know, uh, didn't have to pay for meals. Mom still pretty much did laundry. I mean, he had it, he had it made, but he's like, Man, I gotta get out of here, of course. You know, everyone, all right, I get it. You want to get away from your parents, I get it. You you want to experience the spread wings. So then he goes down, you know, downtown Columbus, you know, kind of Italian village area and everything else. Well, gets into one of those lifestyle communities. Well, you know, rents 2,500 bucks for a two-bedroom. He goes from paying zero to paying, you know, twelve, thirteen hundred a month. And so I said, All right, now let's go through. And I said, then you're gonna have utilities. He's like, What are utilities? I said, Well, you know, we got to pay that this light that's on, that costs money. Turning the TV on and sitting there and watching TV, that costs money. If it's really cold out, you know, that thing that produces warm air, well, that's called a furnace. So that costs money too. You know, so I had to go through all that, but it's important because as a society, we have become a spend first and then save what's left over. Well, if you don't do this type of budget and anything else, you're most probably not going to have anything to save, right? You're gonna spend everything and you have to be intentional.

Ryan Fleming 9:03

And if you're not intentional, it's not gonna happen. So if they get the budget right, though, hopefully they do, and they're 24 and and you know, they're they're getting some good tutelage. What would be the next most important thing?

Free Money First: Employer Match

Ed Beemiller 9:13

Yeah, so what we talk a lot about, especially specifically with this within this environment, is tax-free over tax deferred. So what that means, hopefully, you know, these 20-somethings that are going into their careers and working for a company and they're offered a 401k or 403B or you know, anything like that, many cases these companies are offering a Roth 401k or a traditional. Once again, you've heard us talk in the previous podcast about where the tax environment is. You know, we're still kind of quote unquote taxes are on sale. We're in the lowest quartile over the last century. So starting a plan and having that pay the taxes now where we're in that favorable tax environment, then you're basically having tax-free growth and tax-free income for life in the future, right for life.

Ryan Fleming 10:03

And we've hit upon these on uh prior episodes, but I think this is so prevalent for these young people. But I actually think, and and you and I think you know what I'm talking about, there's actually something more important to do before you choose tax-free.

Ed Beemiller 10:15

Yeah. Well, what we call free money first.

Ryan Fleming 10:18

Yes, that's right. Now we're talking.

Ed Beemiller 10:20

And this is why I I told I I've experienced this in the last you know six, seven years with both of my kids. You know, the first question is, well, do they offer, you know, does your company offer, you know, a 401k or any type of plan like that? And like, my daughter's, you know, a family doctor, which is 403B. She joined a practice, and I'm like, she goes, I got this benefit page, I don't know what to do with it. You know, I'm just like, okay, what what type of you know company sponsored plan is there? The next question is, all right, they have one, all right, what's their match?

Ryan Fleming 10:48

Right.

Ed Beemiller 10:49

Match could be 3%, 405%, could be 50 cents on the dollar, up to six percent, whatever it is. We encourage our clients, and especially these, you know, these new people coming in, the 20-something-year-olds going into the workforce, at least contribute up to that match. Get your free money.

Ryan Fleming 11:04

Yeah, because for our listeners out there, especially young ones, I mean, that's a 100% rate of return on your money. I don't think about that.

Brian Minier 11:12

Money is sometimes tight. There's only so much to go around, and you're thinking, man, I don't have the extra. Yeah. But it's free. You're giving up free money. Do something.

Ed Beemiller 11:22

So once it's important, back to the budgeting, do something.

Brian Minier 11:24

So even before tax-free, free money.

Roth Vs Traditional And Taxes

Ed Beemiller 11:26

Yep. Yep. And just as important because they hear a lot of different things. Everyone hears a lot of different things. There's a lot of talking heads out there that talk about financial matters and things. But if you really look back, you know, the the vehicle, the stock market is one of, if not the most powerful terms for growth in the long term. If you're 20, 22, 24, guess what? You got a long-term or you should have a long-term perspective. Right? I mean, you're you know, based on a retirement age of 65, 67, heck, a lot of people are talking about 70 nowadays. Yeah, I know a 20-something year old doesn't want to hear that. You know, oh my god, I gotta wait 50 years, you know. Okay. But you know, take advantage and and make sure when you are investing that you're investing in growth potential, especially at that age.

Ryan Fleming 12:17

100%. Yep. Times your friend.

Ed Beemiller 12:19

Yeah. And then another thing we talk about, which which kind of gets into the asset class diversification, start in what we call an opportunity bucket, which is kind of that whether it's three, six months of liquidity, there's some other vehicles and strategies that can be used, that it's really it's it's almost a buffer, it's there. The name opportunity is opportunities come up that you have that liquidity and you have that capital accessible to be able to do something with yeah, yeah.

Brian Minier 12:45

You know how this is, you're in your 20s, you're not thinking about those things that could pop up even in your 30s. Right. This land comes up where I could buy this land. Where am I gonna get the capital to buy that? Oh, your buddy and you guys are thinking of starting a business together, a side hustle, or even you want to pivot. Where are you gonna get the capital to start that? Right. That opportunity bucket and funding that yeah, crucial.

Ryan Fleming 13:06

Or even if it's not an opportunity, maybe your tires blow out and it's a thousand bucks.

Invest For Growth With Time Horizon

Ed Beemiller 13:10

Well, right, you gotta money. It could be a bad opportunity, exactly. Right. You gotta pay for something. You gotta pay for basically a vehicle that will that gets you to work. So that's pretty important to have, right? Although a lot of a lot of people are working remote uh at this point, but yeah, important to have. Yeah, important to have. Another big piece of advice, especially in this climate, where we we look at what we classify under the alternative investments. So that that could be cryptocurrency, could be private equity, these types of things. I think a lot of times we we get caught up in the hype, you know, and especially as a 20-something year old, you're like, okay, a buddy told me he got a 200% return investing in Bitcoin, and you know, so that's where I need to put my money. Well, it's an option, it's an alternative, but when we look at that, it it should be a small piece of that puzzle, maybe five, ten percent of what you're doing. And especially as a 20-something year old, you need to build that foundation. So you need to be investing in that 401k, you need to be investing in that kind of opportunity bucket.

Brian Minier 14:13

I say sometimes boring is better. Yeah, when it comes to financial principles, build a house from the ground up. It doesn't sound sexy though to a 20-year-old, right? You know, and everybody hits the home run, though, right?

Ed Beemiller 14:24

Everybody, yeah, exactly. And then lastly, you know, the the three of us sitting here, um, basically, what is our purpose, right? What is our purpose in life doing what we're doing now? Is it helps to have someone to talk to. You know, people even say, okay, well, I have this mentor or mentor, you know, that type of thing. Well, talk to a financial professional, have them help you go through the budget. Because you may be, you know, okay, I can fill out you know columns of here's what I'm spending, here's what's coming in, then what? Yeah, what am I supposed to do? So talking to a financial professional, and in many cases, like in most of what we do, we're we're not, you know, we're not billable hours, right? So having a sit-down and having a conversation with one of us, a financial professional who can help guide you, because that plan's going to change over the years.

Ryan Fleming 15:14

Yeah.

Ed Beemiller 15:15

Your objectives will change a little bit. So having someone to, you know, a second set of eyes, you know, a second set of ears, or maybe it's even the first set, because you don't know what the heck you're doing, which is okay. I mean, we didn't we we we talk a lot about within the podcast. Our primary reason was what? What what what do we talk about?

Ryan Fleming 15:34

Uh financial literacy.

Ed Beemiller 15:34

Financial literacy. And and you know, this will get get me off on a whole nother tangent, so I won't do it, but the the lack of financial literacy within our even educational system, these kids just aren't prepared. They aren't pre prepared to enter into you know the real world, the first job. They they haven't gone through you know a course or anything else.

Build An Opportunity Fund

Ryan Fleming 15:53

So having someone to listen to that can help you with that is a I think it's an I think that's massively important for you uh 20-year-olds out there to have a have a coach, have a financial coach. I wish I would have had that back on the baseball card side of the house, but but in all seriousness, uh in this day and age, the thing that's going on in our the things that are prevalent in our culture when it comes to money and things, you will get very uh farther ahead in life with your finances and your long-term plan if you have a coach from the beginning.

Brian Minier 16:20

Well, young people like to do what? Research on their phone. Yeah, they like to research online, and and that's great, but there's just so much information. Yep. So to have someone that can piece that and put that together for you is super helpful.

Ryan Fleming 16:33

I love the list that you put together out there. And and hopefully, uh, you know, for our 20 uh 20-year-olds out there or parents of 20-year-olds, you're you're better armed to give these young people uh this type of advice. Um they're they're the next generation that's coming up, they're they're the future of our country as far as like you know, wealth building and jobs and things like that. And so, you know, for those of you out there, uh we we we hope this wasn't mid. Um, I thought it was it was fire. We are I thought it was fire. I agree. Hopefully you caught a lot of vibes from it. Yeah, hopefully you got the vibes from it. The vibes. And uh, you know, I mean at the end of the day, we don't we don't want to be dog water, yeah.

Ed Beemiller 17:10

Or mid cap. Right, yeah, you know.

Ryan Fleming 17:11

I think just that right. This is this advice was busting.

Ed Beemiller 17:14

That's a stock. It's a stock. Yeah, mid-cap, large cap. Yeah.

Ryan Fleming 17:18

The reality is that this advice is bussing, right? So take it to heart. Uh heed what we're trying to say. If you have questions about this, get a hold of us, set up a meeting, come in, let's talk about it. Let's get your plan going right from the beginning. Um, and as always, we appreciate you tuning in, whether you're listening or driving down the uh highway, uh listening or watching us on YouTube. Please check in, share this information with other people. Uh, let us know some content that you might think is important for uh listening and learning about. We're happy to do that. We appreciate your uh your your listening and until next time.

Brian Minier 17:52

Don't forget to subscribe. Yep. Take care, everybody.

Ryan Fleming 17:56

Until next time. All right. Bye bye, everyone.