I’m 40. If you’re in your 30’s and broke, Watch THIS

Time flies. One day, you're 30, thinking you've got plenty of time. Then you blink and suddenly you're 40, looking back and wondering, how did I get here? If I could go back, I'd tell my younger self, the decisions you make in your 30s will shape your entire future. I made mistakes. I let opportunities pass me by. Celebrities get interviewed and they say, oh, I've got no regrets. I think that's bullshit. I've got regrets. So that's why I'm here today, to share lessons that I learned the hard way so that hopefully you don't have to. If you feel like you're stuck or uncertain about your financial future, this is for you. Let's start by making decisions today that your future self will thank you for. Here's the thing. Many people in their 30s feel like they're stuck or that they missed the boat. For people in their 40s, hearing this, it's kind of laughable, like you've got plenty of time. But they hear a story about people investing in their 20s and think, well, I didn't do that, so what's the point now? And I get it. When I was really young and in the Coast Guard, I learned about compound interest, I think for the first time, and seeing this like, oh, if I invested from age 16 to 22, I could have a million dollars when I retire. And I'm like, well, I missed the boat on that, so I guess I'm screwed, right? Wrong. If you're in your 30s, now is the perfect time to start investing in your future. The most common regret I hear from older clients is I wish I started sooner. Let's talk about one of the biggest reasons people delay. They feel like they can't start investing because they've got debt. Because Dave Ramsey or Susie Orman said, you can't invest unless you're out of debt. And here's the deal. As someone who, I struggle with borderline debilitating perfectionism, and maybe not the same flavor that you might be accustomed to, but feeling like if I can't put in $500 a month or $1,000 a month, what's the point of even trying? And for literal years, while working in finance, I felt that way. Maybe I had a little bit of money going into a 401k, but aside from that, it felt very difficult for me just to get out of my own way and start opening that online savings account, doing something. So trust me when I tell you, I can absolutely relate to that feeling. And that's now what I help clients shatter every day. So one big roadblock I see is that people that have debt, they feel like they can't invest, right? That's like saying, I need to lose weight before I start working out. Think about that for a second. Ridiculous. This concept of trying to get out of debt first feels like, hey, if you're gonna lose weight at the cost of every other goal, you're going to adopt some incredibly unhealthy behaviors. However, if your goal is to get healthy, aka build your net worth, then you're gonna do things like drinking the water, going to the gym, lifting weights, walking, getting your steps, and whatever, and then the byproduct of that will be weight loss. Similarly, by adopting a financial understanding of building your net worth, we can copy and paste this analogy there. Here's the problem. If you wait until every bit of your debt is paid off, you may lose years or decades to compound interest. And I can hear the argument already from the Dave Ramsey crowd, and I literally understand that if you are aggressive and you pay off all your debt, and then you take the free money and more and continue to invest, you could be further ahead. There's no guarantee that that's gonna happen because it's all predicated on optimal behavior, which most people don't have, by the way. So let me be clear. This doesn't mean you ignore your debt. Of course, you should work on paying it down, and I've got plenty of videos if you want to check out my profile to talk about how I help my clients pay off debt, but you can do both. You can automate small investments while chipping away simultaneously at your debt. You don't have to choose one or the other. Once you automate these steps, you take the stress out of decision-making, and it brings us to the next big thing you should focus on, automation. So many of my clients struggle with this initial conception of, hey, we've gotta pay off all our debt first. Reality is, debt is a symptom of a broken system. There are two things we have to fix before people can get out of debt and stay out of debt. Number one, you have to have a spending account. You have to separate your spending from the rest of your bills at a separate institution. Makes it so much easier to stick to. The other piece is we need to build your liquid savings. So my philosophy is building up to a month ahead, which might sound lofty, and I get that. Once we're a month ahead, then we distribute our free cash. Let's use $1,000 as an example to hit the four main goals, getting out of debt, building emergency savings, savings buckets, and investing. This way, we're taking simultaneously all the debt off credit cards onto a loan so that we just make the minimum payment until we hit the goal of getting one month ahead. Then we say, hey, if you wanna now add more on debt, great, but let's still make sure we're investing during this time. So I literally had a client today message me about this whole month getting out of debt thing, and so we did a part of his debt elimination process where we took his debt off credit cards, got him onto one loan so that he has one monthly payment now and so he's able to continue to automatically make that. He's been putting some extra money on there, which is fine. However, I actually instructed him to dial it back so that we can get to this goal of a month ahead because the challenge is if you need that money, you can't just pull it right out of the loan, you need liquid cash savings because guess what? Life happens, emergencies happen. It's like every month, something in my life is happening. I'm sure similarly for you, whether it's a flat tire. My wife confused me to think that the battery died on our car today, thankfully it did not, but Christmas, vacations, camp signups, like all the things are coming at us all the time, and so we have to have money on the sidelines that are above and beyond the normal day-to-day bills. Most people do the bare minimum. They pay their bills, they do the basics and hope for the best. That's not enough. That is a recipe for disaster. You could automate your savings goals for let's say a house down payment or a vacation or maybe your next vehicle or just building your emergency fund. You can also automate extra debt payments, whether that's more money on your mortgage or extra on a car loan to speed that process up so that you don't have to micromanage every little bit of that. When you automate, you take the decision-making out of the equation. You make a decision once and you're done. You're allowing yourself to face the tougher parts of planning, like asking the hard questions about the future. Here's something most people don't like to talk about, estate planning. Do you know how many clients I have who are in their 40s and 50s and have still never gotten a will? Obviously, this is something I help them with, by the way. They avoid it because it feels uncomfortable or overwhelming, but it's one of the most important things you can do for your family, truly. Rip off the Band-Aid and start asking the hard questions. Share this video to your spouse. What happens to my children if something happens to me? Where does my money go? Who takes care of the decisions that I can't make? Facing these questions now will give you peace of mind later. And once you've addressed these practical steps, you can shift your focus to creating a life that excites you. And look, I get it. I put it off, too, for years. It wasn't until a friend who is a financial advisor mentioned, and I'm gonna mess it up, trustinwill or willintrust.com. I'll leave a link below. But the reality is, for 200 bucks, you can get a will. I'm not affiliated with them in any way, shape, or form, but that's who I use, that's who I've used for my dad. Everyone says to invest in the stock market, but investing in yourself can actually give you greater returns. When you learn a new skill or try something new, you're not just growing, but you're often building your earning potential. Here's how it works. If you put money in the stock market, you might get a 10% return each year, on average. But what if you spent $500 on a course or certification that actually increased your income? Imagine if you invested $1,000 in, say, a digital marketing course. It can teach you skills like running online ads, optimizing websites for businesses. I've read countless stories and books of successful entrepreneurs who got their start by just starting with a Google Ads certification course that led them to create a digital marketing agency. That's just one example. With these skills, you could go from working in a soul-sucking job that you absolutely hate to planning your escape to something you actually enjoy while increasing your income and your overall skillset. But it doesn't stop there. Skills build on each other. Maybe you start with digital marketing. Then you learn SEO, which is search engine optimization, email strategy, business coaching. Each new skill multiplies your opportunities, increases your income, and positions you to create the life you want. That could be a 300% return, and it doesn't take decades. And the skills you build can last a lifetime. It doesn't stop there because skills compound over time. The stock market can grow your money slowly, but investing in yourself helps grow your ability to keep and make more money. It's how some of the wealthiest people create opportunities and build lasting success. And in some ways, this is my story. You know, if you didn't know this, several years ago, I sold my house with the intention of going all in on Airbnb because my wife and I had one Airbnb arbitrage, which we rented my dad's house with his permission and put it up on Airbnb. And we took the difference. And it was fun. My wife's an interior designer. She enjoys that kind of stuff. And so we had pretty turnkey, pretty automated, I like to say. However, I like to say God had other plans. And so when we sold our house, I lost my job shortly thereafter. And I was like loathing the idea of going back to corporate America and finding the next grind. So I did a lot of praying and I ended up taking a risk to start this business. You know, I didn't know anything. I was laying in bed at night, truly. And I'm a huge fan of these guys, but I saw an ad for a program called 30 Day Course Creator. And at like 11 o'clock at night, I bought this course. It was very expensive, certainly the most I've ever paid for any course at the time. And I went down the rabbit hole. I committed myself to the process. I joined their mastermind. Dan Geyer ended up becoming kind of a client of mine. And so it was a phenomenal decision that led me down this journey to making this YouTube video that you're watching today. So I'm a huge believer that just these kind of skills, you're basically like pulling this thread of your life of where does this passion take me? And here I am, you know, I didn't start this business with the intention of filming YouTube videos. I didn't know if I'd be doing that. I didn't start this business thinking I'd be an online coach, which is now where 90% of my revenue comes from. Just start, explore. Don't be afraid to waste some money on taking on a new skill. Don't be afraid of the risk of not getting your money back. Lord knows anyone watching this video, myself included, have pissed away hundreds of dollars on absolute bullshit. Here's the big picture. Your life won't improve by accident. If you're not intentional about growing financially, intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, you'll look back in 30 years and wonder where the time went. Think about this. If you don't exercise, your body deteriorates. The same is true for your mind, your finances, and your life overall. You've got to show up. You've got to put in the work and invest in yourself. The good news is growing and learning can bring you so much joy. It doesn't have to feel like a chore. Literally, one of my favorite things is listening to audio books, podcasts, sometimes at 2X speed while I'm at the gym, in the sauna, you know, cleaning the house. I absolutely love learning new things. So what excites you? What lights you up? Start there. We live in a world where you can make money doing almost anything. It is absolutely crazy, the things that people do and make money on the internet. Once you have clarity on your passions, remember that money is a tool. Use it wisely and it can help you live the life that you want. Here's what I mean. Money isn't just for spending. It's something you can use to grow and improve your life. Like I have so many people on my team behind the scenes that help me by doing things that I hate doing. I just had an internal promotion for someone on my team and she was able to take off some things off my plate that just are huge time sucks for me. Am I gonna get an inherent rate of return on that? Probably not. But for me, the mental clarity, the peace of mind that allows me to focus on other higher level tasks that will hopefully generate more income. Not that it's all about the money, because it's not. When you invest money in learning a new skill, starting a new side hustle, or even improving your health, it gives you more opportunities to learn and grow. Money works best when it's used to build something. Whether it's your financial security, personal growth, or the ability to pursue what matters to you. Key is to make choices that help you grow as a person and not just spending on short term dopamine hits. Whether that's a flashy car or bullshit. Use money to invest in yourself and it will create lasting value for your future. And if you're in your 30s, here is the message. It's not too late. It's not even close. The decisions you make now will shape your future. Start small. Take the next step. That next step could be reflecting on how you use your resources. One of the things I regret is not taking action sooner. I love this phrase of like, what is the smallest next action step? That's been a liberating phrase for me in this last decade of my life. And so I'd encourage you when you get overwhelmed, think about that. What is the smallest next action step you can take? If you want to learn how to avoid those mistakes, save money where it really counts, you can watch my video Things That Are A Complete Waste Of Your Money, linked below. And if you're ready to take this journey further, book a call with me. There's a link in my description if you want to get started. See you in the next video. Thanks for watching.