Career Focused

Major Purchases

• Car - NEVER FINANCE A DEPRECIATING ASSET LIKE A CAR!! If you can't afford the car you want, drive a reliable old one and save towards your goals.
• Wedding - Do NOT go into debt over a wedding. Be smart. Identify areas that bring the most value and spend more there and less on the meaningless things. For me my priority was hosting friends and we spent more on renting out a hostel for our friends to have a fun weekend together and went cheap on the things that didn't matter to me such as the wedding dress (under $100 on Amazon), hiring a florist (homemade paper pinwheels), and the cake (we made our own). Although we could have easily spent more it wouldn't have added more value to us. Challenge your thinking to understand what value means to you. Life is a give and take with opportunity costs to everything you do.
• House - Don't listen to the "wants" over the "needs." Learn to identify those in your daily life and you'll be happy you did. Yes, everyone needs shelter and yes, buying can make sense over renting when the right opportunity arises, but don't get a massive mortgage and trap yourself into a lifestyle you can't afford. Just don't do it! The added stress of high mortgage payments is not worth the lifestyle status you're trying to achieve.

Insurance coverage

• Car Insurance - It's required to have liability, but not full coverage. If you drive an old car think about self-insuring and take what you would have paid out for full coverage to build up a cushion of additional savings in case something happens.
• Health Insurance - This depends 100% on you and your situation.
• Life Insurance - If you don't have kids or dependents DON'T GET IT! Life insurance is a waste of money unless you have small kids and a spouse who can't work. Most of the time you're better off saving your money and protecting your family with savings/investments. If you have to get life insurance only get term for the set time that your kids are young and dependent. NEVER GET WHOLE LIFE!
• Home Insurance - Advisable to have depending on your situation.

Savings rate - Track this monthly! Challenge yourself to increase your savings rate 1% each month (or more). The only reason I felt comfortable enough leaving my former job was because I was used to saving >70% of my income and knew I had a big enough buffer saved in case self-employment was a bust. The higher your savings rate the closer you are to retirement. It's all a factor of income and expenses. Increase your income and/or reduce your expenses. Your future self will thank you!

Generating Cash Flow - Don't rely on one source of cash flow for extended periods of time. With one source you're at higher risk if anything was to happen. Diversify and reduce your risk by generating additional cash flow streams. Start a side hustle, save and invest to build up a dividend stream, write a book, start a blog, rent out your space, etc. the more cash flow streams you can create for yourself the better off you'll be. The possibilities are endless and don't let yourself be limited by a trapped mentality. Be creative and go after it.

Saving for the future (retirement, kids education, etc.): Thanks to the power of compounding interest a small amount invested today can make a huge difference down the road. EVERYONE can do it! Challenge yourself and go after it with all you can. Don't delay saving for your future. If you do you're hurting yourself.

Wealth Equation: (Income - Expenses) x (1 + Rate of Return)^Time