Financial Advice for Young / students

[Alfonsoo]

I want to start my path into financial independence. I’ve researched a LOT, however I still don’t know where to start. I don’t know whether to go the dividends rout or try open a business or get a job (at least for the beginning I’ll have to stick to one). And whichever I choose how do I start that? And the big question, how do I go from 0 to 1? How do I start a business or begin investing without money?

[GroovyGuru]

I'm 22 and have also recently been reading a ton of financial related material. I'll briefly explain what I've learned and what my plan is.

Firstly, I just got my first full-time job with one of the largest corporations on the planet. It's just an entry level position, so although my salary is by no means amazing, it's definitely a great start. I still live at home with my parents, and intend to for maybe another year or so. My main goal is to pay off my remaining student loan debt ASAP, of which I have about $16,000 left. I already made large payments before interest even started accumulating. If you have large debt, especially credit card debt, I advise you prioritize getting rid of that asap. Also avoid debt, especially credit card debt at all costs going forward.

I switched my savings account to a high yielding online savings account. The interest rate is pretty low, but still one of the highest around. I've built an emergency fund of about $5,000. I keep my spending very minimal and cut off buying shit I do not need. Also stopped eating out so much. I'm gonna try to live a minimalist lifestyle going forward. I opened up a Roth IRA and have already invested $1000 into it. So whenever I get paid, I transfer probably 80% of my paycheck to my savings, which I then either use to pay off debt or put into my Roth. I am eventually also going to open a taxable investment account with Vangaurd which I will use to ONLY invest in Index Funds. I don't think trying to pick individual stocks is a good use of time or even necessary to be successful in the market. 

I am using the fact that I still live at home and have basically 0 expenses as a massive opportunity to accumulate a lot of money I will use to invest and pay off debt. Aside from an occasional meal or night out with friends, I don't spend money.

Books I highly recommend: "Personal Finance in Your 20's and 30's For Dummies", "The Simple Path to Wealth"

YouTube channels: Nate O'brien, Investing with Rose, Marko Whitboard Finance

[universe]

You don't invest without income. You can basically break down financial independence into this: earn more / spend less (on expenses) / spend more (on assets).

How you go about achieving this is up to you. It depends highly on what you want to do in your life and where you are right now. How old are you? What are your skills? What are your passions/interests? What is your living situation? Do you have debt?

[Yarco]

Compound interest -- The younger you start investing, the better it will be for you in the long term.

But you can't "go the dividends route" until you have a job or business to generate a surplus of money.

There are lots of businesses where you can go from 0 to 1. Basically any service, especially ones that you can provide digitally. Social media management, photography (assuming you already have some basic equipment, might be able to start with just a smartphone you already have), coding or other stuff you already have skills in. Brute manual stuff like shovelling driveways in the winter or cutting grass in the summer (assuming your family already has a shovel or lawnmower you can borrow), create music, create logos / graphics / art, tutoring students, fitness coach / meal planning, babysitting / pet sitting / dog walking / pet grooming, cleaning service, grocery delivery, window cleaning, interior designer, resume writing service, tour guide, translator, collecting scrap metal, or like 100+ more things.

There's a way bigger category of businesses where you can go from a $500 or $1000 investment to $30,000+/year.

I think everyone should have at least one job just to see what it's like, and how most other people live. It can be retail, fast food, in an office, or whatever you can find. It'll give you a perspective of how companies work, how employees interact with bosses, work ethic, and lots of other skills. You can get a job and simultaneously work on a business in the evenings/weekends if you want. A job will also help you start to build up capital either to fund your business or to start investing, plus at some point you'll need to actually pay for rent/food and things. Even if you work part-time for 10 hours a week, you can save up a few hundred bucks a month if you have no expenses.

[Alfonsoo]

@GroovyGuru so basically, your bringing in money through actively through your job. And then invest it. I’ve got no expenses basically also, however for me getting a job right now (covid) is not the easiest. Also i have 0 job experience.  I can’t digital stuff like programming so that’s not an option.

[Alfonsoo]

@universe How you go about achieving this is up to you. It depends highly on what you want to do in your life and where you are right now. How old are you? What are your skills? What are your passions/interests? What is your living situation? Do you have debt?

2 hours ago, universe said:

no debt. But even if i had crystal clear a business idea, how would I get any money tu fund that. I guess the only option is to start by getting a job. Any suggestions. I’ve never worked before.

[Leo Gura]

You come up with a biz idea that requires little start-up capital, then you save up money for it.

[Peo]

Get a job

[Yarco]

@Bojan Don't think of it as a "quick fix." Think of it as one stepping stone.

You know how you become a millionaire? You make $100. Then $1000. Then $10,000. Then $50,000. Then $100,000.

If you set out trying to make a million from the beginning, you're bound to fail.

Stop using words like impossible and stuck and just start.

It seems impossible because you won't just start where you are. Stop waiting for the perfect million-dollar opportunity. Just start making $10 a day and you'll be making more progress toward your goal than you have been.

You don't need a massive foundation of a million dollars to get started. If you can't be happy today with what you have, you won't be happy when you're rich.

If you take the life purpose course, you'll see that money is explicitly listed as a toxic value that you should ignore.

[Yarco]

1 hour ago, Bojan said:

@Yarco  Can't you just admit that I'm right and it's impossible at least for me because of my circumstances?

Tell me about your circumstances. Do you think you have it worse off than this guy?

 

[Leo Gura]

On 11/2/2020 at 10:20 AM, Bojan said:

That sounds like a quick fix, cause what idea needs a little start-up capital? It is all impossible, at least for me.

Quick fix? Lol

Not at all. That's how you bootstrap a serious biz.

I started my first biz with less than $3000

And eventually I become a millionaire.

It's certainly possible. But not with your lousy attitude.

[How to be wise]

@Leo Gura Just curious, are you still a millionaire?

[Nahm]

If a thought which doesn’t resonate is let go, and focus is on what you want, it will be. 

This is already the case. 

[Superfluo]

@Leo Gura

Which do you think are low-capital bizs?

[Leo Gura]

6 hours ago, Superfluo said:

@Leo Gura

Which do you think are low-capital bizs?

You should be telling me, if you're the entrepreneur.

It is your job to find the low hanging fruit.

[Yarco]

6 hours ago, Superfluo said:

Which do you think are low-capital bizs?

I listed 20+ of them above. There are literally hundreds of businesses you can bootstrap with $0 - $100 to start with.

Lots of services where all you need to get started is your time, labor, or knowledge. No inventory, no equipment, no need to rent an office or storefront. No employees to hire. Go browse all the jobs people are offering on Fiverr for some inspiration.

[Yarco]

6 minutes ago, Bojan said:

Social media management? What are you talking about? WHo's gonna pay you for that? WHat? 

Dude you're such a naysayer that you're burying your own potential. If you're unhappy and failing in life you have no one to blame but yourself.

Just because you don't think someone is willing to pay for something, that doesn't make it true. Do a Google search:

https://ca.indeed.com/Social-Media-Manager-jobs

9 minutes ago, Bojan said:

Photography? Hahahah! You kidding me? You go try that and tell me how much you earned and when you earned it shooting pictures of trees and weddings.

Average wedding photographer cost -- $2,400 for one day 

https://www.theknot.com/content/average-cost-wedding-photographer#:~:text=Based on an internal study,the most popular wedding vendors.

10 minutes ago, Bojan said:

Coding? Coding what? Facebook's made, Google's made, and they employ college educated, calculus knowing, professional programmers, not idiots that don't know these things perfectly, but just know some shitty codes for web design. 

Yeah, literally everything that will be coded is already done /s

You can't, I don't know, think outside the box and make an Excel sheet to sell people to help them figure out when to plant each crop in their garden. Or learn Unity and C# and start making your own video game. Yup, every good idea for a video game has been taken and there will never be a unique one again.

12 minutes ago, Bojan said:

Shoveling driveways in the winter or cutting grass in the summer? That's gonna earn you you know how much? Very little and not that frequently, you're gonna be very unemployed. 

$50,000 per summer/winter - https://www.muziford.com/blog/2019/october/18/how-much-money-can-you-make-plowing-snow.htm

Again..... you act like there's no such thing as landscaping companies that are already doing this full-time. 

What the fuck is this scarcity mindset? Nobody out there wants their grass cut or snow shoveled? Can you hear yourself?

Do you want me to go down the rest of the list?

"I can't start doing any of those jobs today while putting zero effort in" -- You sound fucking ridiculous man. Enjoy staying broke.

15 minutes ago, Bojan said:

I do not want to work for people

Now we get to the real root of the issue. You're lazy and think you're too good for an honest day's work. You expect instant results with zero effort.

[Michal__]

5 hours ago, Bojan said:

And lastly, you were born just a stupid baby like me, but in better circumstances, and now that you're lucky enough to have that expensively nurtured programming knowledge for example and those opportunities that are presented to you, you're gonna be living off of hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, while you expect me  and tell me that I'm lazy because I don't want to clean your shit, who do you think you are? Why would I clean your damn fucking shit and still get paid so little that in the end I'll be struggling to survive, while you're fucking hot babes all the time and drinking those Leo's healthy smoothies, cause you can afford it. You...

Wtf are you serious or trolling? If you are not trolling you should really do something about your life.

[Kailash Bhattarai]

20 hours ago, Bojan said:

And lastly, you were born just a stupid baby like me, but in better circumstances, and now that you're lucky enough to have that expensively nurtured programming knowledge for example and those opportunities that are presented to you, you're gonna be living off of hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, while you expect me  and tell me that I'm lazy because I don't want to clean your shit, who do you think you are? Why would I clean your damn fucking shit and still get paid so little that in the end I'll be struggling to survive, while you're fucking hot babes all the time and drinking those Leo's healthy smoothies, cause you can afford it. You...

Ok tell me about your circumstances maybe we can give some suggestion and possibly help

 

 

Edited November 9, 2020 by Kailash Bhattarai

[Kailash Bhattarai]

@ Bojan which country do you live in?