The Personal Finance Podcast - 7 Most Important Financial Decisions You Will Make in Your Lifetime (Choose Wisely!)

Episode Date: March 24, 2025

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you will make in this lifetime. What's up, everybody, and welcome to the personal finance podcast. I'm your host, Andrew founder of MasterMoney.com. And today on the Personal Finance Podcast, we're going to be going through the seven most important financial decisions you will make in your lifetime. If you guys have any questions, make sure you join the MasterMoney Newsletter

by going to MasterMoney.com slash newsletter. And you can ask your question there. And don't forget to follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or whatever podcast player you love listening to this podcast on. And if you're getting value out of the show, consider leaving a five-star rating and review. It truly does help the show. And it means the world to me. Following the show and leaving that five-star rating and review are the two things that help us spread this message that we believe anybody in this world can build wealth. And our entire goal is to help as many people as we possibly can. And And so that is the big goal here today.

Now, today we're going to be diving into the seven most important financial decisions that you will make in your lifetime. And the reason why we're doing this episode is I want you to understand how impactful some of the social decisions you make, some of the career decisions that you make, and some of the big ticket items are to your financial health. And I want you to think through your own life and some of the financial decisions that you have available to you and how you can make the best possible decision for yourself and for your life.

So this is an action-packed episodes. Without further ado, let's get into it. Number one is the career that you choose. So there are a number of different career paths that you can make over time. And one of the most difficult things that we have to do here is we have to try to figure out what we want to do in life at high school and college age. And I think that's one of the most difficult decisions that you can make. Because over time, you're going to develop in your career in your early 20s and your 30s,

and you're going to realize more and more what you are passionate about and what you are less passionate about. And one big thing I think a lot of people think is that you need to make sure your career is something that you're truly passionate about. But in your early years, there are ways that you can retire early if you maximize for income potential. So the first thing we want to think about when it comes to our career path is the income ceiling versus the growth potential. So some careers start with high salaries but have little room for growth, while others may start low, but have massive upside. So there are a lot of scenarios where if you choose the wrong career path, it is a multi-million dollar decision. In fact, Georgetown University had a study that found the difference

in lifetime earnings between a highest paying and lowest paying college majors is $3.4 million. Now, that's just in earnings, $3.4 million. And the difference in that gap is that let's say, for example, you leave $3.4 million in the table. You choose the wrong career path that really is not going to help you utilize money as a tool to achieve your goals, and you choose the wrong career path and you leave $2 million in the table. Well, $2 million is not just your career earnings. It's also losing out on that opportunity cost. So let's say, for example, that you think, hey, over the course of the next 20 years, I could have made an additional $2 million. And we put out extra $100,000 per year away into investments to buy your financial freedom. You're living the same way

that you live now, and you could have made an additional $100,000 per year. The opportunity cost there over the course of that 20 years at a 7% rate of return is $4 million. Over the course of 30 years, if you had the same exact opportunity cost, that's $9.4 million that you are leaving on the table. This could be close to a $10 million decision just by making sure that you choose the right career. But in addition, you also want to make sure that you choose a career that has job stability. You want to have stability within that career if you're not going to be an entrepreneur

or something like that. And you want to make sure that job is going to be around for a long. time and market demand. So you can consider how technology can disrupt this industry and how that could actually displace some different careers. And by 2030, McKinsey is stating that automation could displace up to 800 million jobs worldwide. And that is something where a lot of AI technology could be replacing specific jobs. Now, third is when it comes to your job selection, you want to make sure that you have negotiation power. So salary negotiation is a multi-million dollar skill. is a massive skill that you need to make sure that you can learn. And that's why we talk about it so much

on this podcast is because when you learn how to negotiate your salary, you can earn well over a million dollars more throughout your career. And this can compound over time. In fact, a study by Linda Babcock found that people who negotiate their salary earn $1 million over the course of their careers than those who don't. And so learning to negotiate and having that negotiation power when you choose your career is really important. Now, how do you have negotiation power when you are trying to have another career? Is A, making sure that that career has growth trajectory, meaning that you can move up the ladder, and there are places where you can go within that career path. For example, if you're a teacher, the only place that you can go, if you are teaching, is you can become a vice principal,

you can become a principal. There may be some stuff that you could do, you know, at the head of the county or wherever else, the school board. But outside of that, there's not a ton of places that you can go. That means that you only have so much potential to grow over time. Whereas if you're someone who is in the corporate world and you are in marketing or you're in sales, there's a lot of places that you can grow in order to earn more money that gives you that negotiation power. And the same thing falls in line for government jobs. There's not a lot of negotiation power you have within how much you can make. And so you want to make sure that you are thinking about those career paths and how impactful that can be.

Now, another thing I want you to think about with your career is does that career allow you to also have some flexibility to maybe run your own side business? Maybe it's a work from home career and you can get a lot of your work done within the core hours, which is going to allow you to, A, work on some sort of side business or a side hustle that could turn into your full-time income. That flexibility and that extra time is very, very valuable. And so being able to do that is going to be a very powerful addition if you are looking at that career. And then in addition, benefits and perks. So maybe you are someone who just kind of wants to enjoy life and you just want to kind of go to work, come home and spend time with your family. You're a person who just wants to spend more time with their family and less time having to slave away or thinking about

working. And so you want to find a career that is flexible, allows you to do so, and maybe we'll pay you something like a pension, or maybe they'll pay you something to set up your retirement and help you with that process. So benefits and perks can be another thing that you can think through that allow you to move forward. So all of these to say is choosing your career path needs to be something that you slightly enjoy day in and day out, but it doesn't have to be something you absolutely enjoy because if you maximize for earning potential, that means you can retire so much faster. In fact, your savings rate is the massive catapult to allow you to retire faster. And if you get your savings rate dialed in, meaning you're maximizing your earning potential, you're keeping your

expenses low enough, then you'll be able to retire in 10 and 20 years if you do it right. And so that's something for sure is making sure we note where our career moves are. So how do you make sure that you choose the right career? Is first, kind of look at what the average salary is of the careers that you're looking at. If you're in college right now and you're thinking through, what do I need to be doing next? Look at the average salary and what that is. And then look at what the living expenses are in your area so that you can kind of compare and contrast, is this enough for me? Or do I need to reevaluate kind of where I'm landing? Because this is going to be a huge, huge deal. But we're going to talk about number two here, which is

going to help you make more money in your career. And so it's really important to kind of pair number one and make sure that number two is maximized at all costs. Let's get into that next. All right. So number two is the skills you develop. Now, you have heard me talk about this a number of different times, is that if I was in my early 20s and I'm trying to figure out how to invest my first $500 or $1,000, what I'm going to do is take that initial money and I'm going to invest in myself. What does it mean by investing in yourself? This means developing skills that will allow you to make more money in the future. The skills that you develop early on and the skills that you you develop right now or going to help catapult your wealth building ability because you can earn

more. So let's say, for example, that you take $100 and you invest in the S&P 500, and then secondarily, you take $100 and you invest that into learning a new skill of negotiation or sales or you buy a slew of books on a specific topic. Okay. If you learn a specific skill that is going to increase your earning potential every single year by 100%, then that skill is the most valuable place that you can invest your dollars. Now, let me say this again for those in the back who aren't hearing me correctly. If you invest more money into skills and those skills allow you to earn more infinitely in the future, meaning you can earn more every single year, then that skill is one of the number one priorities that I want you to put your dollars towards.

Let me give you an example of this. Let's say, for example, you're a nurse and you are working a night shift at a hospital. You just graduated from college. Well, if you go out and you become a nurse practitioner, you can earn $20, $30, $40, $50,000 more every single year in perpetuity. And it's also going to allow you to get more job and have more marketable potential to get more jobs in the future. So a nurse practitioner will always make more money throughout their entire career than just an RN. in. And so because of this, now I'm sure there's exceptions out there. Don't come and attack me if you, you know, there's different, you know, loopholes and things around that. But that is an example of investing your dollars into something that is going to allow you to make more money in the future.

Okay. And so here's another example. Let's say, for example, that you want to go into the career world. And one big thing that you know is to make more money in the career world. You have to be good at sales. And so you want to become, you know, part of a sales department and you want to make more money. Well, investing your time and energy into courses. or into books or into things that are going to help you become a better sales person will infinitely increase your income potential if you actually absorb that information. And so learning the skill of sales can be extremely valuable. Or if you're in marketing, maybe you want to learn new things about marketing on how to unlock

marketing or you want to learn how to do Facebook ads or things like that. Forever you will have that knowledge and you will have that skill and that will allow you to earn more money in the future. And so the skills you develop are going to be one of the biggest things that helps your earning potential. Your income is the number one way to be able to build wealth fast in increasing your income and keeping your expenses the same is my favorite way to accelerate your path to wealth. Why? Because then you have more money that you can put towards your financial freedom and allows you to utilize money as a tool to buy back your freedom. That's exactly what we all want to do here. And so when we start to develop these skills, this allows us to do that.

Now, let's look at some of these here. Number one is we want to look at hard skills versus soft skills. So technical skills like coding or finance or sales will boost your income, while soft skills like communication and leadership will increase your promotability. So there are hard skills that you can learn that are going to boost your income right away. And in fact, you can even utilize those hard skills on websites like Upwork to do some side hustles and to start some side agencies, they're going to help you boost your income right away. And then your soft skills are going to help you be more marketable.

They're going to help you get promotions in the corporate world. This is stuff like communication, like leadership. Those types of things are really, really important as well. Now, if you're in leadership roles, I think the soft skills are going to be something that are very important for you to develop. So 57% of leaders so that soft skills are even more important than hard skills, according to a LinkedIn study. And so this is something to think through, what position are you in?

If you're just starting your career, focusing on those hard skills are going to be really important. If you're in middle level management or above, then focusing on some of those soft skills may be something that you need to do. Now, if you're a little rough around the edges and you might know who you are or you're just kind of blurred out whatever you're thinking in your head, then working on those soft skills can also be very beneficial to you in order to increasing your income over time. Second is looking at high income skills. What are high income skills? These are learning skills like negotiation, like sales, like sales. like investing, like public speaking, these can 10 extra earning potential. And these are things that I think

most people need to focus a lot of time on if they've never mastered these specific things. Now, let me give you a great example of this. Okay. I am not the greatest salesperson in the world. In fact, that is something I need to definitely work on at some point in time. I used to work on scales and I got a lot better than what I used to be in the past, but I need to continuously work on that again. So that is something I know that I need to work on. Another skill that I knew I needed to work on. Another skill that I knew I needed to work on very early in my career was negotiation. Whereas I had no idea how to negotiate, I thought a negotiation was just an argument. But in fact, what I realized what a negotiation was is a collaboration between you and someone else working towards a common goal to find common ground.

And when I started to realize that, I started to develop the skill in negotiation over time. So one thing I did was I read Chris Voss's book, Never Split the Difference. It's a great starting point for anybody who wants to learn negotiation. And when you start to learn how negotiations need be conducted, that is when you can start to have good conversations with people instead of getting into arguments or things like that. So negotiation is a very powerful way to come together with someone and allow you to find common ground and accomplish a common goal. And so learning some of these high income skills can 10x your earning potential. Here's an example. Is top tier salespeople, on average, earn over $250,000 per year. And that's from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

And that is something where, hey, learning a skill like sales is going to allow you to earn more money over time. Now, everything in life, in fact, is a sales pitch. You pitching yourself in an interview, or you pitching something to a client for your specific job. There are so many different reasons why you should learn sales, and it is one of the most powerful things that you can do. Now, here's the cool thing about this is investing in yourself and investing in knowledge leads me to number three, which is compounding your knowledge over time. So investing in skills early will pay exponential dividends over time. So workers with a college degree earn 84% more over their lifetime than those with just a high school diploma. A lot of people know that, which is why there's been an explosion of

people who actually go to college. But beyond that is working towards your personal education plan and your financial education plan as well. A lot of you here listening to this podcast are interested in improving yourself and learning more. You are investing in yourself right now by listening to this podcast. Why? Because you are learning different things that are going to help you develop your skills or develop and build wealth or grow your investment income or grow your income in general. First of all, we applaud you here because you are investing in yourself. But secondarily is that you are someone who is interested in bettering yourself. If you're just listening to this at all, you're interested in bettering yourself and so you are willing to compound

knowledge. Next is I want you to focus on networking as one of these skills as well. So the skills you develop, one big one is networking because your network is your net worth. That is a easy phrase that is absolutely true. I cannot stress this enough how true it is to build out your network and try to meet as many people as possible. 85% of jobs are filled through networking from a study done with HubSpot. 85% of jobs are filled because of your network. And so if you're not doing any networking, if you are someone who does not like to network, it is something that is worth your time and is worth its weight and gold. I can promise you that. Now, there are also things that you can get like certifications. We kind of alluded to that at the top with an example of a nurse.

If you are in a blue collar industry, there are a lot of certifications that you can get that are going to help you move forward. If you're a financial advisor, there are a lot of certifications out there that you can get. Maybe you have a series seven and you need to get a series 65, a series 66. Maybe you need to go out there and get your CFP. There are a lot of different things that you can get. If you are an accountant, getting a CPA is going to help you become more marketable. Every single industry has these certifications that can possibly help. you grow. Now you may be saying to yourself, well, a lot of these certifications, I'm learning stuff I will not use in the real world. Guess what? It still makes you more marketable and it's going to

increase the amount that you can make. You're in and year out. Just put on a positive attitude, get this stuff done because the more certifications that you have, it's going to help you in your career. Now, if you're an entrepreneur, if you're someone who owns their own business, certifications are less likely going to help you in very specific scenarios because you are out there trying to fight and earn your own. But for those who are going to work in the corporate world or work for someone else in the career world or work in a blue collar industry, certifications are fantastic for increasing that earning potential. And so making sure that you are on the lifelong path to learning and investing in yourself,

that is what I want you to take away from number two. Now, let's jump in number three. Ooh boy, number three is one that I think most people need to understand how important this is. I would argue this may be the most important one of all of these. And it is the person that you marry. the person that you marry for better or for worse is going to be one of the most impactful decisions that you ever make when it comes to your finances. Say what? Yes, when it comes to your finances. In fact, there's a lot of folks out there who get divorce and the number one cause of divorce is because

of financial disagreements. And so I want you to understand how important this is because making sure that you marry the right person is going to absolutely change the trajectory of your life. If you marry the wrong person and you are not on the same page when it comes to a number of different things, but specifically what we're talking about today is financially, it is going to be something that can be very, very difficult for you in the long run. So first is figuring out, are you financially compatible? Are your spending habits, financial goals, and money values align? This is going to be a big one for a lot of people because if you are starting to learn about personal finance after you got married, maybe one spouse is not fully on board yet, while the other spouse

is fully on board with a financial plan. And so one wants to go and spend and kind of have fun and do all the fun stuff. And the other one may be trying to cut back and trying to make progress with their finances. That's a tough situation to be in, but absolutely something that you can do. So this is the situation that I eventually found myself in with my wife and I, where I started to really accelerate my path towards personal finance. We got married. And then we started to buckle down with the budget.

Now, I know how difficult it can be where one spouse comes, me in this scenario, came and said, hey, we're spending too much. We need to buckle down with the budget for a little while. And so when one spouse says that to the other spouse, it can be something that can first make the person who is not wanting to do the budget feel like, oh boy, we're not going to have any more fun whatsoever. And so the way that you start to have these conversations with your spouse is really, really important. We'll do an entire episode on this. We've had a couple in the past, but we'll do an entire episode on how to have these conversations. But it is something that you need to make sure that you were on the same page on couples who frequently argue about money are 30% more likely to

divorce than those who rarely argue from the National Center of Biotechnology Information. And so that is something I think most people need to try to get on the same page. So if you're dating someone right now, try to get on the same page on where they align with you when it comes to spending habits, financial goals, and money values. Start to talk about those things as you start to date and get further along in your relationship. It is definitely something you want to make sure that you were having conversations about. Secondly, is debt. So marrying someone with large debt or poor financial habits can definitely impact your financial future. So if one spouse is decent with their money and the other spouse is getting deeper and deeper and deeper into credit card debt, you are going further backwards

than you are forwards. And you have one person who is digging the household into a hole. And so this is something you have to have a conversation about how you're going to handle debt, how you're going to handle things like credit cards if someone has had credit card debt and what you're going to do moving forward. If you were a spouse has had credit card debt in the past and you've struggled with it, I would advise to not use credit cards for a very long period of time or just not use them whatsoever. The points and the rewards are not worth it for you to go backwards financially. And so just stick the debit cards. So what you lose out on a couple thousand dollars per year in credit card rewards. Instead, what's probably going to happen with most people who struggle with credit cards over the course

their lifetime is they're just going to keep falling backwards. And so those rewards are going to cancel out. And the risk is way too high. Instead, just stick with debit cards, just secured cards, if you want to have a credit score and then go and move forward doing it that way. There's nothing wrong with not utilizing credit cards. I know a lot of our financial systems talk about, hey, try to spend as much as you possibly can on a credit card, then pay that off every single month so that you can get the points and rewards. That's not for everyone now. That's my big disclaimer every time we talk about this is it's not for everyone. Make sure you guys are both on the same page when it comes to that. In addition, look at your student loan debt and kind of talk through how do we want to handle this

going forward? The average student loan debt for married couples is $56,000. And financial stress is one of the top reasons for marital dissatisfactions according to student loan hero. And so this is something I think most people need to make sure they get on the same page when it comes to their debt before you get married or as you start to get married, start to have these conversations. Now, this is something I want you to note is when you start to have conversations with your spouse, this is not a, you did this and you did this conversation. Instead, this is a collaboration. Let's all calm down.

Let's have a nice fun meeting. Maybe let's get a couple glasses of wine going or something. So we all just mellow out and have a conversation about finances and what you want to do moving forward. And a great way to do is to start dreaming about what you want to do. What are your big goals in life? and then you position the financial goals to achieving your big dream goals. Maybe it's financial freedom. Maybe it's going on more vacations.

Maybe it's taking the family to Disney World once a year. I don't care what it is, but making sure you start by the final destination first and then working backwards is the way you have these conversations. Next, pre-ups and financial protections. The best time to discuss some of this stuff is before marriage. It isn't unromantic, but you've got to have some smart financial planning going. only 5% of married couples have a pre-up, yet 50% of marriages in a divorce. So, is it worth having this discussion? Yes. Now, you may be asking yourself, well, does Andrew have a pre-up? I don't.

I don't have a pre-up with my wife. We were both dead broke and we got married. And so it was one of those things that we have built wealth together. And this has been something that we have gone on this journey together. We are 100%, 100% in when it comes to the wealth that we have built over time. We were both completely broke. But if you are starting your relationship maybe later on in life, my wife and I, we got married in our very, very early 20s. But if you're starting in your 30s and you want to start to have that conversation, it may be worth it, especially if you are earning a lot more than your spouse and or if you're a future spouse and you are not on the same page financially right now.

Now, discussing a pre-up after marriage is a little trickier. I don't have any advice on that, to be honest, but it is one that for sure you need to have some conversations there before you get married. Now, another point I want to make is divorce is one of the biggest wealth destroyers, and so choosing wisely and maintaining a strong. marriage really matters when it comes to your finances. Now, that's going to sound unromantic to make financial decisions based on that. But the average cost of a divorce ranges from $15,000 to $30,000 and divorced individuals experience a 77% decline in wealth, according to the National

Bureau of Economic Research. 77% decline in wealth every time you get divorced because of how the assets have to be split up, the costs that are associated with it. And so most people have a massive hit if you get divorced. This is why choosing your spouse is really, really important. Next is talking about how to handle money together. Oh, boy, are we going to tick people off here? I personally, my wife and I, we have joint accounts on everything. And there's a lot of reasons for that. We're going to do an entire episode on this. And I get the most heat when we have this conversation. But I truly believe that you should have joint accounts. That is one of the beliefs that we have, you know, personally. Now, if you have separate accounts and it's working, I don't have a problem

with that. It's not the way I would do it. but I don't have a problem with it. Like, if it's working for you, that's absolutely fantastic. I believe in joint accounts. We are one team moving forward. And so that's the way we operate. But if you don't trust each other for whatever reason, then have your separate accounts, and you can kind of go about it that way if you want to, as long as you have a system in place.

Now, if you're overcomplicating your system, like I see couples vimowing themselves multiple times a day in order to just pay the bills, I think that's ridiculous. And that's one of those things that if that's the way you do it and it works for you, fine, but that's just overcomplicating more finances. And there's better ways to do it for sure. But think through, you know, how you want to handle your accounts and think through how you want to do that. A couple who pool their finances together report higher relationship satisfaction than those who keep them separate according to the journal of consumer research. And so there's a lot of research that comes out. And if you look

a lot of people in the financial world, they all actually have joint accounts with their spouses. If you look at most of the people who are really good with their money, most of the time they have joint accounts to their spouses. Now, there's a lot of exceptions that I'm not saying that you have to listen to me. I'm not the end-all be-all when it comes to this. But at the same time, I truly believe that joint accounts are the way to go. That's just my belief. You can disagree with me all you want. And that's completely fine. We can agree to disagree. But I believe joint accounts for your checking, your savings, all those different things are the way to go. Keeping them separate, I think overcomplicate your finances. It's a lot harder to automate. It's a lot harder to do a lot of

different things. And so having seamless transactions and reducing friction, I think is the best way to go. Now, generational wealth and legacy planning. You also want to make sure that you are on the same page when it comes to legacy planning. For example, 90% of families lose wealth by the third generation. So if you both are on the same page of teaching your kids about money and teaching them how to handle money, it is going to be so incredibly powerful in the long run for you. So all of these things to say, your spouse is one of the most important financial decisions that you can make and making sure that you are both in the same page. These are some of the points that I just wanted to kind of go through. There are a lot of other reasons why this is, but it is one of the most

important in making sure that you choose wisely is going to dictate if your life is going to be easy or if your life is going to be a lot more difficult than it needs to be. Number four is the friends that you keep. So your social circle influences your financial mindset, your habits, and even opportunities. And so you need to make sure that you are choosing wisely. So I've said it before already, but your network is your net worth. And the people you surround yourself with can either elevate or limit your financial success. And a study by Harvard Business Review found that 85% of job placements come from networking and not direct applications. And so there's a huge impact to just who you know and how they can help you in specific situations. Now, here's something

I want you to kind of think through, is for a lot of us, we have friends in different categories. You may have professional people who you have become friends with over time, who are in your network that are going to help you find jobs. They're going to help you meet different people in your industry and a lot of those things. You need to grow those relationships as much as you possibly can't. You're also going to have your friends who are in other industries who help push you to be better. Let's say, for example, you're a manager at a corporation. Well, you have another friend who is an attorney, maybe another friend who is a physician. Maybe you have another friend who is an engineer. You have another friend who is someone who's in the blue collar industry. You have a couple of friends who are

entrepreneurs. And you all are trying to push yourself to, hey, improve and talk about, you know, investing. Or maybe you go and talk about, you know, what are some of the things that you're doing to build your network or you're talking about, you know, some of the various things that are helping you build out skills. That is a great network and group of people to have surrounding you. It is a group that helps you get better every single day. Then there's the third group. And maybe this is the group of friends that you, you know, grew up with. You have fun. And you. You have fun. with. They're not really focused on getting better every single day, but you enjoy their company. Maybe, you know, if you're going out there, they're your buddies that you play golf with or

they're your buddies to play a pickleball with. That's your third group of friends. And within that group of friends, they have a different purpose. They help you relax. They help you have fun. They help you enjoy life. Now, if you fall too far with that group of friends and they're a big partying group or all they want to do is go out and just have fun. And if you only spend time with that group, then that is going to be a harder and more difficult. road and path to success than someone who is actually working on their network and spending time with their group of friends who are actually trying to get better year in and year out. And so you can have a hybrid option of that where maybe it's some of your fun friends are also trying to get better

and or some of your fun friends are also in your network. There are hybrids to this, but most people have those three groups of friends. And if you spend too much time with the group of friends who's just your fun group, even though they're the most fun to hang out with, I get it. But if you spend too much time with them, then that may be something that doesn't help you moving forward. Now, You want to have as much fun as you possibly can. Life is all about having fun. I truly believe that. But at the same time, we just got to make sure

that we are building out our network as well. Secondly, is your friend group can also impact you when it comes to lifestyle inflation. So if your friends live above their means, you might feel pressured to do the same. So a study by the Federal Reserve found that people are 50% more likely to increase their spending when their peers spend more. So if the people surrounding you are going on all these vacations,

asking you to come with them, or if the people surrounding you are spending more on luxury items, where they get all the fancy cars and you're the only one without the fancy car, you are 50% more likely to spend more. Good friends also challenge you to grow while bad influences are going to encourage you to be financially reckless. So you want to make sure that you have friends who help you with accountability and support when it comes to your finances. So a study by the Journal of Consumer Research found that having a financially responsible friend can increase your savings rate. This is actually crazy by 20%. And so having someone who helps you along that journey can be really, really

important. Now also, having the right friends can give you opportunities and business connections. So many of the best jobs and investments come from word of mouth. And the average entrepreneur credits their business success to relationships built through networking with 70% of business owners saying personal connections played a role in their success. And this is according to Forbes. Now, the power of mastermind groups are another thing. So you could start mastermind groups if you're trying to make more connections within your industry or with people who are like-minded to you. you can start a mastermind group, but even a virtual mastermind group of people within that industry who are trying to grow and trying to improve themselves. So that's one great way to do this.

And Inc. Magazine found that entrepreneurs and mastermind groups grow their businesses two and a half times faster than those who do not participate in one. Another question I want you to ask yourself is, are your friends encouraging you to build wealth? Are they encouraging you to waste money? A Stanford University research suggests that people with financially responsible friends are more likely to make better money decisions. There's a lot of data out there that shows that your friends have a big impact on your money and they have a big impact on how much you can make because of your network. And so making sure you prioritize this into those three tier buckets. The network that is in your industry, your network that is folks who are trying to grow who are outside of your industry and then your fun group of friends. I think having all three of those is fantastic.

but making sure you maximize your time with the first two buckets is going to be really powerful and then spending your days off and your fun days with your fun friends. That is amazing. That is fun and I spend a lot of time with my fun friends. Now let's get to number five. I remember when I needed to hire someone fast, but finding the right person quickly felt impossible. And if you've ever been there, you know how stressful this can be.

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And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at Indeed. com slash personal finance. Just go to Indeed.com slash personal finance right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash personal finance. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring, Indeed is all you need. So lately, I've been noticing how fast things are changing at home. The kids are growing like crazy. Clothes don't fit anymore and routines are changing. And it just hits you. Life is expanding. And when your life grows, your responsibility grows with it. That's something I've thinking about more this spring, making sure the safety net we have in place actually matches the life that we're building. And that's where PolicyGenius comes in. PolicyGenius is an insurance

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Head to PolicyGenius.com to compare life insurance quotes from top companies and see how much you can save. That's PolicyGenius.com. Local news is in decline across Canada, and this is bad news for all of us. With less local news, noise, rumors, and misinformation fill the void. And it gets harder to separate truth from fiction. That's why CBC News is putting more journalists in more places across Canada, reporting on the ground from where you live, telling the stories that matter to all of us.

Because local news is big news. Choose news, not noise. CBC News. Okay, when I sell my business, I want the best tax and investment advice. I want to help my kids and I want to give back to the community. Ooh, then it's the vacation of a lifetime. I wonder if my out of office has a forever setting. An IG Private Wealth Advisor creates the clarity you need with plans that harmonize your business,

your family, and your dreams. Get financial advice that puts you at the center. Find your advisor at IDPrivatewealth.com. Number five is the location in which you live. to say this up front is where you choose to live affects your cost of living. It's going to affect your career opportunities and your ability to build wealth. But one thing I want you to note is I would never want you to move to a new location for money reasons only. I think if you're moving somewhere, for example, like for tax reasons, I think that's ridiculous. Or if you're moving somewhere away from

your family in order to reduce your cost of living because you think you're just going to be able to save an extra $5,000 to $10,000 every single year, I would not want you to do that. What I do, want you to do, though, is think about the location that you live in and how it is impacting your wealth overall over the course of the long run if you do not have any ties there. If you have family ties there, then there is nothing more valuable than spending time with your family and being close to your family. If you don't have ties in a specific location, though, and you are living in a location that is not helping you make more money or advance your career without you saying that it is. There's a lot of people out there that I know who are saying, hey, I'm moving to New York City because

this is going to help me advance my career, or I am moving to California because this is going to help me advance my career, where I am moving to some other high cost of living state, because this is going to help me advance my career, and they end up being even more broke than when they started and they moved there. Do not tell yourself lies if it's not actually happening and it's not actually coming to fruition. There's a lot of people out there who got stuck in situations in high cost of living areas because they thought there were better opportunities when there were not. You know who you are if you are someone in that situation. You got to get real, with yourself when it comes to the location you live in. Because your location truly does matter.

For tax purposes, you're going to pay a lot more. Taxes, if you were in high cost of living areas, and you're going to be paying a lot more for just everyday goods. Okay. So let's think about this for a second. One is cost of living versus income potential. There is a balance to figuring out what the cost of living is in a specific area and what your income potential is. If you can make a lot of money in a low cost of living area, that is an amazing situation to be in. If you can make a lot of money, but you're in a high cost of living situation, then it may not be the best situation. So folks in New York and California, for example, I want you to think through your situation.

You have a lot of high taxes. You have a lot of high cost of living. This is in New York City. New York State, I think the cost of living is a lot lower. But in New York City, the cost of living is really high. And so I want you to think through, are you making enough for this to make sense? Are you still investing dollars every single month? do you have enough of a gap that is going to allow you to build financial freedom?

And do you have no family ties there? If you have no family ties there, then you've got to make sure this equation is balancing out properly. Secondly, is you want to look at state and local taxes. So living in a no-income tax state can save you thousands. So you could think of states like where I live, Florida, you could think of states like Texas. Those are no-income state taxes. And so we pay less in taxes overall than some other states like California, New York, and others. real estate and homeownership. So you also want to think about the price of housing in those locations

and how much that housing is going to be costing you. So over the last 30 years, real estate in cities like Austin or cities like Denver have appreciated over 300% where some Rust Belt cities have only seen 30% increases. And this is according to the FHFA House Price Index. And so housing, as we all know, is usually the biggest cost for most people. And so making sure you can keep those housing costs low is really, really important. And so if you're living in a high cost of living area with high housing costs, then that is something where you got to see how much money am I making and what would I make somewhere else with the same exact job, even if I took somewhat of a pay cut. I'd probably have more gap than maybe in some other areas. Now, you also need to look at the job market and the industry

hub. So living in an area with high job demand can boost your career opportunity. So if you live in New York City, but you are in finance and you work on Wall Street, then, well, that's a great place to be. Or if you are in tech, then being in Silicon Valley and being in California is a great place to be. And so thinking through cities like Seattle, San Francisco and Austin have the highest average salaries for tech jobs with incomes 50% higher than the national averages according to Glass Door. So that would be a good situation to be in if you get 50% higher salaries depending on what your cost of living is. You got to run a calculation to make sure that we can think through this. And if you want, what we'll do is we'll create an entire episode on how to run these numbers

to figure out, am I actually in a good situation or do I need to make this consideration of moving? We'll talk through that in an entire episode. Quality of life and family considerations. So this is the big one. For example, if your family is from San Francisco, your parents, your aunts, your uncles, your close relatives, your siblings, they all live in San Francisco, then I'm not going to tell you to leave San Francisco because they all live there. That is something where the quality of life needs to be there.

And life is way too short for you to just leave your family for financial reasons. That's not a reason to leave certain situations. So you definitely want to look at that. But you also want to look at quality of life in terms of schools and health care. So schools are a big one if you have kids. So you can move from a really great school district down to Mississippi, for example, who has a lower level school district. And that would just not be a great move, in my opinion.

Instead, making sure that you are finding a balance between quality of life and schools, health care, all those different things really, really matter. Families in areas with better schools see up to a 20% higher appreciation rate and home values over time. according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. So maybe your cost of living is higher, but you may see some more appreciation. That's not something you can bank on, but it is something to consider. And there are hidden costs of moving.

So relocation expenses and adjusting the new costs and disrupting your network all factor into some of those hidden costs of moving. We need to make sure that we factor that in. The average cost to relocate across the country is $4,300. And so that is kind of where we are thinking through that. And that's according to the American Moving and Storage Association. So that's a big one for sure. And number five is the location you live.

So thinking through your location, does it make sense based on what you make and what your cost of living is? That's the comparison you need to make. Stay tuned. Make sure you're following this podcast. We'll do a whole episode on how to run those calculations. Number six is how you invest your money. So earning money is only half the baton.

We've talked a lot about earning potential here thus far. We've talked about what your expenses are thus far. But how you invest your money has a multi-million dollar impact to your loan. long-term wealth-building potential. And so one thing you need to understand is how to figure out a, you know, how long it's going to take you retire in financial independence, but secondly, how to invest those dollars. So one, is time in the market beats timing the market. I am a long-term investor for a very specific reason. I think the more time you have your dollars invested over the long run, the better your returns will be because you stay invested. You're not trying to rely on

your own willpower. You're not trying to time the market. We are horrible market timers as humans. and then that is not something we want to be trying to do. Investors who stay in the market for 20 years or more have a 95% chance of seeing positive returns, whereas those who try to time the market often miss the best performing days. And this is according to J.P. Morgan asset management. Secondly, is the power of compound interest. Leaving your dollars invested over the long run allows you to take advantage of compound interest and even a small amount of money invested early can grow into a very large fortune. Investing $500 a month into something like, the S&P 500 from age 25 to 65 could grow to over $1.5 million, and that's over the course of the

last 50 years. That's what it would grow to. So this is something that I think a lot of people need to note that making sure that you have your investments in place and doing it the right way is very important. Third is index funds versus stock picking. I am a passive investor for the most part, meaning that most of my dollars when it comes to the market are going into index funds into ETFs. Why do I do that? Because passive investments have outperformed active investments over the long haul. In fact, 90% of professional money managers do not outperform the S&P 500 year in and year out. And of the 10% that do, they are not the same year in and year out. And so that is something where I love passive investments because of that. That's why we have index fund pro. If you don't know

what index fund pro is, that is our course that teaches you how to invest in index funds and ETFs. It's our investing for beginners course. And it is one of my, my favorite ways to kind of help you guys grow your wealth over time is learning how to invest. And so index fund pro can do that. If you're interested in that, if you go to mastermoney.com slash index fund pro, you can check that out there. So index fund investing is one of my favorite ways. Then there's real estate investing as well. And real estate investing helps you diversify if you are interested in real estate investing outside of just stock investing only, but also has allowed you to gain access to tax advantages and appreciation. It usually appreciates on 3.8% annually, but you also get that

cash flow from rental properties if you are looking at those rental properties. Next is your investments should align with your risk tolerance and time horizon. So you got to make sure that you have the right asset allocation based on your risk tolerance because the last thing you want to do is freak out one day when the market pulls back a little bit and then you sell all your securities and make a big mistake. Instead, you want to make sure you have the right balance of bonds and stocks so that your portfolio doesn't freak you out. And so that's a big thing for sure. You want to make sure that you are doing. And then having tax-efficient investments, utilizing things like retirement accounts is going to be really, really important to help you keep more of your dollars. And so that is another big thing. I think most people need to understand and need to make sure that they're making the right decisions when it comes to their investments. And so investing is a huge, huge thing. We talk about it a ton on this podcast. And so I want to make sure that you learn.

how to invest is going to be very important for the long-term health of your finances. Now, the last one. Number seven is the risks you take or avoid. Your willingness to take calculated risks and your ability to avoid financial landmines are going to determine your wealth-building legacy. So what do I mean by that? Number one is a big lesson that I learned from Warren Buffett very early on. As he said, you can learn from mistakes. They just don't have to be your mistakes. And one of the reasons why Warren Buffett reads so much is he is trying to learn from other people who have come before him. And so he used to read a ton when he was younger, biographies and different things about people who came before him so he could learn from their mistakes. And so they don't always have to be

your mistakes. And this is how you avoid those financial landmines that we always talk about. And making sure that you avoid doing something stupid like investing into a meme coin, for example. There are so many different crypto scammers out there right now. If you go and invest a ton of your net worth into a meme coin and all of a sudden it goes down to zero, well, that was a financial landmine that you could have avoided by learning from other people's mistakes. And so let's talk through some of these here. It's number one is career risks and business ventures. Taking the leap into a new job, a side hustle, or a business can change your financial future,

but you've got to make sure it's strategic. So people who change jobs strategically every three to five years earn 50% more over the course of their lifetime than those who stay at the same job. I know so many people who have stayed at the same job with the same salary over the course the last decade. And it is one of the saddest things because they are losing out on a massive earning potential. In fact, those people are not moving ahead in life because they have stayed at the same job forever and they're getting their two to three percent raise every single year. You've got to make sure that you are making more and your earning potential is increasing

every single year. Number two is making sure you invest in yourself. If you want to take strategic risks, you need to have an understanding of the risk that you are taking. And if you don't have an understanding of the risk that you are taking, that is when most people fail. And so continuously investing in yourself by taking courses, learning new skills, getting coaching, often are the highest ROI investments. Obviously, we talk about this at the top of the show, but I just want to reiterate that that is going to help you take more calculated risks. Risks are going to help you earn more money, but they have to be very specifically calculated. Next is debt management. So there are a lot of scenarios where people will say, do not ever take on debt whatsoever, pay for everything in cash. But if you are

interested in something like buying rental properties, if you're going to do that, most of the time, you're going to have to take on some sort of debt in some way, shape, or form. And so because of that, that is a calculation that you have to make and a debt management calculation that you make. There's good debt that is going to help you buy assets like businesses or like rental properties, and there is bad debt, things like credit cards or personal loans. And so you want to make sure that you understand debt management and good debt and bad debt and taking on the appropriate risks for your specific situation. The average American pays $1,380 in credit card interest annually,

and that's one of the things that you never, ever want to pay as a wealth voter, is credit card interest. Avoiding bad debt and going towards good debt is great. Even learning how to invest and starting to take the leap at faith in investing is a risk that you are taking. It's a good risk to take on. But understanding how to invest properly is going to be one of those things that I think helps a lot.

Another one is retirement planning and longevity risk. So many people underestimate how long they'll live and run out of money. So one in three retirees will live to 90, yet 40% have saved less than $50,000, according to the Social Security Administration. And so this is something where you've got to plan out your timeline, making sure you're taking the proper risks there. But the biggest risk overall, this is the last point I'll make, is not taking any. Playing it too safe can lead to missed opportunities in stagnant financial life.

The wealthiest 1% take more calculated risk in business, investing, and networking than the average person according to the Harvard Business Review. And so you want to make sure that you were taking calculated risks, which start with having that financial education. The only way you can be calculated is understanding what you're doing. And so that is that financial education, which is why we talk about that very early on this show as well. And so these are the seven most important financial decisions that you will make throughout your lifetime. If you're getting value out of the show, I want to thank you guys all for being here today. If you're getting value of this show, consider following this show, leaving a five-star rating and review. I cannot thank you guys,

enough for being here and share this episode with a friend or a family member who you think would get value of the show as well. Thank you for investing in yourself by listening to this podcast and we will see you on the next episode. We've all been there. The watch party finally makes it out of the group chat and uh-oh, you volunteered to host. Suddenly you need snacks, drinks, dips, cups, and all the other party essentials. With Instacart, you can get all those groceries delivered in as fast as 60 minutes. No extra errands for you. One quick order for everyone. That way everything shows up right on time, making hosting easy and like you had it planned all along. Download the Instacart app today and get no markups at select retailers. Fees and

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