Millennial Money Makeover

Escape Debt, Save for Your Future, and Live the Rich Life Now

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• Publisher: Career Press
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781632658630
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Personal Finance

Over half of Millennials are freaked out by their finances. Luckily, with Millennial Money Makeover readers now have a guide to help them navigate the financial issues of their time. Certified public accountant Conor Richardson offers a refreshingly helpful and elegantly designed program to tackle essential money matters.

Millennial Money Makeover takes readers on a six-step journey to transform their financial life and set them up for lifelong success. From learning how to pay off student loans insanely fast to optimizing a financial ecosystem, Millennial Money Makeover teaches readers how to reclaim their financial future and jump-start the path to the rich life.

Built for readers in their twenties and thirties, this book gives Millennials a proven playbook. Learn new hacks like how using robo-advisors can increase your returns and how leveraging delayed gratification when buying your first home can save you thousands. Whether you are planning a passion budget, figuring out how to finally purchase that big-ticket item, or thinking about taking your first dip into investing, Conor will show you the way.

1

A RICH DECISION: MAKE THE CHOICE TO
UNDERSTAND YOUR MONEY

Decision is the ultimate power.

—Tony Robbins

If you want to find out the meaning of life, go to New York City.

When I was twenty-eight years old, I had a life-changing moment that would alter the trajectory of my life. Some would call it an epiphany, others a financial wake-up call. I call it a financial awakening.

In the fall of 2014, I was living in New York and enjoying every minute. My career was taking off, I was making lifelong friendships, and I was continuously learning. Life was perfect.

New York taught me about life, the minimum viable space for an apartment, the art of navigating crowded subways, how to hail a taxi, and the value of work. With a city that eats up most of a young professional's budget with rent, it also taught me how to survive on a small amount of discretionary income. Allocating my spending was crucial to survival, and as a result, savings was always a second thought, if a thought at all.

But one evening everything came crashing down. For some reason, I decided that I wanted to start saving more—well, really, just save at all. I was getting sick of just getting by every month. Something inside me was saying there was more to life than living paycheck to paycheck. So I sat down at my desk in my fifth-floor walk-up apartment, overlooking Brooklyn, and put together my first real budget.

That is when the clouds parted.

As a newly minted certified public accountant (CPA), I lived in Excel most of my days and nights. Creating financial projections for existing businesses, models for business plans, and slicing through mounds of data were routine projects. But modeling out my own future and thinking about the business of “me” always seemed to fall to the bottom of the to-do list. I decided to change that by sitting down to figure out exactly where I stood.

The result was not pretty. My financial life was in shambles. If I was going to save myself, I knew that I needed to do something quick and drastic. At that moment, I decided to change. I decided to change my relationship with money forever and turn professional with my finances. That is when my money makeover began.

Something tells me you are looking to do the same.

That evening is seared into my mind as one of the most transformational moments of my life. It was a moment of full decision. I was going to stop. I was going to stop living on the edge. I was going to stop unnecessarily spending on clothes, trips, and going out with friends. And I was going to stop living in New York, the city I loved. My financial life was a wreck, and the only way to fix it was with a complete money makeover.

This will happen to you too. Perhaps it already has. There will come a time when you realize you are losing control of your finances and everything isn't quite working out. You will become tired of the routine—fighting through the Sunday Scaries, hating Mondays, living for the weekend, and haphazardly spending money. When you finally become fatigued by it all, you will know it is time for a change.

Perhaps that is why you picked up this book?

I changed my life during my late twenties, but only after I dusted off the haze of the previous years. If I remained entrenched in my old routine, I realized my long-term financial outlook was bleak. If, on the other hand, I wanted the financial freedom that I had always dreamed of, then I was going to have to make major changes in my life. The dormant need to take control of my life was beginning to wake up. It was time for a money makeover.

When we first start our careers, all we know about money is that we do not have enough of it. And far too often, we are naive to the fact that creating a solid financial base in our twenties and thirties will pave the way to lifelong financial success. Our distraction is not without merit. As young professionals, we are perpetually engrossed with the mythology of the success sequence: trying to find the right job, the right spouse, and just generally working things out.

We tend to become overwhelmed with life's expenses, and as a result, we are always stressed about money. The comforting news is that you are not alone. Nearly 70 percent of Millennials report feeling financially stressed.¹ Making the choice today to get your finances in order can alleviate this burdensome stress and increase your happiness.

If you are merely starting to think about paying off your debt, saving, or developing a financial plan, this book will guide you on your way to financial success. This book will help you set up the financial ecosystem to create lasting change. You will finally be on your way to financial freedom.

Sounds great, right? Well, there is one catch. The steps in this book will present the agenda for success. But as it is with most difficult decisions in life, change can only begin with you taking action. Picking up the phone to call your credit card companies, setting up your savings account, opening retirement accounts, and automating your finances will all have to be done on your time and by the work of your own hands.

Turning Professional

Let this moment be one that you remember. Realize that this is a unique opportunity. You have the chance for a complete transformation—to escape debt, build up savings, create a career that matters, and live life on your own terms.

Take the time today to consciously decide that you are going to turn professional in your finances. This will be one of the most important decisions you will ever make. Commit to leading an exceptional life in which you can buy your dream car and purchase that perfect house.

“I could divide my life into two parts: before turning pro and after.
After is better.”

—Steven Pressfield, Turning Pro

The concept of living a financially healthy lifestyle is not novel. It is, however, a very hard thing to accomplish in today's society. We live in a world in which we are perpetually inundated with marketing campaigns designed to pull us away from being financially prudent. The competing messages are everywhere: Buy this fancy new purse. Don't you need that new shirt? Do you have the latest iPhone? We are constantly reminded of our inferiority if we do not have the appropriate stuff Ignore those voices and listen to the one in your head (that would be me right now). You do not need excess, and you do not need more. Look around you; you barely use what you already own (more on this in Chapter 3).

A money makeover starts with the realization that you are an incredibly important person. Mastering your money is worth every minute of your time. You need to recognize that only you control your financial destiny.

This book is here to help as a financial tool. As humans, we are hardwired to use the tools around us to construct our environment. Use this tool to better your life. In this book, you have the insights and perspectives of those who have gone before you. They are adamantly showing you the path to success. Live a debt-free life. Invest when everyone else is spending. Create the income to last a lifetime. When you start to get uncomfortable, that is when you know you are beginning to get close. Launch yourself, and your finances, forward.

It is the few who end up on the path to success, but there is always time to change the road you are on.

Turn professional today.

MILLENNIAL MONEY MAKEOVER PRINCIPLE OF SUCCESS:
ONE RICH DECISION WINS THE DAY

Making the decision to turn professional with your money will change the trajectory of your life. Absorbing this principle will increase your appetite for change.

Building Your Confidence

Stop deferring action to the future. Do I need to pay that bill today? Can I just make the minimum payment? Should I make my student loan payment this month? One reason why people procrastinate when it comes to making hard choices is fear. Fear that they will have to change. Fear that they may be socially excluded from the tribe. Fear that they will be wrong. This fear causes paralysis and fuels the status quo.

Fear is public enemy number one.

“Skill and confidence are an unconquered army.”

—George Herbert

The good news is that fear can be beaten. Fear ushers in negative thoughts, which lead to negative actions or inaction. The best way to beat fear is by confidence-building. By replacing your negative thoughts with positive and confidence-building thoughts, the cycle of fear can be broken. Our brains are remarkably powerful, and if you train your brain to harness the power of positive thinking, remarkable changes begin to unfold.

One of the secrets of the rich life is: Confidence is a commodity. Confidence can be developed, mined, and acquired over time. By practicing confidence-building techniques, you can produce confidence to be used at your convenience. This confidence will permeate all aspects of your life, including your career, personal relationships, and money management.

The following list displays fears people face when failing to realize their financial potential. Read the fears and their associated confidence-building responses out loud. You can download a spreadsheet with blank responses at MillennialMoneyMakeover.com

Typical Fears	Your Confident Response
Fear of feeling overwhelmed	I am going to use this book and all of the tools in it as a resource to answer my most pressing financial questions.
Fear of the unknown	I am going to venture into the land of the unknown with confidence, knowing that I can conquer a...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• CONTENTS
• INTRODUCTION: THE MILLENNIAL'S WAY
• 1: A RICH DECISION: MAKE THE CHOICE TO UNDERSTAND YOUR MONEY
• 2: RED TO BLACK: HOW TO PAY OFF CREDIT CARDS AND STUDENT LOANS
• 3: PASSION BUDGETING: HOW IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE FOR THE BETTER
• 4: THE MAGIC OF WINNING BIG: HOW TO OPTIMIZE LARGE-TICKET PURCHASES
• 5: MINTING MOMENTUM: SAVING, INVESTING, AND CONSTRUCTING YOUR RETIREMENT
• 6: THE POWER OF AUTOMATION: LEVERAGING TECHNOLOGY TO REACH THE RICH LIFE
• CONCLUSION: WINNING THE LONG GAME
• MILLENNIAL MONEY MAKEOVER BONUS MATERIAL
• NOTES
• INDEX