Transcript of 10 Secret Habits to Save Your First $100,000 (Starting at $0)

most people think that saving your first $100,000 is all about luck or earning a huge salary not true consistent habits and smart money decisions matter way more than how much you earn today I'm revealing 10 underrated habits anyone can use to save their first $100,000 whether you are starting at zero or you're rebuilding from scratch so let's get started number one have monthly money check-ins set aside 60 minutes each each month to review your finances whether you're Solo or with a partner during that check-in you want to make sure you are on track with your vision of a rich life now because you're checking in monthly you can spot these issues early whether you are overspending or not spending enough falling behind on savings or Investments and you can fix them before they spiral out of control here's the simple framework to use start with a compliment I really appreciate that you make me feel safe when we talk about finances not you fire nerds who open up your spreadsheet and go look at this cool little V lookup that I did it's so cool do you feel good do you finally feel good about money then they're like I don't want to be with this person anymore next follow up on open items from last month hey I was going to set up the transfer from our joint checking account to our joint savings that's done high five then review your spending are we on track here are a couple of key discretionary numbers that we are tracking how we doing that's it you don't need to be tracking the price of turnips it's a waste of time focus on the big discretionary numbers things like travel kids activities uh groceries eating out you're good next look at your named savings accounts oh you don't have those you do now after you read my new book money for couples learn about it you might say something like I wonder if we can save more in our new kitchen fund we have an extra 50 100 bucks a month what do you think next talk over any anything else in your shared agenda hey we're going to be done paying off our credit card in 6 months once that's done how should we reallocate that monthly payment oh one of the best conversations ever assign tasks by name divide and conquer be specific like who owns it what's the next step what's the deadline you are running a business together the business of running a household you know sure I'll find a restaurant for your dad's birthday dinner next Wednesday give yourselves a rich life moment to look forward to hey should we check out that new exhibit at the Met I'll put it on the calendar for Saturday hey should we go to the park on Sunday awesome that's going to be so fun and finally end with a compliment a good compliment is specific about the meeting and it can include how your partner made you feel something you noticed or even just the fact that they were present during the meeting I'm so glad we're doing this together it feels good knowing that we are a team number two prioritize paying off debt fast listen highin debt especially from places like credit cards that's a wealth killer if you are paying 25% or more in interest you are throwing that money away now you can use my free debt payoff calculator I will link it for you below and you can make a debt payoff Plan Focus on paying off that high interest debt as quickly as possible so you can then take that money and redirect those payments towards growing your Investments and savings number three always be on the hunt for more money you want to boost your n worth fast then an underrated habit is to make it a priority to look out for extra cash but there's lots of ways to do it use the CEO approach the C is cut costs look at your expenses and decide what you do not care about cut cost mercilessly on those items e earn more you can ask for a raise you can switch jobs or even Industries you can start a business you can take advantage of your employer's 401K match and then owe for optimized spending you can negotiate your bills down you can even call and ask for lower aprs on credit cards and sometimes loans now traditional advice about saving money only focuses on restricting yourself don't buy jeans don't buy iceberg lettuce don't you dare go outside and look in the window of a store maybe when you're 90 then you can spend money no thank you by looking at other ways to improve your finances like earning more and optimizing your spending you open up so many new avenues for Building Wealth that's what makes the CEO approach so valuable number four follow a spending plan one of the saddest things in the world is realizing that people actually spend money at Arby's like what is wrong with your pallet that you go there and actually buy a roast beef sandwich from the worst restaurant on the planet you did that you kept them in business since I was a kid why and this really illustrates a larger problem which is people spending money on things that are not part of their rich life I guarantee if I ask anybody what's your rich life zero out of 300 million people are going to say Arby's it's not it's just in front of you and that is true of so many things we spend money on that is why we need a spending plan let's spend extravagantly on the things we love as long as we cut costs on RBS research shows that Americans spend 88% of their take-home pay no wonder we have a dismal combined savings and investment rate of about 12% probably less if we're much more accurate and that's mostly because buil-in 401ks and things like that so instead of wondering where all your money went at the end of each month build a conscious spending plan it's not a budget that pays yourself first by Saving 5 to 10% of take-home pay and investing 10% or more of each paycheck you can download my free conscious spending plan template and fill fill it in with what you want your plan to look like then you can take a brutally honest look at your Current financial situation this gives you so much Clarity so that you can cut back in areas you don't care about and actually spend more on the things you love most people do not want to take this honest look at their finances because it's kind of uncomfortable but I'll tell you what taking this honest look in the mirror this honest look at the conscious spending plan will transform the rest of your rich life a great way to track your conscious spending plan is with our sponsor rocket money rocket money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions monitors your spending and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings here's more on how rocket money works when you log in you have this dashboard that shows all of your account balances upcoming bills and recent transactions when you click on the spending tab you can see all the categories that you spend in dining and drinks bills and utilities groceries health and wellness travel personal care you can even create your own categories and easily move expenses from one category to another to keep it organized it also shows you Trends in your spending like whether you spent more or less in this category compared to previous months again you can move these categories right into your conscious spending plan so just imagine spending months maybe years feeling worried about money worrying if you're spending too much and then you look at your rocket money dashboard and it's all spelled out for you rocket money has over 5 million users and has saved a total of $500 million in canceled subscriptions saving members up to $740 a year when using all of the apps features what would you do with an extra $740 a year stop wasting money on things you don't use cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to rocket.com RIT Sati or clicking the link in the description below now let's get to the next underrated habit to save your first $100,000 number five shift to long-term thinking sometimes I ask people what do you want to do with your money a year from now 5 years from now they're like what huh H it's like driving in the fog all you can see is 50 ft ahead of you it's impossible to even think about what's 5 Mi down the road Building Wealth is like getting fit or learning a new language it takes time and you have to be willing to see down the road yes you have to put in the work but you also have to know that every step you're taking in the right direction is actually going to pay off nobody trips and falls and builds a rich life you have to be thinking longterm number six build a financial moat you know what a moat is you know those things around a castle no one could penetrate it the freaking alligators in it that's what we need in our life except for money life happens a financial moat protects you and without it an unexpected car repair or medical bill or job loss can wipe out years of progress now I got to tell you you never want to be in a position where you have to borrow money from your 401k you never want to be in a position where you go into debt because of something you did not expect there's lots of penalties and interest involved when you have to make decisions like that so a key to getting ahead and staying ahead is to have a 3 to 6month emergency fund and if you really want to feel secure if you're financially conservative you can even do 12 months with a healthy Financial moat you'll be able to recover from setbacks much faster number seven delete your bank and credit card apps no stop it you don't need more information in fact more information can actually lead to worse decisionmaking you know Americans love to make the worst life decisions and then tell themselves that they're doing it for the right decisions hey everybody I need more information about my eyelids and my sleep and my heart rate and my V2 Max and I need to do everything except the thing that's actually going to improve my life go to sleep have a good relationship eat healthy food walk around a little bit maybe talk to a friend what do you say no I need data give me the data look at my phone do you see any banking apps on here no this phone is falling apart that's the phone is broken now okay what am I doing here who am I what is my purpose oh yeah we're talking about how more data is not going to save you the good news is if you have your savings and Investments automated you really do not need to log into your bank account every morning to check if it's still there more importantly I want you to zoom out and stop playing small as long as you're automating and you're doing a monthly check-in with your conscious spending plan you can get out of the weeds you've earned it and not have to log into your checking account every day in fact sometimes asking for more control is not a better thing it's actually worse similar to Investments limit your investment decisions to once per year typically at the end of the year when you're doing things like rebalancing your portfolio increasing your investment rate Etc and please for the love of God stop jumping from one savings account to another because one account increased its rate by .1% have you ever actually calculated how much .1% will give you even if you have a $10,000 balance it's not much it's not worth jumping around all of these things are playing small set your account structure up follow the material in my videos zoom out and get on with your life because a rich life is lived outside of the spreadsheet number eight invest in the right things please stop wasting your time picking individual stocks please stop trying to time the market and writing me REM I I know that you said I shouldn't time the market but it looks really expensive right now should I wait that's timing the market don't do that data shows that people who consistently invest with simple lowcost funds like index funds outperform 80% or more actively managed funds basically you can beat these portfolio managers who are paid over a million dollars a year wearing fancy suits you could beat them by picking a lowcost Fidelity or Vanguard or Schwab Index Fund what you have to do is consistently invest your money whether the market is up or down and do it automatically number nine surround yourself with people who find it normal to invest I remember when I moved to New York many years ago I looked around and looked like everybody was fit and everybody was stylish I was like did y all learn something on a day that I was abs and maybe they did but it was normal to be fit and stylish I think the same thing applies to money if everyone around you thinks that investing is weird you're going to think it's weird too but if your friends are actively saving towards goals and they're investing you are very likely to do the same thing that is why it's so important to find your community whether it's reading books whether it's being part of my money coaching program whether it's connecting to others in YouTube comments surround yourself with people people who celebrate wanting to live a rich life and number 10 do an annual Rich Life review once a year I want you to review your finances and your life here are some questions you should consider did you hit your four key numbers your fixed costs savings Investments and guilt-free spending what went well this year what do you want to do more of what didn't go well what would you want to change or do less of where are you today with your financial goals what would this next year look like if it were magical review your money dials and any money rules that you created if some of them don't apply to you anymore discard them or change them or add new ones and finally think about what's coming up next year do you have changes in income do you have additional expenses do you have scenarios you want to start planning for right now this shift from reactive to proactive thinking will help you live a rich life today and an even richer life tomorrow these habits aren't just about saving $100,000 they are about creating a financial system that makes investing and saving second nature in fact it makes it automatic start with one habit build momentum and watch how quickly things change now to understand everything you need to know about Building Wealth check out my complete investing Playbook here [Music]