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if you're trying to do a better job with
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your money today I have five life
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choices to build wealth fast my name is
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michael from michael safecom and welcome
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to my youtube channel I hope you're
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staying safe in today's video I'm going
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to look back on five decisions that I
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made that changed my financial life
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and with each of these decisions I
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noticed a few things in common
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success factors they are hard work
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timing and flexibility so as I go
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through this list not everything you're
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gonna want to apply to your life some of
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it you will but think about how hard
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work timing and flexibility can help you
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reach your goals faster let's get
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started number one avoid going into
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student loan debt the way that I did
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this was simple I first went to a
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community college transferred those
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credits to a state school both
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affordable options also I lived with a
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family member to avoid room and board
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costs and finally I worked part-time to
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earn income with everything all that
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together my college costs for ten
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thousand dollars can you believe that
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for a four-year degree this was back in
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the early 2000s I know it is nothing
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like that now but the lesson remains you
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can still go to a community college
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first and transfer your credits to a
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state school if you're trying to get
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through college on a budget this I think
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is all about just measuring your
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expectations there are going to be
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people in your high school or your
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child's high school who can go wherever
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they want because the family has the
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means to pay for it but if that's not
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your family you need to find a different
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path Community College state school
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that's the cheapest way to go otherwise
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look for scholarships financial aid and
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if you do have to take out student loans
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go for those federal loans and stay away
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from private student loans number two
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work two jobs and moved up the career
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ladder now when I graduated from college
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it took a while to find jobs it took me
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five months to find a job in my chosen
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field and when I did it only paid $10 an
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hour to start it's a two-year contract
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and once I finished there I made a move
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to a bigger city and a much better
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salary and then after a little bit of
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time at that second job I made another
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move and increased my salary again now
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this was all strategic I was trying to
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grow not just my skills but also my
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income and in addition to that I worked
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part time throughout much of my 20s and
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what I did is I waited tables generally
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now I'm in my mid-30s now so I can have
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a little time to look back it is much
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harder to work two jobs when you are in
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your 30s because you have more going on
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in your life it was no sweat for me to
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work late at my regular job and then
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turn around and work early mornings at
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the restaurant but now I can't imagine
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how difficult that would be so my tip is
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this if you are in your 20s go ahead use
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that energy and build your income when
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you are younger because you're gonna
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have more obligations and more
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responsibilities as you get older and
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you may not want to work 50 or 60 hours
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a week you may want to work just one job
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as you get into your 30s and Beyond the
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third life choice is that I paid off my
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mortgage in two years now I don't want
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to get into this in too much detail on
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this video because I have a separate
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video on my mortgage payoff I'll link to
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that in the description below but what I
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want you to focus on here is those
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success factors hard work timing and
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flexibility think about that
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hard work is that I worked a full-time
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job and a part-time job during the
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mortgage payoff timing I purchased at
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the right time right after the Great
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Recession ended this was back in 2010
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and flexibility is that I purchased a
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condo that was a little smaller than
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what I liked and it wasn't in a brand
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new building so I made a few compromises
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in order to get that overall great deal
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if you have any type of debt whether it
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is a mortgage student loans credit cards
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think about hard work and flexibility
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with hard work can you get a second job
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is there anything you can do online
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are there any gigs and you can use the
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extra income that you make to apply
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towards your debt and flexibility can
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you look at your budget and then cut
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expenses in any places use the savings
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there to put toward the debt hardwork
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and flexibility are going to be your
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path toward getting out of debt faster
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number four started saving for
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retirement early now once I had a
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helping emergency fund a few months of
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living expenses I began to focus more on
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with that $10 an hour job I was not able
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to contribute to a company 401k but
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round age 25 I was making better money I
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started to think about investing in in
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my 401k as well as a Roth IRA back then
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it was about 13 to 15 percent of my
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salary but once I paid off the mortgage
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I was age twenty-seven when that
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happened I was able to supersize those
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savings and for several years after that
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maxing out my 401k as well as a broth I
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read I know most you won't be preparing
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your mortgages that's fine just
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concentrate on that 401k getting up to
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that company match and doing more if you
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can as well as a Roth IRA the key here
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is to make it automatic have the money
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come straight out of your paycheck into
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those accounts every pay period and if
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you start in your 20s and in your 30s
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you're going to have a lot of time for
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that money to grow and you're gonna be
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better for it when retirement comes
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along the way that I like to track my
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retirement savings is with personal
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capital it has free tools with a
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personal capital account for you to kind
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of analyze your retirement and look at
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the scenarios and see if you are on
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track to retire when you want to and
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maybe even retire a little bit early
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number five reduce materialism and
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embrace minimalism this is my favorite
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one from the list and I'm not a retail
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therapy type of guy I think this is
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because of the way that I was raised if
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you're anything like me you've got gifts
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at Christmas Easter your birthday but
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not too much in between whereas some of
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your neighbors they may have had a new
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toy every week at the time maybe that
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was frustrating but it's something that
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I've grown to appreciate because it has
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helped me be a lot more conscious about
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my spending when I make a purchase I ask
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myself two questions is this a want or
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is this a need and if it's a want is it
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going to make me happy retail therapy
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can be pretty dangerous if you go shop
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shop shop you may feel better for a few
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hours but if there is any underlying
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anxiety or depression you're gonna be
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right back in that spot after a very
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short period of time and you're gonna
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have less money to show for it instead I
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know it's a very millennial thing to say
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I like to focus on experiences over
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stuff I've always said a plan a B and C
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for my life and I think that you should
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too because things are never perfect the
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five life choices that I talked about in
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this video they put me on a
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footing so that I've been able to roll
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with the punches when there's been some
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problems in my personal or financial
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life over the past ten years your life
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choices may be very different from mine
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but focus on those three success factors
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hard work timing and flexibility how can
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you use those to build wealth fast my
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name is michael from michael safes comm
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keep watching here on youtube i've a lot
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more videos and more money-saving
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information on my blog michael saves
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calm thank you for watching
