- Hey sifu, I actually recently was looking up
a lot of articles and I know the fans,
they know we're filming
and I just wanted to take this kind of intimate moment
to address this where,
you know, I'm making a lot more money now
and I, seeing so many articles and advice online
and I just wanted to know, you know, from your perspective,
when you were younger and you were kind of in my position,
in my age, - Right.
- What are some of the kinda money mistakes that
you wish you would have known that I could look out for,
or the audience could look out for and things like that.
- Good question.
I think there's so many mistakes young people make
and because they think they have time and they think money
and money is not taught in school,
so when they first make a little bit more money,
they get their first paycheck
and then just like when you get a first paycheck,
you're not so sure what to do especially as you work harder,
maybe you rise up and you make more right,
now you're smarter, so I think first mistake is
paying interest on credit card debts.
So some people they talk about
make sure you don't get a credit card,
I don't think you should not not get a credit card
because a credit card builds up your credit score.
In the future when you want to buy a house,
when you want to buy a car, you need your credit score.
So it's not so much about cutting on your credit card
or never use credit card, always use debit,
no, use credit card
but just make sure you pay off that balance
every single month.
Because when you're paying that 18 or 20% interest rate,
it may not seem like a big deal, but when
you're not saving money - Over time.
- And you are paying interest rate on 18, 20%,
that's a big deal.
So pay off that balance every month.
- Got it.
- And then get a credit card, but get one,
do your research, there's so many credit cards out there
where you accumulate points.
Some of them give you cash back.
Some of them you can do different shopping.
- I think sometimes it's,
you get like five times points for flights
and things like that. - That's right, that's right.
- But don't get sucked into it, I'm gonna get a credit card
because I get all these points, but do your research.
If you like to travel,
yeah get one that's like very advantageous
when it comes to travel points but if not, then,
like example for me,
a lot expenses I run through my corporate card.
If you have a business, you can get a corporate credit card,
so you can accumulate points and you can use that
to buy things or to book hotels
and travel things like that so - Got it.
- that's mistake number one. - Got it.
- Number two is young people, I see this a lot,
they try to impress other people, right.
So they buy stuff, I did that.
- I probably would do that once or twice.
- You're right, you know, you buy stuff to impress people
that you don't even like, you don't really care.
But because I wanna look a certain way,
I wanna drive a nicer car
then you get into the habit of buying things
you can't afford, right.
Maybe, your earning only allows you to buy a car that is,
you're comfortable with 300 bucks a month car payment.
But like you know, I want that cool car, I wanna be cool,
so, you get the sport car.
- Drive on the highway. - Highway.
- People look at you.
- They think you think they'll
attract girls that way, right, I think.
By the way, that's all like marketing, right.
No girl's gonna come up to you and say,
"Oh you're so cool, what car is that?"
Like, unless you drive maybe
something like extremely luxurious.
- And then you gotta think if that's the girl you wanted.
- Yeah, that's not even the girl, that's,
you see these pranks on YouTube
like the gold digger prank, right, so that's
I don't recommend that.
So don't get into debt and buy stuff that
maybe you don't really need, right.
So that's mistake number two.
Third mistake is not just a money mistake
but also a time mistake.
Because young people just like myself, when I was younger,
you would spend time on playing video games, right.
And you would spend a lot of time watching
like following sports, right.
Watching this game and that game and before you're knowing,
you are wasting a lot of time
instead of using that time to improve yourself.
Because when you are 20 years old,
you don't think about 30, 40, 50 years, right.
When you're 50, when you're 55,
but I'm telling you,
it feels like yesterday I was 21.
A blink of an eye, you're now like 30.
A blink of an eye, you're like 40.
Time pass by so fast and you will wish
that, hey you know what, if I didn't waste that time
doing all those stupid things
and I'm not saying don't play games,
I've got a PS4 and Xbox, right.
I play it from I don't know, couple times a month.
You just don't wanna, I do three hours of gaming
every day. - Day.
- Unless you are streamer,
that's how you're making your money then, you know what,
no problem with that.
- I think it's mostly the mobile games too,
that's what really gets you,
your mobile games take oh, 10 minutes here, 10 minutes here.
- And know especially those mobile games
where you gotta buy more coins.
- The microtransactions. - Oh microtransactions!
- You know it, you know it. - You know it, right?
Where, hey, they hook you in with free game,
before you know it, you use spending
hundreds of dollars. - Oh yeah.
- There was a game that I bought which is a Chinese game,
like a Three Kingdoms, like a strategy game, free download.
Before you know it, I was blowing
hundreds and hundreds of dollars, right.
It's stupid, right, and that money is something that
you could use towards educating yourself,
not just formal education, but self education,
reading books, taking online courses or even going to events
or learning from someone who's successful, right.
That would be mistake number three.
And I would say mistake number four is
leaning on your parents too much.
Where you see kids, teenagers
that the parents work very hard, pay for the education,
giving them a home to live in, maybe their basement,
things like that and you notice they...
mature little bit later.
Right, took them a little bit long a time,
they kind of live in this bubble
because the parents are too protective,
especially from Asia, right, Asian parents,
India, China, Taiwan, very protective
versus kinda pushing them out there and say,
"Hey, you gotta figure this out on your own."
So then, you can see even like 24, 25, especially guys.
Girls, like they mature liberally,
but guys you can see at the age of 28, 27,
they still behave like 18 because they live in this bubble
so, leaning on their parents too much.
One of the worst thing but also the greatest thing
that ever happened to me is when I was 16,
my mom and dad got divorced
and when I was 17, my dad went bankrupt.
If my dad didn't go bankrupt, 'cause know,
I have allowance coming in, I wasn't thinking about money,
wasn't thinking about becoming successful.
But because of that happened, it forced me to do that.
Not pleasant, right, I don't recommend it for everybody,
but it was one of the greatest things that ever happened.
That was a turning point for me.
- It's like that adversity that helps you--
- Yeah, I remember you share with restory same thing,
- Yeah.
- Right, what drives you?
- So for me, when I was younger, like my mom,
when we were super young,
my mom had me when she was very young
and my grandfather actually kicked my mom out of the house
and she said, look, he said,
"Look, if you wanna either take care of Gabe"
"or go out to party,"
"like we're not gonna support you party,"
"so do you care about your son?"
And then he always says like it was very tough for him
to, you know, kick my mom out the house
and he was always watching her from the car
and things like that, but there was a period like I remember
we definitely like lived on the street
and for like a small period
and then just like the poor housing and things like that
and always when I'm working
and like I have to grind it out sometimes or stay up late,
it's always that memory of like my mom could do it
and like she went through so much,
it's a little bit of like
I don't want to let her down either,
it's like all of that kind of amalgamated into
like the inner drive.
- And yeah, that's why you're so, so driven.
Because you've seen that, right,
but if you are family's okay and everything is kinda okay,
then you will not be as driven naturally
for most human beings, right.
So I think that would be mistake number four.
- And I think you also see that as well with older children,
so like I'm the first one of my family
and there is no like, oh you get picked up from school,
it's like you walk, you do everything by yourself
and then my youngest brother,
he's like 15 and he's like, - You learn self-reliance.
- Boom, yeah.
- You make it happen.
You want something, you gotta go get it.
So I think a lot of those early programming
which it was programmed at a very young age,
how it shaped who you are, right.
So and then mistake number five,
it would be not having financial goals.
- Interesting.
- So we have a lot of different goals, set goals,
but, you talk to most young people,
what are your financial goals?
The most they could tell you, I wanna make X.
That's the most, but they don't have any saving goals,
how much you wanna save by the age of 25?
How much you wanna by the age of 28, 30, right?
I don't know.
- I don't even think I have.
- Yeah like, so saving goal.
Right. - Yeah, saving goal.
- Investment goal, so maybe a goal
where you wanna save up this much money.
I want to get, buy my first, you know, stock.
Right, invest my first fund
or buy my first investment property, whatever it might be,
so investment goal, right, that's pretty important.
So you gotta have income goal,
your saving goal, your investment goal, but most people,
or I want to be able to get the point where I want to,
maybe at the beginning
you're putting aside 10% of your income.
Wanna get to a point in five years,
I want to get to a point
where I'm putting away 50% of my income,
I'm only spending 50%, so that's like a percentage goal,
but most people don't have that.
And they just kind of like oh yeah,
all they think about just making more,
which is good with your skillsets,
but you also need to have financial goals.
So those I would say are the top money mistakes to avoid
in your twenties. - Got it.
Maybe even in your thirties.
Even in your twenties.
- Got it, thank you sifu.
- You are welcome.