In March 2011, the 16-year-old Nick D'Aloisio launched an app called Summly that turned long
news articles into short, easy to read summaries. The app instantly received over 100K downloads
and attracted venture capital investments. Less than two years later, the app was acquired by
Yahoo for 30 million dollars making Nick D'Aloisio a millionaire before hitting 18.
But not everyone gets such an opportunity to become so rich at such a young age. However,
that doesn't mean there is nothing you can do. In fact, if you make a few right
financial decisions when you are still a teenager, you are almost certainly going
to become wealthy in your late 20s or maybe 30s. While it's difficult to imagine yourself hitting
30 when you are just 15 years old, trust me, it's going to happen much sooner than you think,
and building wealth later is much more difficult. Because now you don't have
all of these expenses that adults usually have, such as paying rent, buying groceries, and so on.
The moment you step into a life where you have to pay the rent and feed yourself,
there is no going back. You will automatically have fixed expenses that you cant get rid of.
By the way, I have a confession to make when I was like 15 years old. I had no idea what the
stock market is. I have heard about it in the news, I have heard people talking about it, but
I literally had no idea what is it and how does it work. So if you are watching this video as a
teenager, I am jealous. I wish I was smart enough to learn about investing when I was 15 years old.
To make this video, I asked myself, what are the things I wish I knew when I was a teenager?
What are the different financial decisions I would have taken? How would I start building
wealth if I would be 14,15 or 16 years old? If you are a teenager watching this video,
this is probably going to be one of the most important things you will learn,
even if you are slightly elder. I am sure this information can help you as well.
So if you are ready, give this video a thumbs up, and let's get right
into it!
compound interest is the best tool on your arsenal
The most powerful tool as a teenager you have is compound interest. If you don't take advantage
out of it, you are literally wasting your teenage years. If you don't know what compound interest
is and how it can help you, don't worry! Because I also didn't know that when I was a teenager.
Consider this simple example, If you were given a choice between taking 3 million dollars in cash
this very moment or a single penny that doubles every day for the next 31 days?
Which one would you choose? At first glance, it seems like
choosing the million dollars is the wisest option, but if you take a moment and think about it,
you will realize that a penny that doubles for the next 31 days is a far better choice.
In the first five days, the penny that doubles every day turns into a single dollar. By the
10th day, it increases to 5.12 dollars. Even within the next 10 days, by the day 20th,
you are going to get only $5243. If you have chosen the penny,
you probably regret it because you are only getting a little over 5K instead of the 3
million dollars that could instantly change your life. But if you would give it a little more time,
that amount would increase to over 10,737,418 dollars by the 31st day. Even on the day 29th,
it would only grow to 2.7 million dollars. The biggest difference happens in the last two days.
So, if you start investing while you are still 15 years old, you can rip
the rewards of the compound interest and become ultra-rich by the time you are 30, for example.
But because you are not going to see any significant progress
in the first year or so as it is with the penny in its first 20 days, most people don't start early.
Of course, you can't start investing if you are under 18, but you can open a custodial account.
That means an adult -- most likely one of your parents -- must open the account with you and
be the custodian, and you can start investing. Of course, it's risky because, as a teenager,
you probably don't know much about the stock market, but you don't have to. I would just
invest every penny I would save into an ETF that invests in the S&P500. Whatever happens,
I can be confident that my money isn't going to Go away, and most importantly, it's going to grow. I
am not gonna touch that money at all, not to buy a car or anything else. I would just let it grow and
build wealth. And with the power of compounding, once I am an adult, I would have some real wealth.
2. Number 2: don't spend money
I know that sounds weird, but you literally can avoid 99% of the expenses that adults
usually have. Do you need a roof over your head? Just keep living with your parents!
Do you want to eat? Eat at home, and you don't even have to cook!
Of course, there are exceptions, but if you are watching this video from a first
or second world country, which should be the case according to YouTube statistics,
then you are most likely able to do that. Once you grow up and you have responsibilities, it's much
more difficult. Trust me. If you haven't tried living alone and paying all the bills by yourself,
you will never understand it! So take my word! Once you start a family and have kids,
saving money will become a dream that you will not most likely achieve! So save every penny you can
while you have the opportunity and invest it in an ETF of your choice.
And for god's sake, when you hit 18, 19, or 20, don't use that money to buy a car!
Because getting a car means, a lot of monthly expenses! Every dollar that you spend on
maintaining that car could be invested, and with the power of compound interest,
could grow significantly! But in order to save,
you have to make money! If your parents are giving you pocket money, good for you!
If not, as it was in my case! Then 3. Try making money
When you don't have any skills, it's really difficult to make money because all you can
do is get a low paying job. But when you are a teenager, you can afford to take the risk.
If you end up failing, no one really cares. You are a teenager. No one expects you to build a
successful company when you are just 16 years old! And you know what! You still have a roof over your
head because you are living with your parents and you don't have to worry about what you are going
to eat because you can always eat at home! So if you are a gamer, try steaming. Maybe
make YouTube videos. Open a Fiverr account and find out if you can offer any services.
Try door to door selling. Try to sell something online. If you have got a better idea,
try it! The best time to try is when you are a teenager! You will never have such an opportunity
again! Don't think about failure! If you succeed, good for you. If you don't, it doesn't matter!
I remember helping people fixing their computers back when YouTube wasn't a thing,
you couldn't simply watch a YouTube video to find out how to fix your computer.
Especially now, with all of these opportunities, as long as you have access to internet,
you have no excuses! 4. Keep learning.
As a teenager, especially when you are 17 or 18 years old. You think that you
have figured everything out! Trust me. You haven't! You are thinking like that because
of how little you know about everything, so make learning your first priority!
Don't assume you know about everything about money just because you could earn
a few hundred dollars. Don't hesitate to take a piece of advice from someone older than you,
don't assume you have figured everything out just because you watched a YouTube video.
5. Get yourself ready once an opportunity strikes.
You probably already have heard that most of the money is made during crises, but it's not
made by random people but rather by those who were getting ready for such an opportunity years ago.
Those who saved enough money and understood how the economy works made a fortune in 2020.
Others built their fortunes during the crypto crisis, or during the real estate crash. So,
if you are not seeing instant progress now, don't worry. Just keep hustling. Your time will come,
be ready for it!
Building wealth is great. Investing, build businesses is, of course, awesome! But it
doesn't worth it if you are not going to have fun. Make sure to have fun along the way,
especially when you are a teenager. You are not going to be a teenager again, so don't miss this
opportunity to create some unforgettable memories. Anyways, give this video a thumbs up if you have
found it helpful, and remember that you can get two free stocks from Webull if you open an account
and deposit 100 bucks.
Make sure to subscribe if you are new around here and turn on your notifications.
Thanks for watching and until next time.