Hi guys, it's Mark.
So your twenties are a truly amazing time.
Most people in their twenties
don't worry too much about what they're buying,
cause they're most likely not married yet
and they're just looking to have a good time.
But the truth is if you make smart financial decisions
in your twenties, like I managed to do,
then you can set yourself up for a whole life of freedom,
rather than just 10 years of fun.
Nothing stopped me from making smart financial decisions
and having fun at the same time,
the two aren't mutually exclusive.
But if you're watching this video in your twenties,
then this has the possibility to send shock waves
through your entire future.
Each of these purchases are different,
so it's really important to watch the video
all the way to the end.
Otherwise, you could miss out something really crucial.
Remember this isn't financial advice,
these are just things that I've done
that have helped me become a millionaire
and grow my wealth starting from zero.
We'll get into this right after you hit that like button
for the "AlTube Yougorithm".
Number one is investing in a side hustle.
Now, I know this term
gets thrown around a lot on the internet
and you're probably sick of hearing it,
but it's absolutely one of the best ways
to grow your wealth in your twenties.
It's also quite high risk,
but the power is in your hands.
And of course, you're gonna fall some risk at a young age.
I found myself falling into a lot of bad debt
just before I turned 20,
and I know this wasn't where I wanted to be.
I was being bullied by my manager at work
and doing repetitive jobs
making wooden trash cans day in, day out.
I was getting paid just enough to get by,
so I needed a plan to help me escape
and get me debt-free as soon as possible.
Investing my money into some sort of side hustle
was my only hope.
Side hustles, you're my only hope!
I looked for opportunities anywhere I could.
And when I found out my friend's dad was a car dealer
who had lots of trading cars,
I decided to buy a car I liked every week.
I'd do a full detail job, advertise and sell it.
This left me with the inconvenience
of having hardly any money in the bank account,
and no car to drive after I'd flipped it.
After a year,
this side hustle had not just clogged me out a debt,
it had given me considerable savings,
which I later use to escape my nine to five job
and lay in the foundations
of my now million dollar business.
When you invest your money in a side hustle
it's entirely up to you to put in the effort
and make it successful.
In my situation,
I had little choice, I had to succeed.
Car flipping might not be for you,
so my advice is it's always best to play to your strengths.
Maybe you like gaming,
creating websites, photography,
graphic design, tutoring,
or maybe even YouTube!
With any of these side hustles
there are things that you can buy
to increase your earning potential,
such as a laptop,
which allows you to edit at high standard.
The key is to survive on your income
and invest all the extra money back into the side hustle
or some of the other things in this video.
Number two is buying an index fund in a Roth IRA or an ISA.
I get it, investing in index funds
might not sound like the most exciting thing at first,
but wait until you hear these numbers.
if you manage to save or make an extra $200 per month
and invest it in a simple S&P 500 Index Fund,
which historically has averaged
a yearly 10% return since it was created,
then in 45 years, you will have over 2 million dollars!
Assuming you're investing
within a Roth IRA account in the USA
or an ISA in the UK,
then this money will be completely tax-free!
But mark, I don't want to be rich
when I'm old and gray like you,
I want it now while I'm young!
Let me make this clear.
I'm not saying you have to wait to be rich.
This is just an investment of $200,
which you can generate from a side hustle.
You still have the potential to make much more money.
I like to think of this as a backup
that's just building up in the background.
I started my investment journey in my early twenties,
as a friend of mine said
that by keeping my money in the bank
it was just losing value due to inflation.
I decided I needed a backup plan, I had no doubt in my mind.
I can make a lot of fast money from my businesses,
but just in case,
I decided a safety net would be a good idea.
This is where the index funds came in.
I invested a small amount every month
instead of spending it.
I would always pretend it wasn't mine.
I even set it up so the money automatically
came out of my bank account before I even saw it.
I've got no intention of ever needing this money,
but it's always there,
and it's growing just in case.
An index fund is great,
as its basket of lots of different companies.
So it's a lot less risky
than putting all your money in just one stock.
Imagine an index fund is like owning a bunch of chickens.
With one chicken,
you have to worry about the chicken dying of disease,
getting eaten by a fox, or even getting lost.
But the likelihood of losing a whole flock
is pretty small.
To extend the analogy a bit further,
imagine you have a problem with thieves
coming in the night and stealing all your eggs.
This is kind of like when the government taxes you
on your capital gains.
What you really need is a top of the range
chicken fortress that's impenetrable.
This is what a Roth IRA is in the USA
And an ISA is in UK.
You invest your money within one of these accounts
and all your profits are tax-free.
These accounts are so powerful,
they even limit the amount you can contribute each year.
In the UK, you can open up an ISA with Freetrade
and I'll also pop a link in the description
where you can pick up a free stock worth up to £200.
If you're in the USA,
then you can use Public to invest in an S&P 500 index fund.
I'll leave the link in the description
to pick up a free stock worth up to $100.
Number three is buying a plane ticket.
This one might seem a bit strange.
You may be thinking,
"how is a plane ticket gonna help me in the future?".
Well, traveling can really give you so many opportunities.
I managed to travel all over the world in my twenties,
which built up my confidence and my contacts.
These came in really handy for me later on
when I needed to start producing products in China
to expand my business.
Traveling also doesn't have to break the bank.
Maybe you'll have to buy a few plane tickets,
but you can also use credit card points to travel for free.
The idea is to open up a new credit card,
meet the minimum spend and get the points bonus,
which you can redeem for free flights.
But that isn't actually free,
you have to spend money to get it!
Well actually, you don't need to spend any more money
than you normally would.
Instead, you can put all of your normal expenses
on the credit card.
Just make sure to pay it back in full
at the end of each month
and you'll never be charged any interest.
As a bonus, you'll also be building a great credit score
for when you want to buy a house in the future.
This credit score will give you access
to much better mortgage rates
and end up saving you lots of money.
I actually once got a free trip to California
for me and my girlfriend while we were in our twenties.
I also managed to close
a huge business deal at the same time!
Credit cards have really been demonized
by lots of parents and boomers,
but if you use them responsibly,
then they can give you huge advantages.
Number four is spending money on education.
This is by far one of the most important things,
and it's too often overlooked.
purchasing any type of education
to better yourself is a no brainer.
At the end of the day,
everyone is paid based on their perceived value.
So if you're able to increase this by learning a new skill,
then you're going to dramatically boost your wealth.
I chose to invest in books in my twenties
as unfortunately that was pretty much the only option I had.
Nowadays, there are so many different
alternative sources for education,
like certain courses and even YouTube.
Just don't go spend $997 on a course sold by some kid
standing in front of a Lambo
saying its going to change your life.
Because I'll tell you what,
the truth is it is gonna change your life,
it's gonna make you $997 poorer, that's for sure.
This isn't just about investing your money,
it's also about investing your time
to actually learn something valuable
and being open to new ideas.
The cool thing about being young
is that you can learn things much faster,
and then they stay with you for the rest of your life.
I used to say to my son,
be the sponge, and soak up all the knowledge you can.
Reading "Think and grow rich" in my early twenties
really changed my mindset forever.
From this moment onwards,
I would always set myself a goal and a date in mind
when this would be achieved.
I learned that it was no good
just saying I wanted to be a millionaire one day,
I had to have a solid plan in place.
This isn't the actual one, but I paid about $5 for my copy
and it was probably one of the best investments of my life,
and that was just one book!
Look, I get it if you don't enjoy reading.
To be honest, neither do I.
I much prefer watching videos or listening to Audible,
but that's the cool thing about the internet,
you have so many options nowadays.
Number five is buying real estate.
There's no denying that buying a property
is one of the fastest ways to accelerate your net worth
at a young age.
I bought a property for $100,000 in my twenties,
and it's now worth over half a million.
The rental income I receive is also great,
as it's a consistent cashflow.
In addition to this,
if you own real estate,
then you have a great opportunity,
cause you've got a tangible asset
which you can use as leverage.
This has always allowed me
to have access to the best loan rates,
which I use whenever a great investment opportunity
comes along.
It might not be as easy nowadays to buy a property,
especially in your twenties, and I understand that.
But a great way to get around this
is to do something called "house hacking".
This is when you put down a deposit on a house
and get a mortgage.
Let's say your mortgage payment was $1000 a month,
you would then just rent out a couple of rooms
and get them to pay off your mortgage for you.
Alternatively,
if you don't want someone to live in your house,
you could buy a duplex,
which is one house split into two
with two separate entrances.
If you don't like either of these two options,
then you could look into becoming an Airbnb host.
The whole idea is to get other people
to pay for your real estate
so you don't have to.
Number six is purchasing cheap, reliable transportation.
A used car is essential,
as it will allow you to work on your own schedule,
meet deadlines, and take advantage of any new opportunities.
In my early twenties,
I made the mistake of having a really nice car.
It was a Ford RS Turbo.
To be honest, I just wanted to show off
to all my friends and maybe get a girlfriend.
Being a ginger back in the eighties wasn't a great look,
I needed all the help I could get.
that car ended up getting stolen
but it actually turned out great,
cause I managed to get an insurance payout.
This time, instead of getting a new car,
I used the money to buy cheap, used Peugeot.
It wasn't much to look at,
but I was in my twenties
and no one expected me to be a millionaire.
So I used the rest of the money
to invest and expand my business.
I'd already met my future wife,
so I didn't need to impress anyone else.
The real lesson here is that an expensive new car
does three things.
It locks your money away,
It could put you into debt if you buy it on finance
and it will lose value like crazy!
Freeing up my cash helped expand my business to new heights
and of course, I had no fear of the Peugeot getting stolen.
To be honest,
I don't think anyone's ever stolen a beige car.
The one exception for buying a new car in your twenties
is if you think it's a good financial decision
for your business.
This is the only reason my 23 year old son Kurt
has bought his Tesla Model three,
as he can write-off the entire car
as a business expense and get a tax break.
Before that he was driving around
a used 20 year old Toyota Yaris.
I always advised him to live like a student
for as long as possible and invest as much as he could.
I was happy to advise him,
but I wasn't giving him any handouts.
Number seven is buying Bitcoin.
Bitcoin closed out 2020
as the best performing asset of the last decade.
So at this stage, it seems silly not to own a little bit.
I would love to share a story
of how Bitcoin changed my life,
but it just wasn't around back when I was younger.
And you certainly couldn't get up to $250 of free Bitcoin
with the BlockFi link down below when I was growing up!
I'm all for diversifying my portfolio
into crypto like Bitcoin and Ethereum
As the growth has been insane over the last two years,
and I'm excited to see what the future holds.
In my opinion, owning a small percentage of wealth in crypto
is a good idea,
but I do have a problem with people YOLOing
their life savings into one asset
in hopes that they can achieve thousand percent returns.
Take the Doge Coin millionaire for example,
he invested around a quarter of a million
into doge coin at 4.50 cents a coin,
before the mainstream media and Elon Musk
tuck their claws in.
Among all the Elon madness and mainstream media hype,
he managed to rack up over 2 million
from his Doge investment.
fast forward it a few months,
and he isn't even a millionaire anymore.
Now I'm sure he'll be okay,
and he's achieved huge returns,
wherever he's a millionaire or not.
But the point I'm making is you never know
when all time highs and lows will be.
Crypto has undeniably been returning investors
more profit than the stock market,
so it makes perfect sense to buy and hold some crypto,
especially Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Just remember to only invest what you can to lose
and ensure your investment portfolio
is diversified across as many sectors as possible.
Here's a bonus one for everyone who smashed the like button.
If you haven't done that already,
you're gonna have to cover your ears.
It's very important to invest in your health,
as the healthier you are,
the harder you'll be able to work
without becoming burnt-out.
This is something I learned a little bit later
after becoming very ill in my twenties
from grinding all the time.
My doctor even told me I needed to take a break!
So the big takeaway here
is your twenties are more important than they might seem.
Compound interest is an amazing thing
which can either set you up for a lifetime of success
or start you down a path of snowballing debt.
As I mentioned before, in your twenties
you can afford to take a little bit more risk
when it comes to investing and starting a business.
This is because you have so much time
to make your money back if something goes wrong.
However, I still believe these risks should be calculated
and with a long-term plan in mind.
The people that look for a way to get rich quick
usually just end up being scammed
and then overtaken by the people with a long-term outlook.
A way to make this all easier for you
is to spend time with people that are like-minded
and more successful.
this way, you won't be constantly tempted into bad choices.
I always thought that buying things
just to impress others was a pointless pursuit
that would just leave me with less money and less freedom.
So I'm gonna leave the next video right up there,
but don't click on it just yet!
Make sure to subscribe if you want to grow your wealth.
And don't forget to pick up the free stocks
with the links below.
Okay, I'll see you over there.