Your priorities affect your lifestyle and net worth

When it comes to making money and living well, we all have different priorities. Some people choose to spend a great deal of money on their family while others choose to live a fancier lifestyle as a single person or invest for their future. Since you can’t rely a huge raise at your job or a large influx of cash overnight, you have to prioritize spending money on the things that are most important to you. The choices you make have a huge impact on your lifestyle and net worth. For example:

If you prioritize living by yourself in the city… realize that this simple desire is considered a luxury. Many people want to live in the city close to various entertainment options and nice restaurants. They value having their own personal space and want the freedom to come and go as they please. Since this desire is so common, the demand for one-bedroom apartments in the city is high. Because demand is high, the prices are high. In my current city of Atlanta, a modern one-bedroom apartment in the city can cost around $1500 a month, if not more. Paying $1500 a month in rent may require a big sacrifice. It likely means that you cannot save or invest as much money as you otherwise would each month.

If you prioritize investing money for retirement… realize that doing so means the paycheck deposited into your account each month will be lower than it otherwise would. For a person making around $60,000 per year, who plans to allocate at least 10% of their income for retirement and building wealth, their monthly take-home pay will decrease by about $500 per month.  For people who are already on a tight budget, getting $500 less each month may be a little too much to handle. For other people, the $500 per month is doable and they like knowing they are building their net worth and will be able to retire with enough money in the bank when they please. Investing money in retirement accounts is vital since it allows you to build wealth in a tax-efficient way but doing so may require you to live below your means. You may have to decrease monthly bills by opting to live with a roommate, travel less, or drive a more affordable care.

If you prioritize living a nice lifestyle (with fancy cars, good food, and lots of spare cash to spend) … realize this costs a lot of money. Choosing to live in a nice apartment or home will increase your monthly mortgage (or rent) each month. Choosing to lease or purchase a luxury vehicle may cause you to have a car payment that is well over $500 per month. Having spare cash to spend on concert tickets, frequent restaurant outings, and weekend bars can cost you hundreds of extra dollars per month as well. Although you have the freedom to live that lifestyle, understand that doing so may prevent you from being able to invest money for retirement. It may also preclude you from saving money in an emergency fund or being able to go on vacations without getting into debt.

If you prioritize giving money away… realize this may require you to make a sacrifice in another area of your life. As a Christian, I tithe. This means I give away 10% of my income each month. Because I give away 10%, I have 10% less money to invest, spend on housing, or use to save for a future vacation or wedding. To make up for this “loss,” I lived way below my means and shared an apartment with a roommate for 2 years until I was able to increase my income. Giving away money may be an important religious tenant for you as well. If so, think about how you can fit this financial priority into your current lifestyle. 

If you prioritize saving money (for a nice vacation, future wedding, or house down payment) … realize this may require you to live in a cheaper apartment, invest a little less towards retirement, or be more frugal in your disposable spending. Perhaps you have a goal of saving $5,000 a year to finance a large international vacation and build up your emergency fund? This may require you to save an extra $400 a month. This may require you to turn down a few happy hour invites or forgo a few music concerts. If that doesn’t work and you can’t figure out where to get the extra $400, you may have to get a side hustle or part-time job that can net you the extra money you need. 

If you prioritize having a family (with children) … realize that although having a family with children can bring you joy, it may also add to your monthly expenses. With more people, you may need more space which means getting a larger apartment or house. Because there are more people, you will also have to spend more money on food. If you have small children, you may have to allot a certain amount to daycare. All of these added expenses can amount to thousands of dollars per month causing you live a more frugal lifestyle and decreasing the amount of money you can allot to other things like travel, entertainment, and investing.

My point? You may have to pick and choose what to spend money on. Until you increase your income, you won’t be able to do it all. Part of being a fiscally responsible young professional means that you have to prioritize your desires and figure out what’s most important to you.

• Would you rather build wealth as quickly as possible by investing a large chunk of money for retirement or do you want your own personal space via a luxury one-bedroom apartment?

• Would you rather avoid going into debt by saving up for a fancy vacation and unexpected expenses ahead of time or do you want to spend your disposable income right now by consuming expensive food, nice cars, and city entertainment?

Part of being an adult means you have the freedom to make your own decisions and spend money how you see fit. However, you can’t have it all, and neither can I. What are your priorities? What will you choose?

6 Steps To Redesign Your Career

Many of us have goals and dreams. We may even know our purpose in life or have a side project or business idea that we are passionate about. Instead of letting this go by the wayside or telling yourself that now isn’t the time, find ways to bring these ideas to life. Be bold and use the combination of your skills, talents, passions, and values to redesign your career. Bestselling author and current talk show host Elaine Welteroth talks about this in her new masterclass. Several other young professionals have emphasized similar thoughts. Instead of going to work unfulfilled, use the steps below to redesign your career.
 
Step 1: Make note of your skills, passions, and talents. The first part of redesigning your career is to make note of things you are good at and pinpoint things that bring you joy. If you aren’t sure, ask your closest friends what they think your strengths are. Are there things that other people struggle with, but you do with ease? Is there something you are highly educated in or have tons of experience with that has made you an expert of sorts? Is there a certain topic that people often ask for your advice on? Maybe it’s politics or finance or being a mother or starting a non-traditional career or opening a business. Take some time to write down your skills, passions, and talents. You will use this information to redesign your career.
 
Step 2: Create a vision of what you’d like your career to look like. Once you have your list of skills, passions, and talents, use it to gather ideas and create a vision of what you’d like your career to be. Think of creative ways you could use your skills in your current job. Are there talents that you can monetize? Do you want to create a business centered around your passion? If you’re not sure, get some ideas from others. Find celebrities, entrepreneurs, politicians, or colleagues you want to model your career after. Pinpoint aspects of your job, or their job, that you find fascinating. Dream about what your ideal career would look like. What do you want to spend your time doing every day? Create a vision of what you want.
 
Step 3: Make time in your schedule to work on this vision. Once you have a list of the things you are good at and take the time to visualize what you want your career to look like, the next step is to start working on it. Begin by figuring out how to go from where you are now to where you’d like to be. Is there something else you need to learn about your craft that you don’t yet know? Read a book, listen to a podcast, or take an online course to increase your knowledge.

Perhaps you know a lot about the kind of career you want but you don’t know marketing? You can write the best book or develop the most amazing product in the world but if no one knows it exists then what good is that? Learn how to market yourself. Get better at social media. Write pitches to programs, jobs, and companies who can help you gain experience. Take an entry level job to learn the ropes. Shadow people to get more insight on the industry you want to enter. My point? Now is your time to grind it out. Invest time learning more about the things you don’t know.
 
Step 4: Incorporate these elements into your day job to gain experience. Once you have a vision for your career and have learned more about your craft and how to market yourself, find ways to use these skills to gain experience. Leverage your expertise at your current job (or get a new one) to get even better. I know you may want to branch out on your own. Perhaps you are tired of the bureaucracy at your current job or maybe you’re just bored? Resist the urge to move too quickly. This may be a prime opportunity for you to test out your ideas before you make the big plunge to start a business.

If you love photography, volunteer to take some company photos at the next outing. If you like website design, offer to upgrade the current website or assist your colleagues in getting websites of their own. If you like physical fitness, start a fitness challenge at your job or offer free workout courses. My point? Find a creative way to test out your ideas in the safe environment of an employed job. You may discover that you don’t know something as well as you thought. Perhaps you have a weakness you didn’t realize before. Now is the chance to hone crafts, further develop skills, and test out ideas. You get to make mistakes and learn what works or doesn’t work while still having a paycheck come in each month. Take advantage of this safety net.  
 
Step 5: Discover ways to monetize your skills and passions. With the previous stage you basically started a hobby and found better, more efficient ways to carry out that hobby. Once you get good, gain the necessary experience, and figure out what ideas work and don’t work, your next step is to turn this hobby into a legitimate side hustle. How? By finding ways to monetize it. Once you’re good at something or gain invaluable experience others don’t have, you should figure out how to monetize it. Even the most altruistic person has to find a way to make a living.

If you feel bad about charging money for services, ask yourself if you’d rather spend 40+ hours per week at a job you find less than fulfilling or if you’d rather spend that time doing something you love. You have to make a living somehow. You might as well do something you love. But don’t worry, you don’t have to be an entrepreneur. Owning a business isn’t everyone’s dream and it’s perfectly fine if it isn’t yours. Either you will monetize your hobby yourself by turning it into a side hustle or you will work at a company who does that for you. My point? You need to make a living so it would be great if you found a way to make a living doing the thing you enjoy.
 
Step 6: Turn your side hustle into a business – and make it your career. This may seem like a no-brainer, but believe it or not, many people never make it to this step. It can be terrifying to leave the safety net of an employed job to venture out on your own. It can also be quite daunting to ask for a promotion at work or leave your current job for a better, more fulfilling job at a new company. Trust me, I get it. But there are certain times in life that we have to be brave and take a chance. Apply for your dream job. If you get it, great! If you don’t, ask for feedback to learn how you can be an even better candidate next time. Find ways to excel at your job and move up in the company until you are doing what you love.

If your goal is to own your business realize that going from side hustle to full-time entrepreneur will require a unique set of skills. Do you have the correct business structure? Do you keep good records? Do you need to hire help? Are you ready to manage others? Do you have the financial stability needed to stay in business as you are getting things off the ground? Discover what you need and work on those things. Make sure you have a financial cushion for unexpected costs and events. When you have your foundation in place, take the plunge. Redesigning your life is about having enough confidence in your ability to succeed and a large enough desire to pursue your passions that you overcome the doubt and fear that inevitably exists and decide to go for it. You can do it.

Re-examine Your Career and Your Finances

Many of us are enjoying our summer and grateful for the opportunity to be outside after the pandemic. While this can be an exciting time, summertime is halfway through the calendar year and can also be the perfect time to re-examine our career and our finances. As young professionals, we sometimes get so busy in our day-to-day activities that we miss the opportunity to set goals and achieve milestones that may be important to us long term. In order to transition from merely living life to actually thriving in life, we must set some goals and make plans to achieve the things we want. Ask yourself these 6 questions:

1. Do you want to stay in your current career or job long term? Many people are employed and get paid to do a certain job but not everyone has a fulfilling career that they love. Where do you stand? Do you plan to stay at your current job or business long term? If so, what would you like the next few years to look like? Is there a milestone you want to reach? Being able to set some career goals is key. Once you have these goals, you can write down steps to achieve them and may find yourself more content with your life overall.

2. What aspects about your current work would you like to change? While some people may love their job or business, very few people enjoy every single aspect of what they do. What are some things you’d like to change about your work? What would make it even more enjoyable? One key ingredient to career longevity is enjoyment. The more you like and enjoy the work you do, the longer you will do it. Figure out if there are some things you can change about your career right now that would increase your work satisfaction.

3. What are your income sources and how can you grow them? While some people are paid a large salary for the work they do, many others have multiple jobs or revenue streams to boost their income and provide some diversification. Where do you stand? Are you adequately compensated for the work you do, or are you waiting for a raise? Have you thought of ways to increase your income or establish additional revenue streams? If so, what is your plan to grow them? More money tends to give you more freedom and options in your life, so increasing the amount you make is a good place to start.

4. Do you want to start a business or grow an existing one? Most people accumulate wealth by starting, growing, or investing in a business. Having a business you love can not only brings you fulfillment but it can also increase your income and allow you to positively impact others in your own unique way. Do you have plans to start a business or grow a business? If you haven’t yet started a business, think about the type of business you’d be good at or a hobby you’d like to monetize. If you already have a business, think about the next steps you need to take to grow it to the next level.

5. How have you invested the money you already received? It’s not enough to just make more money. You must also be a good steward of money. Do you spend all the money you get or are you saving some of it? Are you planning ahead for large expenses? Are you investing money for the long-term? If you simply spend all the extra money you have then how will you ever accumulate wealth or get out of debt. Think about your money habits and pinpoint which ones need to change.

6. What do you need to do to take yourself, your career, and your finances to the next level? Your life may be fantastic right now, but take a few minutes to think about ways it could be even better. What could you do to enjoy your career more? What habits could you implement to take your finances to the next level? What things do you need to work on personally to make yourself a better person physically, mentally, and emotionally? We should be constantly striving to grow as people. Re-examining ways to make our lives better is a good start.

5 Life Lessons from the book: You are a Badass

For those who may not know me personally, I love to read. Although many of the books are about finance and investing, I learn a lot from reading other topics as well. The self-help books inspire me to do more with my life and the autobiographies/memoirs from celebrities allow me to escape my own reality and delve deep enough into their world that I can learn from their struggles and share in their triumphs.
 
One of the books I just finished was You are a Badass by Jen Sincero. It’s a New York Times Bestseller and was suggested by someone I trust so I decided to check it out. The book was great and there are some key life lessons we could all glean from it. Here are 5 of the key takeaways below:

1. “Our thoughts become our words, our words become our beliefs, our beliefs become our actions, our actions become our habits, and our habits become our realities.” In other words: You are in control of your destiny. What you end up doing and accomplishing in your life depends a great deal on what you believe is possible. What you believe is possible depends on what you tell yourself and what you think about yourself each day. If you want to change your reality, change your thoughts and beliefs. For me, that means saying positive words of affirmation each morning. It means reading devotionals and inspirational stories that help open my mind to what is possible. I tell myself I am smart and intelligent to help increase my confidence before heading to work each day. I tell myself that I will approach every situation as an opportunity to grow so I can view situations more positively. I tell myself that I am loved so I never doubt my self-worth. What things do you tell yourself? What beliefs do you have? What thoughts do you think? Your answers will shape your reality.

2. “Do yourself a favor and use irritating situations and people as opportunities for growth, not pain.”  We have all been in numerous situations, either at work or at home, that have been irritating or annoying. Perhaps one of our co-workers is being unreasonable, one of your children refuses to stop talking, or you come home to a messy kitchen that you just cleaned the day before. Instead of letting these situations frustrate you or put you in a negative mood, why not use them as an opportunity to grow? Whenever I have hard days or a series of negative things happen in my life, I change my thinking and view it as a “character-building” opportunity. Instead of lamenting subpar situations, use them as a chance to grow.

3. “Procrastination is one of the most popular forms of self-sabotage.”  There is no guarantee that you’ll have time tomorrow to do the things you are putting off today. Something may come up or take precedence that you didn’t expect. Don’t delay on your dreams. Don’t keep pushing off your goals. Recognize that there is no time like the present. Are there things you want to accomplish before you get married or have children? Are there things you want to do before you reach middle-age? Come up with a plan to start working on them now. You don’t want to look back on your life a year from now or 5 years from now and have regrets. Don’t delay on your destiny.

4. “Don't answer the phone or reply to texts while you're busy. Other people's needs can occupy several lifetimes' worth of our attention, and if you let them, they will.” Prioritize yourself. Set boundaries for yourself. Protect your time. If you are working on a creative project then put your phone away, dig your heels into the ground, and focus on the task at hand. While you can be available to others numerous times throughout the day, it is also important to carve out time for yourself that you can use to focus or recharge. If you constantly allow other people’s phone calls, text messages, and social media alerts to distract you, you will delay your own progress and find yourself engulfed in other people’s problems and issues. Put yourself first.

5. “The people you surround yourself with are excellent mirrors for who you are and how much, or how little, you love yourself.” Be mindful of the company you keep. Your friends are a reflection of the values you cherish. Are you around people who are of good character and who constantly strive to do the right thing? Are you around people who challenge you to view things with a different perspective, who are givers, who are ambitious? If not, re-examine your friend group. You will become like the people you hang around most. If you do don’t like who you’d become, then change your friends. Add people to your inner circle who challenge you, inspire you, and motivate you to be a better version of yourself.