5 Money Lessons I Wish I Knew at 18

In this video, I talk about 5 money lessons I wish I knew at 18. When I was 18 years old, I hadn't the slightest clue about personal finance, investing, or saving money, and it was not until after graduating college that I started to learn. If you are a beginner at personal finance or would like to see what money lessons I wish I knew at 18, this video is for you.

Lesson 1: Student loans suck.
No 17 or 18 year old probably really knows what they're getting themselves into when they sign to take on tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars to receive a college degree that may not even be useful in the real world. Student loans can really ruin your financial foundation / prevent you from building wealth if you let it. The same goes for consumer debt (e.g. credit cards, car loans).

Lesson 2: Investing isn't always sexy.
All the rage is on cryptocurrency or meme stocks, where you see people becoming millionaires almost overnight by investing in them. The problem is this type of investing is essentially gambling. To build long term wealth, you must be consistent with the contributions you make over time into an index fund or retirement account. The returns in 1 year won't be as crazy as it would, had you invested in dogecoin, but it's much safer and has a track record of generating returns over decades.

Lesson 3: Pay Yourself First
If you want to build wealth, be consistent. The best way to be consistent is to set aside a small portion of your income every month to save towards retirement, then pay your expenses, then spend it on nice things.

Lesson 4: Avoid Lifestyle Inflation
With your increases in salary, be careful how much your expenses increase along with it. People think they have more money to invest, now that they have more money, but the money tends to go into a nicer apartment, nicer car, etc. Avoid keeping up with the Jones's and be disciplined about the money you are spending.

Lesson 5: Money won't solve all of your problems
Money can buy happiness and the freedom you want to live life on your own terms. But it won't fulfill you. To find meaning in your life, you have to think what it is in life aside from money that you actually want to do. If money did not matter, how would you spend your hours? How would you spend your days?

0:00 Intro
1:13 Tip 1
3:23 Tip 2
5:18 Tip 3
7:38 Tip 4
9:04 Tip 5

Music: Bored (Prod. by Lukrembo)

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Disclaimer: This video is for entertainment purposes only. Please consult a licensed professional before taking any major life-changing action.

[SamLui]

What’s an important money lesson you’ve learned?

[lanusunep]

I literally choked in my laugher when he said that's why the sponser of this video is no one 🤣🤣🤣

[annjean]

Great video!👍🏽
Thank you for sharing.

[Mnkgold]

I like tip 3! Having some discipline and being consistent is essential in reaching any goal you set for yourself. Nice vid :)

[dankgamingblazeit]

Your voice/music balance is really calming, I love falling asleep listening to your videos

[alexis.sounds]

new subscriber here! I'm 28 and still struggling with everything, I really don't know what to do because everything feels so risky. Your ideas are really precious to me. Thank you! Cheers from Italy

[coconut]

Not sure if you'll see this comment but I just wanted to say I've been bingewatching your videos as podcasts and I really enjoyed the deeper insights that you've shared. This really makes me more relaxed and just humbly think more.

[gogoqw]

When you start that "sponsor" joke, I automatically skipped that video part

[surejs]

When am I ever going to meet someone smart like you

[existentialrebels]

But what would you have done differently if you did know this at 18?

[htsyami]

Anything less than one year long holds on any “investment” is just speculating. Actual investing is about multi-year even multi-decade holding periods. Successful investing is about making a few smart decisions early on and then putting the entire thing on autopilot (and let it grow). Then when you actually need that money make sure your heart is in good condition because you might have a heart attack from all the money you’ve made through compound interest.

[AlexOchs]

hey you still didn’t get that mic or doing voice over 😉

[doeshi]

amazing) little 'hi' from russia