You actually go through the course one of the things that you're going to find is that I repeat a lot of information over and over. And I do that to put emphasis on certain aspects of dealing with your money. You know, some courses I say, wrote the general about it than other courses, I do a deeper dive. And then there's some things that are so foundationally important that I will devote some time to it. And I want to talk a little bit today about the what I call the young adult generation. And that's, that's anybody that's graduating from high school and going out and getting a job.

And anybody graduating from college and going getting getting a job. And I think this generation is extremely important. That's going to make up the millennials, a Generation Z. And there's debate as to when do these really start these generations start? So we're just we're just carving this, this, this niche out to the young adult generation. You know, you spend 12 years going through public or private education.

You spend another four or five years If you go the college route, and the unfortunate thing about all of that schooling is that nobody, nobody sat down to teach you about how money works. You never got that lesson. And so now you graduate, and you start making more money than you ever made really no matter what the income is probably more money than you've ever made. And now you have, you're having to make decisions with money, that you're kind of shooting from the hip. And what happens is adults, I really blew this what happens is, as a adults, we kind of catch information on the fly. We read articles we go through, maybe read a book or something just to just to figure out how to do things better with our money.

The problem is you make a lot of mistakes. And at the end of the day is going to be money, or you that actually wins. And I think it's extremely important, very, very important for this generation to get this right. Now, here's what's interesting about the The young adult generation is that I think that they're incredibly misunderstood. You know, for a longest time, I've always heard in reference to the millennials, that they're self absorbed, they're selfish. They're, they think that they had the everything should go their way, entitled.

And it really is the opposite. survey after survey would show, believe it or not, that that generation is the most financially responsible generation that is out there. They save more money. They're committed to financial, financial education. I mean, I have met millennials and worked with some that the into their mid 20s, and they got 50 $60,000 worth of cash in the bank. They're saving, they're avoiding debt, they're doing the right things.

And they're, they're being intentional about it. So as you start out, you have the ability to develop good habits and I think it's important for a couple reasons. First of all, good habits will save We'll serve you the rest of your life. But the most important aspect I think of the young adult generation getting this right, is that we've got to break the cycle of financial literacy. We've got to break the cycle of educated people that know how to deal with their money and start a new cycle of financial responsibility and get that going. So that it's really important that they get that if I did, you know, I talked about on one on one teaching course about an emergency fund how important that is.

And that's really, one of the things tops of my list. Spending Plan, having an effective spending plan that you're intentional about is probably number one. But number two, without question would be the ability to live within your means. is so very, very important. And this is one of the this is one of the big challenges today that I see that we face is that people are very good at doing this. And I can speak unfortunately speak from experience because when I got out of college and got my first job started my career I living within my means was the last thing on my mind, getting a new sports car was on my mind.

Excuse me having a, a nice place to live was on my mind. And I was gonna worry about everything else, the shortages, the debt, all that's down the road, I want to have fun and have a good time. And that catches up with you. The ability to live within your means is so very important because you've got to be able to make it work with the income you have. Now you start out with a lower income. And if you can make that lower income work, then you don't go crazy once you get promotions, and your income increases in your your develops good habits.

Here's what can happen to a person though. They don't have a spending plan. And unfortunately, and this is why I'm speaking to this young adult generation because my generation and the generation before me does not get it. They don't have spending plans. I can't I can count in a small percentage of people in almost 25 years of doing this that I've talked to That actually have an organized spending plan. Most people do not.

And most people can't tell you what, what life costs, what the expenses are. And it's a real problem. So you don't have a spending plan. You're not intentional about spending money. And I love the word intentional. Because a spending plan is based on you.

And I talked about this in depth By the way, when in the boundary planning course, a spinning plan is based on your values. It's based on your goals, and it's best based on the priority of those goals and those values. So you're intentional about every dollar that you spend, you're not just wasting money. So what ends up happening though, if you don't have that, you're practicing what I call fantasy budgeting hoping that you're going to have money at the end of the month after you spend all this money and you spend all this money and you go through and then you come to the end of the month you don't have it. So you start the debt balance, the credit cards, you go to the credit cards, you start building up a debt balance, you're still comfortable with it because you're making the minimum payment. That debt balance continues to grow.

He gets bigger and bigger. And all of a sudden, just like that you have a debt problem or real bad debt problem. And then instead of living, you're surviving, you're trying to make those minimum payments, you're trying to get ahead of the debt. But the interest is growing that debt at such a rapid, rapid rate. And there's something about having a debt situation like that, to just come can really bring you down, hit your confidence levels, and set you back. And so that's what you want to avoid.

And you have the ability to choose to do that. A crucial habit for success is making big goals. And you know, you could have several, you can have a whole long list of goals that that you that you want to accomplish. In fact, here I was just thinking about some of the things that as you as your young adult, you're graduating, and, you know, you got to fund your retirement. You gotta think about retirement plan, you got to think about emergency fund. You got to think about taxes.

You got to think about health insurance. I mean, if you think about all of the things that you that you have to fund, you start thinking, well, I don't have really have money for a new sports car, I really don't have money for that nicer apartment. And so you start figuring all that what's most important to you, maybe it's, I want to get on my student loan debt. And so you pick two or three things and you divide your life up into seasons. So you say for the next five years, I'm going to focus my emphasis on getting out of debt, getting out of student loan debt, that's going to be my, my big emphasis. And in order to do that, you develop some great habits, if you're successful with it, habits that you can build on to build your financial future.

But it's so very important that you take two or three of these goals and you prioritize them. You know, it's it's interesting. I always say that where you spend your money is where you value if you want to see what you value in life, pull up and your credit card statements and your bank statements and see where the money went. That's where you value. There's nothing wrong with if you you spend 2000 dollars, or a quarter eating out or $500 a month, or whatever it is that they're all with that that's what you value your money is following your values. The problem is, is that you don't have your values prioritized.

And if you really sit down and go what's really important to me, and it's not eating out, it's, it's, it's all it's all about getting out of debt. It's all about building an emergency fund. And so you, you start rearranging your values, and you find that eating out dropped number nine on the list. If you're really honest with yourself, you know, it's a hard process to go through because it means you have to change your ways that you have to change your habits. And I put down there at the bottom, what is ultimately important to you financial independence is a big one, because you want to get to a point not that you retire, you want to get to a point that you choose to earn an income. And if you're if you're at that point, that means that you could go to work, or you could say I'm done with workshops, live off my investments, the only way to truly get there.

Live within your means. And it's a skill set that is absolute with most people. Now let's talk about steps to take here. The first one is you build a boundary plan. And here this is information I'm being I'm being repetitive, because I have a whole course on boundary planning. You know, I'm not a big believer in budgets.

And so but that's why I developed this boundary plan, which is effectively a spending plan. And then you find out what the two or three most important things you want to prioritize. We talked about that, that you want to pick those two or three big goals. And then you want to focus on your habits. Remember, if you're just starting out, you're part of that young adult generation. You want to say okay, what is it that I'm doing that is supporting my values and goals?

And what am I doing that's not supporting your values and goals and change those habits before they become ingrained? refuse to go into bad debt. Now I break debt into good debt and bad debt. There are certain things thought leaders and commentators who say, Oh, you shouldn't have any debt at all, I think you can effectively use that to your advantage. It has to have the character these characteristics. So good debt is debt that doesn't control you.

It doesn't change your financial system or your situation at all. And you know exactly when it's going to be paid off. And it's at a good low interest rate, competitive interest rate. That's good debt. That's good use of your money, but refused to go into bad debt. stay organized.

This is a skill set that so many people don't have. It's important to keep your all your spinning plan organized your spending, organized your bank accounts, have good systems set up and then commit to fent financial education. This is a big one. Unfortunately, we're seeing that in this generation, that they are committed to financial education. And this is one of the reasons why I built this course is because I've built something that I wish I could have had access to. As someone part of my generation when when i when i graduated.

Now let's talk about the spending plan because there's really two parts to it. There's the non negotiable. And then there's discretionary spending. And I think that you have to be real honest with yourself, because it's so easy to rationalize, you know, I'll give a good example of someone who is who's maybe in sales, maybe self employed, and they have to be disciplined at putting tax dollars back, but they're not. And they get behind in their taxes, you know, that you have to, you have to really look at what all the non negotiables and not a non negotiable is, is a payment, that if you don't make it, you have a problem. They take your car away, they evict you that kind of they turn your electricity off.

And so the key is, is to get that non negotiable part of living within your means of your spending plan, get that non negotiable part down to the smallest percentage as possible. That gives you enormous freedom on the other side, which is the discretionary spending, which is where you You're spending money on things that you value. So it's really, it's important to really recognize these two, because I think that when, when a person goes out racks up credit card debt, they're making a big, big credit card payment. That's not discretionary money. That's now a non discretionary, you just increased your your non discretionary bucket, because you now have a credit card company credit card payment that you have to make. And so it's very important to realize that, so look at him back up and say this is a non negotiable item, such as rent can actually become a discretionary spending item.

Let's say that you figure out your entire income that you have coming in, that you're going to spend 20% of that on rent, let's just use that as an example. But let's say that you go out to find a place and you really like it and it's more than you want to spend, but you did it anyway. Now you're spending 30% you've just taken 10% of discretionary income because you had to have it and you didn't have to make that choice. But you made the choice. And now you have more on the non discretionary side than you do on the discretionary spending side. The four biggest threats to living with within your means committing to high percentage on your non negotiable list, we talked about that just now.

Not managing your discretionary spending and overspending. You've got to be able to manage your spending. And this is one of the things that I go through a lot in the courses because I think it's the number one skill set that you gotta have, assuming you're going to pay for it later and later never happens. One of the things that, that I see quite a bit is, you know, I always like to use the plasma screen TV, you know, you walked into you walk into Best Buy, and you go back to the TVs and you're just amazed with all the new technology. And you'll learn that they have a, say 12 months, no interest alone, you just got to have it paid back by 12 months. And you go, I know I could qualify for this.

And so you qualify for to buy You're just thinking in the back of your mind 12 months from now have this thing paid off, it's no big deal in and then you get to 12 months and you can't pay it off. And now you got this big debt at a higher interest rate, and it's not working too well for you. And then giving into peer pressure by those who are screwing up their financial lives. I know you have friends that, you know, they they call you up and they'll tempt you to go out and, and maybe go on a trip with them. Or go spend some money doing some other type of activity that you don't really have in the spending plan. And so don't give in to peer pressure because that can also mess things up as well.

Remember, something that is so true is it if you're in your 30s and your 30s and up not living within your means life will end up forcing you to do so it won't be chances are it won't be pretty. But if you're just starting out is still within your control to define the habits practice the habits and have those habits ingrained. And with the good financial habits I talk about this stuff course all the time, with good financial habits, you will have a successful future financial future. So my charge to the young adult generation is simply this. Do it right the first time develop those habits and make sure that you're achieving them. I think the number two priority which is living within your means