Richardson - Millennial money makeover: escape debt, save for your future, and live the rich life now

Millennial Money Makeover changes the conversation around finances by providing a relatable, understandable and immediately actionable plan to better your finances today and in the future!

Matt Reiner, CFA, CFP, CEO and cofounder
of Wela and author of Ready to be Rich

Do you control your money or does your money control you? Millennial Money Makeover provides timeless practical advice for the world's next major generational economic force. This book will both motivate and guide you to immediately find ways to better yourself and the world around you!

Noah Barsky, PhD, CPA, professor,
Villanova University School of Business (USA)

This edition first published in 2019 by Career Press,

an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

With offices at:

65 Parker Street, Suite 7

Newburyport, MA 01950

www.redwheelweiser.com

www.careerpress.com

Copyright 2019 by Conor Richardson

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.
Reviewers may quote brief passages.

ISBN: 978-1-63265-145-7

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
available upon request.

Cover design by Laura Beers

Cover art courtesy of iStock

Interior photos/images by Conor Richardson

Interior by Gina Schenck

Typeset in Minion Pro and DIN OT

Printed in Canada

MAR

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

www.redwheelweiser.com/newsletter

To my wife, Kristen, for your unwavering love and support.
And to Augustus, so that you may understand.

Yes, there are two paths you can go by,
But in the long run,
There's still time to change the road you're on.

Robert Plant and Jimmy Page

Introduction
The Millennial's Way

Chapter 1
A Rich Decision: Make the Choice to
Understand Your Money

Chapter 2
Red to Black: How to Pay Off Credit
Cards and Student Loans

Chapter 3
Passion Budgeting: How It Will Change
Your Life for the Better

Chapter 4
The Magic of Winning Big: How to
Optimize Large-Ticket Purchases

Chapter 5
Minting Momentum: Saving, Investing,
and Constructing Your Retirement

Chapter 6
The Power of Automation: Leveraging Technology to
Reach the Rich Life

This book was an accident.

A calamity of errors in my mid twenties forced me to make major financial changes in my life. These changes didn't happen overnight, but were a slow accumulation of real-world education, action, and determination. And the only way for me to deal with these changes was to write about them. The widening gap between where I wanted to be financially and the reality of my financial position produced an inescapable internal battle, one that I chose to fight. Something was fundamentally wrong with my finances, and I knew it.

My exasperation eventually forced me to examine my finances as a whole, and I came to the sudden realization that I needed a financial makeover. At that moment, I decided to completely overhaul how I thought about money.

If you are reading this book, the chances are that you are feeling some similar sentiments. Let me take a guess: You are living paycheck to paycheck, you have credit card debt, you have student loans to pay off, your savings are laughable, and you wince at the term 401(k). You understand that you are behind.

This is how I felt too. How far behind exactly, I didn't know. What I did know was that I was going to stop living on the edge of financial collapse. Luckily, as a certified public accountant (CPA) I was educated with the tools for financial success.

Armed with an abundance of classroom knowledge, I was working in the world's financial capital, New York City, but disregarding any financial prudence. Instead of focusing on fixing my finances and building my wealth (like I knew that I should be), I was scrambling to get by, trying to keep up with the Joneses, and ignoring my savings.

In other words, I was feeling very American.

After several years of working hard, with virtually nothing to show for it, I decided to make a change and turn professional with my money; once I did this, I was on the path to the rich life. After that critical decision my life changed for the better, and I discovered the secrets of the wealthy. That is what I want to share with you in this book.

My money makeover started when I decided to take hold of my future and learn everything I could about money. Stuck in a situation that was not producing what I wanted, I chose to redirect my life and head in the right direction. You can too. There is always time to change the road you are on.

The six-step program laid out in this book will take you from being a broke Millennial to a rich Millennial. How fast that happens is up to you. By eliminating debt, creating a budget, learning how to buy big-ticket items, and saving for the future you will finally start to dominate your finances.

You are blessed with choices every day. Make the decision today that you are going to achieve financial greatness and enter the money makeover. The six-step program in this book helped to change my life, and I guarantee it will change yours too.

Let's get going.

There seems to be an element of inevitability in the way our lives play out. The success sequence of previous generationsspouse, house, kids, and lifelong careersis broken. The slow decay of this success sequence has crept its way into our daily life, and by osmosis, our financial expectations. A collision of economic and cultural systemic problems has reached a tipping point, brought on by stagnant incomes, exacerbating credit card debt, astronomical student loans, ridiculous housing prices, and low retirement savings. These trends have sadly become the new normal, especially for Millennials.

Researchers are beginning to notice. In a fascinating study, Annamaria Lusardi, a professor at The George Washington University School of Business, investigated the financial consistency of young Americans between the ages of twenty-three and thirty-five years old. With more than 5,500 observations, the study revealed significant findings among young people, including their attitudes toward finances and apparent inability to handle them.

• Seventy-six percent of Millennials are financially illiterate.
• Sixty-four percent of Millennials do not have a retirement account.
• Fifty-four percent of Millennials are concerned about their ability to repay student loans.
• Fifty-two percent of Millennials are unhappy about their financial situation.

Think about those statistics for a second. Seriously, let them sink it.

As one of the largest and most diverse generations in US history, Millennials will make a significant impact on the United States. As a highly educated, optimistic, and ethnically diverse group of people, we consist of millions of young adults born between the late 1970s and the mid-1990s. With confidence on our side, we are able and willing to take on the economic challenges of our time, even after the Great Recession of 2008.

The problem is, Millennials face unprecedented financial hurdles, which has researchers worried. Says Annamaria Lusardi, Looking at the data from the most recent National Financial Capability Study, we are concerned about their unprecedented levels of student debt and their overconfidence in financial matters. In other words, Millennials face a challenge that we are overconfident we can eliminate. This presents a major problem.