Want more Millennial to Millionaire??? Visit us at our new website and continue on your way to wealth at:
www.frommillennialtomillionaire.com
The new website has a new "The Review" section, featuring my thoughts on all the finance books I'm reading (and my recommendations on how to read them.. Kindle isn't for everything!). Also, it has a streamlined question & contact page where I will be taking both topic requests and submissions from any guest bloggers.
To help launch the new website, I have written FOUR new posts on "How To Out Think Your Budget" including:
- The Truth About Debt
- Why Millennials Should Start Investing NOW
- How Crayola Can Make You Wealthy
So click & read away! www.frommillennialtomillionaire.com
See you there!
-Katie
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Lesson 5: How to Build a Better Budget & Top 3 Budget Myths
Ah, so today is the day we talk budgets.
It was bound to happen eventually. I know many were hoping we could avoid the subject all together. Even my father commented that he's wealthy and has never made a budget in his life. (Hope!!)
However, when I asked him how, he simply said that he's always made more money than things he wanted to buy.
...I'm taking a guess that situation isn't really going to resonate with many of you...So alas, yes, we are here today to talk about budgets.
There are 5 steps to creating a budget that you LOVE and helps build wealth:
Today we will tackle the first one:
The thing with budgets is, they get a bad rap. In fact, I think budgets have got to be one of the most misunderstood tools in the personal finance tool kit.
If we were in a traditional classroom, I would invite everyone up to the chalk board to write down what comes to mind when they think of budgets/budgeting. I imagine it would look something like this:
This makes me sad, because everything above is false..except helpful, they are helpful.
Myth 1: Budgets help you track your expenses
Never want to be wealthy? Then keep focusing only on your expenses.
Budgets have 4 parts:
If you've only been looking at expenses, you've been missing the majority of the puzzle. Also, with the exception of taxes, you've been spending time on one of the least fun parts too.
Wealthy people make sure to look at the whole picture. There are techniques you can use to manipulate all of these items every month - even taxes. Getting creative on all these elements is what makes budget building a fun exercise.
Myth 2: Budgets make sure your expenses equal your income at the end of the month
This is my favorite myth. People think budgets are a way to balance their financial life, much akin to a see-saw with income on one side and expenses on the other. Now that we know there are more than 2 sides in a budget, this simile is no longer accurate.
Secondly, it's frustrating as sh*t.
Why would anyone want their financial life to resemble a perfectly balanced see-saw? IT DOESN'T GO ANYWHERE! It just goes up and down, up and down. Sound like your current financial situation? Perhaps this is why many people get frustrated about finances; they never feel any momentum. Remember, wealthy people are always moving forward. They never strive for balance and they always want the income side to overwhelm taxes and expenses.
A properly built budget will get you off the see-saw and into the financial Ferrarri - and that is a much more fun ride, I assure you :)
Myth 3: Budgets help you know what you can afford
If you only focus on what you can afford today, you will never be able to afford what you want tomorrow.
You see, when properly used, budgets are a way to afford anything you want.
There are 3 ways to fulfill the "anything" part of the above:
First, stop planning your budget based on what you did last month. Hey! Last month, you weren't wealthy or you wouldn't be reading this blog! Budgets are forward looking and in the future, you can do, buy, or behave any which way you want to get what you want.
Second, now that you know you can manipulate income, taxes, and expenses as part of your budgeting process you have full financial freedom to set & achieve any goal you like. Want to buy a boat, then move around the variables until it happens. Make more money, spend less money, or give away less money to the government.
Third, just in case you forgot Lesson #1 already, don't plan your budgets on what the "average" person or family spends in a given category. Many budget apps & software programs do this as a default, but we've already agreed that the average American is broke, so... stop that.
-----
So there you have it, the budget myths. Now instead of always saying, "Well, we can't afford that," you can finally begin asking the question all wealthy people ask when making budgets...
"How?"
It was bound to happen eventually. I know many were hoping we could avoid the subject all together. Even my father commented that he's wealthy and has never made a budget in his life. (Hope!!)
However, when I asked him how, he simply said that he's always made more money than things he wanted to buy.
...I'm taking a guess that situation isn't really going to resonate with many of you...So alas, yes, we are here today to talk about budgets.
There are 5 steps to creating a budget that you LOVE and helps build wealth:
1. Debunk The Budget Myths
2. Get Your Head In The Right Spot
3. Leverage Technology to Do the Heavy Lifting
4. Be Selfish & Pay Yourself First
5. Spend The Rest...All Of It
Today we will tackle the first one:
Step One: Debunk The Budget Myths
The thing with budgets is, they get a bad rap. In fact, I think budgets have got to be one of the most misunderstood tools in the personal finance tool kit.
If we were in a traditional classroom, I would invite everyone up to the chalk board to write down what comes to mind when they think of budgets/budgeting. I imagine it would look something like this:
This makes me sad, because everything above is false..except helpful, they are helpful.
Myth 1: Budgets help you track your expenses
Never want to be wealthy? Then keep focusing only on your expenses.
Budgets have 4 parts:
1. Income
2. Taxes
3. Goals
4. Expenses
If you've only been looking at expenses, you've been missing the majority of the puzzle. Also, with the exception of taxes, you've been spending time on one of the least fun parts too.
Wealthy people make sure to look at the whole picture. There are techniques you can use to manipulate all of these items every month - even taxes. Getting creative on all these elements is what makes budget building a fun exercise.
Myth 2: Budgets make sure your expenses equal your income at the end of the month
This is my favorite myth. People think budgets are a way to balance their financial life, much akin to a see-saw with income on one side and expenses on the other. Now that we know there are more than 2 sides in a budget, this simile is no longer accurate.
Secondly, it's frustrating as sh*t.
Why would anyone want their financial life to resemble a perfectly balanced see-saw? IT DOESN'T GO ANYWHERE! It just goes up and down, up and down. Sound like your current financial situation? Perhaps this is why many people get frustrated about finances; they never feel any momentum. Remember, wealthy people are always moving forward. They never strive for balance and they always want the income side to overwhelm taxes and expenses.
A properly built budget will get you off the see-saw and into the financial Ferrarri - and that is a much more fun ride, I assure you :)
Myth 3: Budgets help you know what you can afford
If you only focus on what you can afford today, you will never be able to afford what you want tomorrow.
You see, when properly used, budgets are a way to afford anything you want.
There are 3 ways to fulfill the "anything" part of the above:
First, stop planning your budget based on what you did last month. Hey! Last month, you weren't wealthy or you wouldn't be reading this blog! Budgets are forward looking and in the future, you can do, buy, or behave any which way you want to get what you want.
Second, now that you know you can manipulate income, taxes, and expenses as part of your budgeting process you have full financial freedom to set & achieve any goal you like. Want to buy a boat, then move around the variables until it happens. Make more money, spend less money, or give away less money to the government.
Third, just in case you forgot Lesson #1 already, don't plan your budgets on what the "average" person or family spends in a given category. Many budget apps & software programs do this as a default, but we've already agreed that the average American is broke, so... stop that.
-----
So there you have it, the budget myths. Now instead of always saying, "Well, we can't afford that," you can finally begin asking the question all wealthy people ask when making budgets...
"How?"
Monday, July 6, 2015
Lesson 4: What Millennials Can Learn From The Greeks
Happy Forth of July!!
Now let's talk Greece.
Sorry America, but Greece and its impending fiscal doom has filled up our twitter feeds this week, and as the responsible Millennials we are, we ask ourselves, "what in the world am I supposed to learn/do with this information?" (If only we asked that question of all our tweets...)
After all, your bank account is likely not held in Euros, but in a strengthening American Dollar (#'Merica). So does this Greek default actually mean anything for you?
While newspapers & CNN headlines will lead you to think disaster may be around the corner for the global economy (after all, panic sells papers), several experts have poignantly shown that Greece's economy has roughly the same impact has Missouri's. Which means in the long-term for you, the young investor, last week's news is inconsequential (Sorry Missouri..).
So what then can we learn?
I pondered this over the past week and went down several paths. Should I talk about the origin of currencies such as the euro and how to leverage agreements to make investments? Perhaps talk about how one actually makes money when you buy, not when you sell, as seen by the rebound in stock markets on Tuesday after Monday's sell-off?
When I asked my parents, they kept bringing up the muddy republican stance that the main thing to be learned regarding Greece is what happens when there are "too many people in the wagon." I rolled my eyes. How was a conservative viewpoint going to help Millennials build personal wealth?
And then of course, I realized that they were right (...seriously, at what age does that stop happening...).
Lesson 4: Wealthy People Enjoy Pulling The Wagon
Greece has a major wagon problem. Its not just lamentable, its unsustainable. Greece's debt is 175.1% its GDP and its easy to see how it got there.
However, what Millennials can learn has nothing to do about the number of people in the wagon, who they are, or how they got there. Its not even about how the wagon got built in the first place. Its all about the mentality of the people pulling.
In my last post, I put forth the premise that 50% of building your personal wealth came down to Mentality. Mentality covers a long list of facets, from values & beliefs, to mind-set, to perspective and more.
When it comes to the proverbial wagon, most people believe the wealthy should pull the wagon as they are rich, but what they fail to see that it was the act of pulling the wagon that made them wealthy in the first place.
Wealthy people understand that success is a daily journey, not a destination. That it takes a dream, time and persistence fulfilling that dream, and a relentless desire to learn along the way that creates the wealthy. It's even been said that to become an "overnight" success, one must work 20 years first.
Wealthy people know that success is always connected with action. Successful people keep moving forward.
Did you notice that in our definitions, I said the rich spend lots of money? They don't give it, they spend it. They hate the wagon. But wealthy people are wealthy in many ways - generosity included. And they are smart. Which is why I think it was the wealthy, not the rich, who gave the wagon wheels. After all, if they are bound and determined to move the world forward, they might as well find a way to do it better than before.
So on this Millennial to Millionaire journey, when you find yourself begrudging the weight of the wagon, relish the fact that you are building fiscal muscle, becoming a lean, mean, wealth building machine.
Still dislike the fact that now that you are officially a wagon puller for the rest of your life? Well just remember what John C. Maxwell said about becoming successful:
"Do something you hate every day, just for the practice."
Or build a better wagon.
You pick.
Now let's talk Greece.
Sorry America, but Greece and its impending fiscal doom has filled up our twitter feeds this week, and as the responsible Millennials we are, we ask ourselves, "what in the world am I supposed to learn/do with this information?" (If only we asked that question of all our tweets...)
After all, your bank account is likely not held in Euros, but in a strengthening American Dollar (#'Merica). So does this Greek default actually mean anything for you?
While newspapers & CNN headlines will lead you to think disaster may be around the corner for the global economy (after all, panic sells papers), several experts have poignantly shown that Greece's economy has roughly the same impact has Missouri's. Which means in the long-term for you, the young investor, last week's news is inconsequential (Sorry Missouri..).
So what then can we learn?
I pondered this over the past week and went down several paths. Should I talk about the origin of currencies such as the euro and how to leverage agreements to make investments? Perhaps talk about how one actually makes money when you buy, not when you sell, as seen by the rebound in stock markets on Tuesday after Monday's sell-off?
When I asked my parents, they kept bringing up the muddy republican stance that the main thing to be learned regarding Greece is what happens when there are "too many people in the wagon." I rolled my eyes. How was a conservative viewpoint going to help Millennials build personal wealth?
And then of course, I realized that they were right (...seriously, at what age does that stop happening...).
Lesson 4: Wealthy People Enjoy Pulling The Wagon
Greece has a major wagon problem. Its not just lamentable, its unsustainable. Greece's debt is 175.1% its GDP and its easy to see how it got there.
 |
| Greece's economic history & future (should nothing change) in 4 pictures |
- Greece has just over 11 million people and its been said that 9 million of them rely on the government for their livelihood.
- Just shy of 800,000 public servants enforce and regulate this well-fare state, and all those government employees receive tenor.
- Across industries, Greeks retire earlier around age 59 vs a global average of 65.
- The Millennial generation, aka the young people who typically pick up the wagon pulling positions vacated by the old, have immigrated to countries with less corruption and greater business freedom and opportunity for growth.
However, what Millennials can learn has nothing to do about the number of people in the wagon, who they are, or how they got there. Its not even about how the wagon got built in the first place. Its all about the mentality of the people pulling.
In my last post, I put forth the premise that 50% of building your personal wealth came down to Mentality. Mentality covers a long list of facets, from values & beliefs, to mind-set, to perspective and more.
When it comes to the proverbial wagon, most people believe the wealthy should pull the wagon as they are rich, but what they fail to see that it was the act of pulling the wagon that made them wealthy in the first place.
Wealthy people understand that success is a daily journey, not a destination. That it takes a dream, time and persistence fulfilling that dream, and a relentless desire to learn along the way that creates the wealthy. It's even been said that to become an "overnight" success, one must work 20 years first.
Wealthy people know that success is always connected with action. Successful people keep moving forward.
Did you notice that in our definitions, I said the rich spend lots of money? They don't give it, they spend it. They hate the wagon. But wealthy people are wealthy in many ways - generosity included. And they are smart. Which is why I think it was the wealthy, not the rich, who gave the wagon wheels. After all, if they are bound and determined to move the world forward, they might as well find a way to do it better than before.
So on this Millennial to Millionaire journey, when you find yourself begrudging the weight of the wagon, relish the fact that you are building fiscal muscle, becoming a lean, mean, wealth building machine.
Still dislike the fact that now that you are officially a wagon puller for the rest of your life? Well just remember what John C. Maxwell said about becoming successful:
"Do something you hate every day, just for the practice."
Or build a better wagon.
You pick.
Monday, June 29, 2015
Lesson Three: You Don't Need to be Good at Numbers to be Good at Money
In many of my money mentoring sessions, my friend will undoubtedly begin by saying:
Since personal finance was never covered in school and it certainly isn't coming across our Twitter feeds every day, I don't know where we have all learned the above perspective, but I assure you, its one of the largest, most pervasive money myths out there - so let's tackle it head on.
Money Myth 1: You Can't be Good At Money if You Are Bad at Numbers
As grandma would say: "That's just hogwash!"
When it comes to "personal finance"... its more personal than finance. If you haven't noticed, we are three lessons in and I haven't flashed a math equation at you yet. That's because building personal wealth is:
Yes! That means for you "right-brained" people out there, you have just as much an advantage as the Mathletes.
More importantly, I want it to sink in that 80% of your personal financial success is driven by just your mentality and your behaviors. 80%!! That's a passing grade in the strictest of schools for even for the worst human-calculators out there.
The reason why so many of us "fail" at finances is because we focus all our efforts on becoming wizards of strategical nuance on the remaining 20%, leaving us little energy for the majority of the action. Its the equivalent of picking paint colors before you've built the house. Some of us even get to the point of painting the dirt before we realize it just isn't turning out the way we pictured it.
So there you have it, "the numbers" play only a supporting role in determining your success in building personal wealth...and if you still really hate math, well I'm sure there is an app for that...
"Thanks so much for helping me; I'm just not good at numbers."
Since personal finance was never covered in school and it certainly isn't coming across our Twitter feeds every day, I don't know where we have all learned the above perspective, but I assure you, its one of the largest, most pervasive money myths out there - so let's tackle it head on.
Money Myth 1: You Can't be Good At Money if You Are Bad at Numbers
As grandma would say: "That's just hogwash!"
When it comes to "personal finance"... its more personal than finance. If you haven't noticed, we are three lessons in and I haven't flashed a math equation at you yet. That's because building personal wealth is:
50% Mentality
30% Behavior
10% Know-How (a.k.a the dreaded math)
10% Creativity
Yes! That means for you "right-brained" people out there, you have just as much an advantage as the Mathletes.
More importantly, I want it to sink in that 80% of your personal financial success is driven by just your mentality and your behaviors. 80%!! That's a passing grade in the strictest of schools for even for the worst human-calculators out there.
The reason why so many of us "fail" at finances is because we focus all our efforts on becoming wizards of strategical nuance on the remaining 20%, leaving us little energy for the majority of the action. Its the equivalent of picking paint colors before you've built the house. Some of us even get to the point of painting the dirt before we realize it just isn't turning out the way we pictured it.
So there you have it, "the numbers" play only a supporting role in determining your success in building personal wealth...and if you still really hate math, well I'm sure there is an app for that...
Thursday, June 25, 2015
Lesson Two: Focus on Building Wealth and Stop Trying to Get Rich
Before we move forward, I thought it best that we all get on the same page...
Surprised? Shocked? Disappointed? Don't be. Wealth is what we are after here and there is a core shift in mindset that occurs when we stop focusing on getting rich and start focusing on building wealth.
What's the difference?
Well, Merriam-Webster won't be giving me any high-fives for the definitions below, but in the cause of our Millennial to Millionaire journey, these descriptions will help us stay aligned and you stay on target:
Some of you looking at your debt are saying... "I don't know Katie, I think I could be OK settling for 'rich'."
That is absolutely your prerogative, but let me show you what you're in for by telling you an all-too-common tale about my friend, Mr. Jim Jones.
Sound familiar?
Jim is officially in what many call, "The Rat Race," but what I like to call, "The Rich Race." The thing is, once Jim got more money, he just spent more money, leaving him NET ZERO. Like most "Joneses" he believes the solution to his problem is making even more money, so he begins to work harder in his new role, for the next promotion, for the next raise, and so on. Jim keeps "moving up" but doesn't actually go anywhere.
We do have a marathon to run if we are going to become wealthy, but running "The Rich Race" is not going to help us A) train for it or B) win it.
So that's it for today - stop working around-the-clock to get rich, and start working around-your-life to get wealthy.
Happy Pay-Day Friday!!
This is not a blog about how to get rich.
Surprised? Shocked? Disappointed? Don't be. Wealth is what we are after here and there is a core shift in mindset that occurs when we stop focusing on getting rich and start focusing on building wealth.
What's the difference?
Well, Merriam-Webster won't be giving me any high-fives for the definitions below, but in the cause of our Millennial to Millionaire journey, these descriptions will help us stay aligned and you stay on target:
Poor People... Can't GET money
Broke People... Can't KEEP money
Rich People... SPEND (lots of) money
Wealthy People... Have Money MAKE MORE MONEY
 |
| For the visual learners out there :) |
Some of you looking at your debt are saying... "I don't know Katie, I think I could be OK settling for 'rich'."
That is absolutely your prerogative, but let me show you what you're in for by telling you an all-too-common tale about my friend, Mr. Jim Jones.
Jim is a smart & hard working guy. He went to a great 4-year school, had some nice internships, and is now on the fast track at his company, Big Firm, LLC. After 2 years as a Senior Analyst, he thinks he is in for a promotion this year... and boy could he use it. Jim has $15,000 in student loans and a $230 car payment every month. He still rents, living downtown close to work and all his friends, James Jones, Rachel Jones, & Chris Jones. He is thinking about returning to get his MBA and would also like to stop renting and buy a house. Plus, his car that he started driving in college is looking a tad dingy.
Congratulations! Jim gets his promotion and is now a Manager of his team. Jim is so thrilled that he can finally afford the life he deserves. To celebrate, he goes out to dinner with his friends, and like many of the other managers at the firm, leases a shiny new BMW with his raise.
A year later, Jim is feeling disappointed. He now makes more money, but it doesn't feel any different. After all, he still has $13,000 in student loans, has a $400 car payment, and wonders why even after the raise, his friend Chris Jones, still an analyst, can afford that $800 watch and he can't.
Sound familiar?
Jim is officially in what many call, "The Rat Race," but what I like to call, "The Rich Race." The thing is, once Jim got more money, he just spent more money, leaving him NET ZERO. Like most "Joneses" he believes the solution to his problem is making even more money, so he begins to work harder in his new role, for the next promotion, for the next raise, and so on. Jim keeps "moving up" but doesn't actually go anywhere.
We do have a marathon to run if we are going to become wealthy, but running "The Rich Race" is not going to help us A) train for it or B) win it.
So that's it for today - stop working around-the-clock to get rich, and start working around-your-life to get wealthy.
Happy Pay-Day Friday!!
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Lesson One: Stop Learning How to Become Wealthy from Broke People...or BuzzFeed
For the past few years, I have mentored half a dozen friends and colleagues on their personal finances. In the beginning, I was always amazed that they came to me for such advice, after all, what did a new college graduate just starting their lives know about building a lifetime of wealth? However, I quickly realized that unless your dad forced you to go through the Boy Scouts Financial Merit Badge before leaving home like mine did, rarely does anyone ever really takes the time to teach you how to manage your own wallet.
So I did what any Millennial would do... Went to the internet to learn!
Wow, was I disappointed. Here we are in the golden era of quick & easy to access information, but the "learnings" about how to manage my own finances were confusing at best and misleading at worst. I found sites and articles that were:
a) Too vague to actually help me ("Start Investing Early!!"... Um, thanks Forbes, but how do I do it and where does the money come from?)
b) Published by credit card companies. (Don't they make money off me being broke?)
c) Get Rich DVD Ads (Building wealth is like loosing weight, and when did you last lose weight from watching a DVD...)
d) Articles/Apps teaching you to save 10 cents at a time (Sneak Preview... no one gets rich saving 10 cents at a time...)
No wonder we Millennials are stuck in a cycle of debt and dashed dreams!!
Which is why I began writing this blog and leads us to our first Lesson:
Lesson One: Stop Learning About Personal Finance From Broke People or BuzzFeed.
Most people are B-R-O-K-E. The "Jones" we are all trying to keep up with... are broke. Your economics professor, he was likely broke too. The guy driving the leased BMW in the lane next to you, he's definitely broke. Don't believe me? Let's look at the facts:
The Average American Household has roughly:
- $15,000 in credit card debt
- $17,000 in an auto loan
- Pays $18,000 per year in mortgage payments
- Has $15,000 outstanding student loan debt
For a grand total of $65,000 in payable debt.
AND MAKES ONLY $50,000 A YEAR.
The Average American is BROKE. Hell, America is broke. Just take a peek at this WSJ article:
WSJ.com "US Household Debt Sinks 18 Billion"
Look, I think your family is great. And I think your mom makes a damn good chocolate chip cookie. But if your parents have any debt other than a mortgage (or if they have 2 mortgages) then you might want to stop listening to them when it comes to personal finance.
Millennials... listen closely. I know we are the social media generation. But please, leave BuzzFeed, Pinterist, & Twitter to introducing you to cute cat videos and 10 ways to make your wedding beautiful with mason jars. There just ain't no way you're going to learn personal finance in 140 characters.
So that's step number one and you are done for this week - stop listening to broke people about what to do with YOUR money.
So I did what any Millennial would do... Went to the internet to learn!
Wow, was I disappointed. Here we are in the golden era of quick & easy to access information, but the "learnings" about how to manage my own finances were confusing at best and misleading at worst. I found sites and articles that were:
a) Too vague to actually help me ("Start Investing Early!!"... Um, thanks Forbes, but how do I do it and where does the money come from?)
b) Published by credit card companies. (Don't they make money off me being broke?)
c) Get Rich DVD Ads (Building wealth is like loosing weight, and when did you last lose weight from watching a DVD...)
d) Articles/Apps teaching you to save 10 cents at a time (Sneak Preview... no one gets rich saving 10 cents at a time...)
No wonder we Millennials are stuck in a cycle of debt and dashed dreams!!
Which is why I began writing this blog and leads us to our first Lesson:
Lesson One: Stop Learning About Personal Finance From Broke People or BuzzFeed.
Most people are B-R-O-K-E. The "Jones" we are all trying to keep up with... are broke. Your economics professor, he was likely broke too. The guy driving the leased BMW in the lane next to you, he's definitely broke. Don't believe me? Let's look at the facts:
The Average American Household has roughly:
- $15,000 in credit card debt
- $17,000 in an auto loan
- Pays $18,000 per year in mortgage payments
- Has $15,000 outstanding student loan debt
For a grand total of $65,000 in payable debt.
AND MAKES ONLY $50,000 A YEAR.
The Average American is BROKE. Hell, America is broke. Just take a peek at this WSJ article:
WSJ.com "US Household Debt Sinks 18 Billion"
Look, I think your family is great. And I think your mom makes a damn good chocolate chip cookie. But if your parents have any debt other than a mortgage (or if they have 2 mortgages) then you might want to stop listening to them when it comes to personal finance.
Millennials... listen closely. I know we are the social media generation. But please, leave BuzzFeed, Pinterist, & Twitter to introducing you to cute cat videos and 10 ways to make your wedding beautiful with mason jars. There just ain't no way you're going to learn personal finance in 140 characters.
So that's step number one and you are done for this week - stop listening to broke people about what to do with YOUR money.
About Me (a.k.a What Do I Know About Becoming a Millionaire)
Great! You've decided to finally put "CFO of Your Life, Inc" as one of your job descriptions. So, as the responsible CFO you are, you wonder, why in the world should you listen to this random girl on the internet?
Here is a 101 on me, Katie Sequeira:
I'm 26 and graduated with "Honor and Distinction in all Subjects" from Cornell University in 2011. I majored in Business, concentrating in Food & Beverage (because its delicious), Finance (because numbers just make sense to me), and Consumer Behavior (because it was so freaking interesting).
But honestly, my resume really means little in the world of building long-term stable wealth.
Why? Because there are more than several of my fellow "Top 10% of Graduates" that are honestly "Top 10% Broke".
So to give you an idea of why I know what I'm talking about, I'll tell you the story of the beginning of my personal finance journey...
-----------
It was April 15th, 1997. The day prior for my birthday I had received an American Girl Doll Personal Journal, titled "All About Me" and was quickly going through its pages filling it with drawings & descriptions of my thrilling life as a new-found 8 year old.
I came to the page where the journal prompted me to write down my biggest fear & what my mom/dad say when I have this fear (deep stuff for AMG I might say). After running to my mother for the latter, here is what I wrote (with corrected spelling):
Quote in quote.
Looking back now, I can easily envision my mother doing dishes after a stressful day at work with a small blonde-hair Katie pulling on her pant leg asking what would happen if I became homeless, answering the above, and chuckling to herself about the sarcastic comment she thought I would forget come bed-time.
For me... the fear was real. I had heard my republican father rant "over my head" about how the government was inept with money and how social security would be gone by the time he retired. If I wanted to avoid being homeless, I needed to start NOW.
-----------
I'll skip the years where I took "diversifying" to mean hiding allowance & babysitting money in different places around the house and skip forward to the Katie of today...
- I graduated under-grad with slightly above the average $26K in federal student loans, and paid them off completely in 60 days.
- Now 4 years after graduation, I have over $100K invested in tax advantaged retirement accounts, with a solid 6 month fully-funded emergency fund and another few thousand in a "for fun" investment account.
- I have sold no start-up to Yahoo, have no trust fund, and work a regular M-F job.
But what you, Mr./Mrs. CFO care about is this:
If I don't save another dime myself for the rest of my life, given the historical long term average of 12% growth for mutual funds*, I will become a millionaire by the age of 46, and will have 4 million dollars for when I retire.
I am an every day Millennial going on Millionaire.
Sources:
* The Total Money Makeover. Dave Ramsey. September 2013
Here is a 101 on me, Katie Sequeira:
 |
| Yes...my parents managed to find me a Cornell toilet bowl cover after my graduation... |
But honestly, my resume really means little in the world of building long-term stable wealth.
Why? Because there are more than several of my fellow "Top 10% of Graduates" that are honestly "Top 10% Broke".
So to give you an idea of why I know what I'm talking about, I'll tell you the story of the beginning of my personal finance journey...
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It was April 15th, 1997. The day prior for my birthday I had received an American Girl Doll Personal Journal, titled "All About Me" and was quickly going through its pages filling it with drawings & descriptions of my thrilling life as a new-found 8 year old.
I came to the page where the journal prompted me to write down my biggest fear & what my mom/dad say when I have this fear (deep stuff for AMG I might say). After running to my mother for the latter, here is what I wrote (with corrected spelling):
"My biggest fear is...Having no money and having to live on the side of the road.
When I have this fear, my mom/dad say...My Mom says the government will take care of me on taxes and welfare."
Quote in quote.
Looking back now, I can easily envision my mother doing dishes after a stressful day at work with a small blonde-hair Katie pulling on her pant leg asking what would happen if I became homeless, answering the above, and chuckling to herself about the sarcastic comment she thought I would forget come bed-time.
For me... the fear was real. I had heard my republican father rant "over my head" about how the government was inept with money and how social security would be gone by the time he retired. If I wanted to avoid being homeless, I needed to start NOW.
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I'll skip the years where I took "diversifying" to mean hiding allowance & babysitting money in different places around the house and skip forward to the Katie of today...
- I graduated under-grad with slightly above the average $26K in federal student loans, and paid them off completely in 60 days.
- Now 4 years after graduation, I have over $100K invested in tax advantaged retirement accounts, with a solid 6 month fully-funded emergency fund and another few thousand in a "for fun" investment account.
- I have sold no start-up to Yahoo, have no trust fund, and work a regular M-F job.
But what you, Mr./Mrs. CFO care about is this:
If I don't save another dime myself for the rest of my life, given the historical long term average of 12% growth for mutual funds*, I will become a millionaire by the age of 46, and will have 4 million dollars for when I retire.
I am an every day Millennial going on Millionaire.
Sources:
* The Total Money Makeover. Dave Ramsey. September 2013
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