6 Millionaire Habits I Wish I Knew At 20

What's up you guys, it's Graham here. So I know a lot of people say your 20s are the most transformative and influential years of your entire life, and I have to say it, but that is absolutely a load of truth. Because looking back over my last 10 years, I could confidently agree that yes, some of the most pivotal points in your entire life will happen from age 20 to age 30.

This is really the time where you could venture out on your own, try new things, see what you're good at, make money, and of course screw up a lot along the way. But it doesn't always have to be that way. Throughout my 20s, I've noticed that usually the simplest, easy-to-remember common sense habits end up making the biggest difference in your life long term.

And those habits are usually the things that people just completely ignore or just forget about. Like you know the saying, "Common sense is not common"? Well, that applies here. So these are my most brutally honest common sense habits that everyone should learn at some point in their life or another. That's not only going to help you make more money, but also become a better, more well-rounded person.

But either way, you could cut the line of experiences that some people take decades to learn just by watching a neatly condensed YouTube video like this one. And of course, if you're wondering, "Wow, Graham, how much is this gonna cost me to get 10 years of your experience? Like, this surely can't be cheap." Well, I'm going to be real with you. It's not free. It's gonna cost you one like on the video.

And listen, if you don't hit the like button, it's not like I'm gonna know that you didn't hit the like button, or I'm gonna come track you down or anything like that. We operate here on the honor system. So if you wouldn't mind helping me out with just one like on the video for the YouTube algorithm, it would be greatly appreciated.

So with that said, here's everything that you need to know in your 20s that some people take decades to learn, and this is what they are right here. First, everyone in their 20s needs to understand that one of the worst things that you could do right now is live above your means.

And I get it. I know I say this one all the time, but I had to mention this one first because it's by far the most common mistake that I see people making. And especially as a finance channel where I talk to multiple people every single week about their spending habits, this one comes up far too often for me not to mention here again.

First, see here's the thing. I get it. When you finally start going off on your own and you finally start making your own money, it's really easy to start getting carried away when you combine that with the inexperience of life. And without the perspective of long-term consequences, it could be difficult to gauge how much money you should spend or what you deserve to have because you worked for it.

But here's the thing. From my perspective, if you want to set yourself up for the rest of your life financially, your 20s are the best times to live below your means, delay gratification, and save non-stop. In fact, I pretty much guarantee that if it were not for my relentless saving habits throughout my entire 20s, where I would go to great lengths just to save a dollar, I would not be here today, quickly approaching almost a 7 million dollar net worth by the age of 30 years old.

I know there's going to be people out there saying, "But Graham, going and buying a Starbucks coffee every now and then, it's not going to make you poor. You can't just save your way to financial independence." But you know what? That's the exact same as telling a bodybuilder that they can go and eat a donut every now and then and that they're not going to get fat from eating a donut because they're already in shape.

Trust me when I say this, but sure, going and buying a Starbucks is not going to make you poor. But I could confidently say that based on everyone I have ever met, it never just stops there. Guaranteed. When you go and rent that slightly nicer apartment, you will get slightly nicer furniture.

When you go out and buy a new shirt, it's never just a new shirt. You usually go and add on something else with it. Or when you go and buy a Starbucks, you gotta post it in front of your Mercedes-Benz steering wheel emblem every single time. However, if you start now and you live below your means, and you stick with it, and you budget, and you watch every single dollar you spend, you will save so much more money cumulatively than you will not worrying about buying a five dollar cup of coffee every now and then.

This is all about consistency and dedication. Where if you could live below your means in one area, I guarantee that will transfer over into other areas as well. Not to mention, practically no one expects you to live lavishly in your 20s anyway. You could easily get away living with roommates, driving a really beat-up car, wearing sweatpants every single day, and eating ramen noodles because everyone in their 20s does that anyway.

So you may as well just embrace it and lean into that stereotype while you still can because as you get older, it just becomes less and less socially acceptable. Plus, the money you save in your 20s is worth exponentially more than the money you save in your 30s thanks to compound interest.

For example, every one dollar you save at 20 years old is going to be worth 21 by the age of 60. But if you save that exact same one dollar at the age of 30 years old instead, by the time you're 60, it's only going to be worth half that, or 10 dollars. That's because the younger you are, the more time your money has to grow.

So the money you're able to save today is worth double the money you're able to save 10 years from now. Just let that sink in. Second, we got to talk about another mistake. And any time someone asks me what my biggest regret is of my 20s, I always say this: not building up my credit score sooner.

Even though you might not know this about me now because I talk non-stop about how many credit cards I have or how much I love getting free stuff by signing up for even more credit cards, it didn't always used to be that way. In fact, I'm compensating a little bit for lost time because 10 years ago, I hated credit cards. I literally remember having an argument with a friend about how I thought credit cards were so stupid and how much I would rather pay for things with a debit card because I didn't need to pay with debt.

But once I got my head out of my you-know-what and I took my ego out of it by thinking I was cool for not getting a credit card, I realized just how stupid that was when I began buying real estate. It became very apparent that life as we know it revolves around your credit score. Just like colleges are going to be looking at your GPA and SAT scores, real life and money are going to be looking at your credit history.

This is like the adult grade you get for handling money responsibly. And the higher your score is, the easier your life is going to become. With a good credit score, you're not going to be denied by renting an apartment; you're not going to be denied for getting a car loan, a mortgage, or a lease. And you're not going to have to pay a really high interest rate.

With a good credit score, people are going to throw money at you left and right for pretty much free because they see you as a very safe investment. Your life will just get easier for learning how to use this system to your advantage. If you don't have any credit history whatsoever right now, all you have to do is go and sign up for a Discover it secured card.

Go and put a few minor expenses on the card every single month, then pay it off in full before it's due. It's going to take you about two minutes every month to do this, and as long as you keep adding on no annual fee credit cards every 8 to 12 months after this, you'll be able to get a perfect credit score within about two years or so for zero dollars out of pocket.

I have another video that goes over all the details of exactly how to do this step by step, so I'll just link to that down below in the description. But if this is something you're not already working towards, go and do this. Just please do this. I'm begging you. I'm spending forever trying to make this video perfect, and plan it out and edit it just to get you to open up a credit card and increase your credit score.

It's that easy. I'm not even asking you to subscribe and get your two free stocks down below in the description because Weeble is going to be giving you two free stocks when you deposit a hundred dollars on the platform, because one of those stocks is worth all the way up to 1,400 dollars. I'm not even telling you to do that. Just work on your credit score for me because I get nothing from this other than the satisfaction that I know it's going to help you long term.

Third, this is something I seriously wish was taught in schools. Like, there could be an entire year just dedicated for people to learn this. And it's common sense, but in your 20s, don't just wait around for things to happen. No joke, I can't tell you how many people I just see sitting there wasting their time doing absolutely nothing while they wait for this magical opportunity just to fall in their lap or for things to finally happen.

They'll waste years of their life just casually observing what's going on around them, just being pushed around by life with really nothing but the hope of just being guided in the right direction or for someone to finally discover them and put them in the spotlight. But life doesn't work like that. And by the time most people realize this, they've already abandoned their goals and dreams and aspirations because responsibility has set in, and now they have obligations and they got bills to pay.

That's usually the point where people will settle for what they have, and so be it. But here's all you need to know: nothing is going to happen until you take the initiative to make it happen. And it's a shame that no one is taught how to go after their own goals on their own without someone telling them what to do. Just think about it. Growing up, you listen to your parents, and they set rules and boundaries of what was expected from you.

Then throughout school, you're told exactly where to be, what to do, what you need to work on, and as long as you could follow that correctly, then you'll get a good grade. But once you get out in the real world, there's no one guiding you what to do. It's almost scary because all of a sudden, it's really just you. If there's something you want, you will have to make it happen. If you have a goal, it's something you're going to have to actively work towards.

There's no timeline, there's no homework, there's no test, and there's no guidebook. It's just you, for better or for worse. That was a huge wake-up call for me too when I started working as a real estate agent. I literally spent the first few days just sitting at my computer, clueless of what I was supposed to do because I've never not had anyone tell me what to do all day.

But very quickly, I realized that like, wait a second, I need to make a plan. I'm the one who's responsible for making my day happen, and if I don't make my own schedule, nothing's going to get done. I seriously see so many people using this as an excuse or because they don't know any better or because they think to themselves that they have their entire lives to figure it out.

But guess what? I guarantee that no successful, highly accomplished person got there by just sitting around because they have all the time in the world to make it happen. You need to learn how to keep yourself accountable for everything you do, and only you are responsible for making sure yourself stays on track. Even if you have no idea what you want to do right now, that's normal.

But use this as a time to try new things and gain new experiences. No one else is going to do this for you because no one else cares if you sleep in all day and watch Netflix. No one cares if you put off going on a job interview. Nobody cares if you better yourself or not. People are so caught up in their own lives that really no one is going to be there to push you and make sure you get what you want.

This is probably the best thing that you could learn in your 20s because trust me, if you could get this down now, you will be unstoppable towards anything else you want to do. Once you could become self-motivated, it's just like having a little Gary Vee in your ear every single morning just telling you to hustle and crush it, and something like that is absolutely invaluable.

And fourth, this is probably one of the lessons that took me way too long to learn. And believe it or not, I would probably be way further ahead if I had figured this out sooner. And that would be to not play it so safe and take more risks. Now, I'm not talking about the risk of bungee jumping or riding a bike without a helmet or crossing the street without looking both ways or anything crazy like that.

But I am talking about the risks of trying new things or putting yourself in uncomfortable positions, or trying out a new career or starting a business, or anything else where you could fail at it. It's like asking yourself the question: If you knew you could do anything right now and you wouldn't fail at it, what would you do? I challenge you to ask yourself that every time you hesitate to do something, and you could identify very quickly if you're not doing that thing just because you're not that into it, or because you're afraid of what would happen if you might fail at it.

Like here's just a few examples. In the past, I turned down so many invitations to go to events with clients because I didn't know anybody there, and I didn't want to be the awkward one who just shows up all alone. So I just stayed home instead. I also worked at my first brokerage for way too long because I didn't want to give up what I currently had just in case I moved on to something else for more, and it didn't work out.

I also put off making YouTube videos for years because I was too afraid of putting myself out on the internet and just making an idiot of myself. But sometimes I just end up doing that anyway. Looking back, all of those worries and things were so stupid, and I wonder where I would be today if I didn't play it too safe in the beginning and I just went for everything I wanted to earlier.

What I've learned though is that your 20s are the perfect time to go and try these things. Go and start a new business. Go and put yourself in those uncomfortable positions. Go and try new ways to make money because each one of those experiences is going to come with the knowledge that you could use in the future.

And typically what I have found is that those situations are where your best opportunities usually come from. Plus, now is the time where you can take these risks without any real responsibilities. Like before you have a wife and kids and a mortgage and a minivan payment and so on. Seriously, I thought life just gets simpler as you get older and start making more money, but no, it just gets more complicated.

And I wish I knew how easy I had it at 20 years old, without any worries in the world. You only end up learning that though in hindsight, or I guess if you have a video to watch like this one. Now fifth, this is only something that I've learned as I've gotten older, and this is going to make you feel way better. But no one has any clue what they're doing, and most of us are all just trying to figure it out as we go along.

I can't tell you how many times I've looked at people and been like, "Wow, they're so good and confident in what they do." But then behind the scenes, they're just as clueless as everybody else. I think most people, if they're really honest with themselves, are somewhat just winging it as they go along. And we all just naturally look to other people to make sure that we're doing the right thing and we're on the right path.

I'm absolutely no exception to this. Half the time I'm just figuring it out just like everybody else. It doesn't matter how many times I've done it or how much the numbers keep adding up and making sense, but there's always that little shadow of a doubt in my mind that says, "Wait a second, maybe you're wrong. You should get someone else's opinion. What if you're wrong?"

And you would think this goes away as you get older, right? Like the more you do something, the more sure you should be about everything you do. But sometimes it just doesn't go away, and there's always that little bit of doubt in everything you do. But at least you feel better knowing that no one else knows what they're doing either, and we're all just doing the best we can, given the experiences and circumstances in life.

That's it. So just take some comfort in knowing that you're not alone if you don't have everything figured out or if you don't feel like you have that confidence you wish you did. But once you understand that everyone else feels exactly the same as you, it definitely makes it far easier.

And finally, number six: don't worry and waste mental energy on things that haven't even happened yet. I'm definitely the type of person who easily imagines the worst possible case scenario happening, and then I run through every possible outcome in my mind and conceptualize how I'm going to deal with something that hasn't even happened yet.

Trust me when I say this, but that ends up wasting so much time that I could be spending doing just about anything else. I do that for anything, by the way. Like any time I'm buying real estate, I worry about the property needing so many repairs and the seller not agreeing to give me a credit, or I worry about contractors going over budget, or I worry if a video is not good enough or if it doesn't do well.

Sometimes I'll even be up late at night just thinking about things that have maybe a one in a million chance of actually happening, but my brain decides for some reason that I don't know that that's a good use of my time. So my experience thus far, the worst case scenario that you will ever imagine or worry about, never actually happens.

Most of the time, it's never even as bad as I think, and in a few weeks, it doesn't even matter anymore. And if you're anything like me, I sometimes find it helpful to ask myself: Is this gonna matter in two weeks from now, two months from now, two years from now, 20 years from now? If the answer is no, then I'm not going to waste any mental energy thinking about it.

So instead, in your 20s, spend your time thinking about the most likely scenario and spend your time working towards something and not trying to get yourself away from something. Mental energy is something that really ends up going a long way, and if you're wasting your time thinking about things that are probably not gonna happen, it's gonna take your time away from other things that you could be working towards to better your life.

And I really believe if you can internalize those six things, it's gonna help you out immensely for the rest of your life. Some of these are a little bit more nuanced, some of them are common sense, but I promise you, if you just learn them, stick with them, and practice them every single day, if you do that throughout your 20s and smash the like button for the YouTube algorithm, you're going to be way further ahead when you're older.

So with that said, you guys, thank you so much for watching. I really appreciate it. Make sure to subscribe and hit the notification bell. Also, feel free to add me on Instagram. I post pretty much daily, so if you want to be a part of it there, feel free to add me there. As on my second channel, The Graham Stephan Show, I post there every single day. I'm not posting here, so if you want to see a brand new video from me every single day, make sure to add yourself to that.

And lastly, if you guys want two free stocks, use the link down below in the description. Weeble is going to be giving you two free stocks when you deposit a hundred dollars on the platform, with one of those stocks potentially worth all the way up to 1,400 dollars. So if you want those two free stocks, use that link down below. Let me know which two free stocks you get. Thank you so much for watching, and until next time!