---
title: '9 Money Lessons I Wish I Knew in My 30s'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=ioDY8PJdPtc'
video_id: 'ioDY8PJdPtc'
date: 2026-08-05
duration_sec: 809
---

# 9 Money Lessons I Wish I Knew in My 30s

> Source: [9 Money Lessons I Wish I Knew in My 30s](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ioDY8PJdPtc)

## Summary

The video presents nine personal money lessons the creator wishes they had known in their 30s, covering income growth, lifestyle costs, spending on experiences, budgeting buffers, avoiding debt for depreciating assets, Roth IRA contribution deadlines, the value of peace of mind, capital loss carryforwards, and skepticism toward stock tips. The lessons blend practical advice with personal anecdotes to help viewers build wealth and avoid common financial mistakes.

### Key Points

- **Income matters more than cutting costs** [00:01] — Focus on increasing income through knowledge and expertise rather than just reducing expenses like coffee costs. Reading books (e.g., Purple Cow) or taking courses can lead to higher earnings, which have a bigger impact on net worth.
- **You need less money than you think** [01:20] — Instead of chasing arbitrary income targets (e.g., $200K-$300K), estimate your desired lifestyle costs and reverse-engineer the required salary. Example: a $5,900/month lifestyle plus $1,100 savings equals $7,000/month, requiring about $125K pre-tax at 33% effective tax rate.
- **Value experiences over material items** [03:06] — Material purchases (watches, jackets, Pokémon cards) bring less lasting fulfillment than experiences like the Chicago Marathon. Spending $3,000 on a trip creates memories that last, unlike material items that fade in importance.
- **Add 10% more to travel budgets** [04:14] — Unexpected costs (missed flights, rebooked hotels, scams) are common. Budgeting 10% extra prevents stress and friction during trips, ensuring a more enjoyable experience.
- **Don't buy depreciating assets with debt** [05:18] — Taking loans for cars or other depreciating items means paying interest on something losing value. Example: a $50K car loses 20% in year one, plus $2K interest, costing $12K for zero net worth gain. Used cars with no debt are often smarter.
- **Roth IRA contributions can be made until tax day** [07:02] — The IRS allows contributions for the previous tax year until April 15th. For 2025, limits are $7,000 (under 50) and $8,000 (50+). This buffer helps catch up on contributions.
- **Peace of mind has financial value** [08:10] — Even if investing a car loan payoff might yield 1% more annually, the emotional cost of debt can outweigh the gain. Assess how often you think about the debt, stress levels, and forgone opportunities to value peace of mind.
- **Capital losses carry forward** [09:44] — Losses offset gains first, then up to $3,000 can be deducted against ordinary income annually. Unused losses carry forward indefinitely. Example: a $50K loss can offset gains over multiple years, reducing taxes.
- **Your genius friend isn't always a genius** [11:48] — One or two correct stock picks may be luck. Always question new recommendations, as past performance doesn't guarantee future results. Do your own research before investing.

### Conclusion

The video emphasizes practical, often counterintuitive money lessons that prioritize income growth, mindful spending, and emotional well-being over strict optimization. By applying these principles, viewers can build wealth more effectively and avoid common financial pitfalls.

## Transcript

personally wish I knew in my 30s. And had I known these earlier, I would have avoided some mistakes and also set myself up a lot better for building wealth in this decade. Starting with number one, your income matters more
than cutting costs. On this channel, we always talk about what our savings rate should be and how you can track your expenses to reduce the amount that you spend in certain categories. That advice will always hold true. We want to be
reasonable with our expenses. But when it comes to increasing your actual net value from figuring out how to increase your income rather than how to cut some you're just trying to reduce your coffee costs by $20 a month, it's not going to
make that big of a difference compared to trying to make, let's say, $200 more income? I think it comes down to knowledge and expertise. If you can read some books on increasing your marketable knowledge or take a course or get a
in the job market, these are going to help you make much more money overall. marketing at your job or you own a business. Perhaps reading a book like Purple Cow by Seth Goden can help you reshape how you think about your job and
unlock some ROI for your company or service. One small lesson in a book, difference that you need to maybe make an extra $500 per month. Money lesson number two today is that I needed less money than I originally thought. I used
to joke around with my co-workers that once we made 200K, 300K, or maybe even would have made it. But I realize now any sort of reality. And I think for a lot of us, we have some arbitrary number
in our heads where we think like, okay, if I just make X amount per year, I'm many cases, you actually need a lot less money, in my opinion, to live a desirable life. I had a mentor of mine who taught me that you should just write
down and estimate how much you need to spend in every single category to live live. Once you figure that out, you can simply reverse engineer what that hypothetical salary that you would need to live that life would be. So, for
example, let's say you dream up a lifestyle scenario where you want to spend $1,000 a month eating out, $300 a month on clothing, $300 a month on month on clothing, $300 a month on hobbies, $500 a month on dates, and $100
a month on coffee out, which is pretty ridiculous. That's like you getting an expensive coffee three to four times a week. Your rent and utilities come out to $2,700 a month, and you have a car payment of $1,000 per month, which is
really flying private, or you have a Lamborghini, but you're still living a spend on a monthly basis, your desired lifestyle is going to cost you $5,900 per month. And then let's add in an extra $1,100 a month of savings. And now
your total spend for the month is $7,000. At an effective tax rate of 33%, $7,000. At an effective tax rate of 33%, that's a pre-tax income of $125,000 per lifestyle. That's still a lot of money, but it's still way off from the
arbitrary number of 200k or 300k per year that you might have in your head. for yourself. You'll probably find that you don't need as much money as you lesson number three today is to value experiences over material items. I've
purchased a lot of material items in my life, like nice coats or jackets, a fancy watch, a new water bottle, and even expensive Pokémon cards like this to have, I think the moments I look back
on my life with a lot of genuine warmth and love are always with the experiences spending time with. For example, this year I probably spent $3,000 total on my Chicago trip to run the Chicago Marathon and stay in Chicago for 4 days. While I
could have spent $3,000 on any single material item, like a nice watch, a new wallet, or a desk chair, whatever it may be, I think that when I'm the age of 65, 75, or maybe even 85, the one thing I will remember still is the time that I
marathon. I probably won't remember how nice that wallet was that I owned in my 30s, and I probably won't care at that time, but I will always cherish that 26 miles, but I would I would cherish that memory of being with my friend
derive fulfillment from having a material item. I get that. But I think become financially free so that you can experience more of life. So, I think spend money on experiences rather than material items, I'm usually for it.
Lesson number four today is along the same lines. It's to add 10% more to your budget whenever you are traveling or taking a vacation. If you're somebody the majority of us, you should always budget 10% more than you think you're
going to spend. Inevitably, something bad or something inconvenient is going miss a flight. Your hotel might get rebooked. You might end up getting thinking that you're buying a genuine ticket to go to the top of the Eiffel
Tower, but they end up just being fake. Just saying. I'm just joking. That never travel, there are so many variables that people don't account for. And I've frustrated or upset when they unexpectedly have to spend money on
they had to spend money on in the first place. This can be true in group source of friction for the group or the couple or whoever you are with. If all of a sudden you weren't expecting to spend, let's say, an extra $200 on
the rest of the day and that might actually sour the trip. So instead, I think it's just safe to go on any vacation and just budget 10% more, and Lesson number five, do not buy a depreciating asset with debt. The most
famous example of this is buying a new car, but these days you can get a loan on basically almost anything. For example, takeout food with Door Dashes and Clara's buy now pay later program, or clothing, certain artwork, and even
fancy vacations. All of these things that you are buying are decreasing in value as you own them. When you take a loan on to buy a depreciating asset, you are not only paying for just the asset, you're also paying for the interest on
lesson is mostly targeted to those who buy new cars and this can actually hurt your net worth quite a bit. Take a $50,000 car, for example, you get a loan on it and as of day one, your net worth hasn't really changed too much. But
car has lost 20% of its value due to depreciation and now it's only worth $40,000. So instantly your net worth has gone down $10,000 in one year. Then you still have the loan. You might have paid $2,000 in interest payments over the
course of that same year. So now you have paid $12,000 in a year for zero I think you are paying money to lose money. And I don't think that that's a financial sense to just buy a used car
with no debt than to buy a new car with a ton of debt included. Now, there are lesson. And sometimes you will need a car loan or a lease just based on your circumstances. For example, if all you can afford is a $3,000 car and that car
require you to spend more money on it in maintenance, it actually might make sense for you to take the $3,000 that you have and use it on a down payment on rate that won't have issues all the time. I understand you are taking on
option financially than buying the $3,000 car that might have problems. like, well, as long as your purchase fits your budget, then you can buy whatever you want. And while that's technically true, if your goal is to
think the smart move is to avoid rapidly number six, switching gears back to investing. One huge lesson I learned in counterintuitive, but the IRS allows you up until the tax filing deadline, which
is typically April 15th, to contribute to your Roth IRA or IRA for the previous calendar tax year. This allows you a bit of a buffer so that you can catch up in save enough in that original year that you wanted the contributions in. In
2025, the contribution limits for the Roth IRA will be posted on the screen. But under the age of 50, you can contribute $7,000 and over the age of 50, there is a catchup, so you can contribute $8,000. That means literally
if it is April 14th, 2026, so next spring, and you haven't contributed to your Roth IRA or your IRA for the calendar year of 2025, you can still do so. and be okay for 2025. Then in addition, you can still contribute for
the 2026 year as well. So this is something to keep in mind as we approach that video. You always have that option. Lesson number seven today is that peace of mind has financial value. Even though it doesn't show up on a spreadsheet
concept, sometimes you can still give it an estimated value. So here's another car example. My friend texted me this, which was her estimated payoff amount for her car, $28,358. and her interest rate was 6.69%. So just
under 7% interest. Mathematically, investing that money at an expected 8% return would net them about 1% more annually. That's a difference of 1% between her interest rate on her car and what the market tends to average by
here's the thing that doesn't take into account peace of mind. So here's how I calculate the pure difference in dollar terms. So on a $28,000 loan, a 1% difference would be worth about $280. That's assuming the market nets you an
8% return. Obviously, the market could perform better or worse than the 8% and would then assess what the emotional cost of having this car loan is by one, how often do you think about this car loan? If it's daily, that's a higher
cost of peace of mind. Number two, do you easily stress out about the market maybe it's not worth investing the money instead. And number three, are you forgoing opportunities because you feel burdened by your debt of your car loan?
In my friend's case, I would argue that the peace of mind is probably worth more than the theoretical $280 annual gain that they might get from investing in the market and having that difference of the 1%. For you, that value of not
having this debt might be $1,000 a year or $2,000 a year or even more. What if opportunities presented to you, but you feel like this debt is keeping you limited with your options? I feel like peace of mind in that case could be
framework of asking yourself those questions will help with these judgment life. Money lesson number eight today is that capital losses carry forward investing this year and you have a really rough year in the market and you
lose $50,000 on a nuclear stock that tanked. Uh, no pun intended, but it went nuclear the wrong way. The silver lining here is that these losses carry forward and you can offset realized gains in future years. So, here's a hypothetical
of how it works. Let's say in year one you lose $50,000 on that bad stock pick, but [snorts] you also sell $20,000 in gains on AMD stock. You can use the $20,000 in losses to completely offset that AMD gain, which means there's no
taxes owed on that realized gain. And after year 1, you still have $30,000 in losses to carry forward. Year two rolls around and you sell some Nvidia stock while and you make $15,000 in gains. You can use the $15,000 of carried forward
losses to offset the gain with no taxes. And a bonus is that you can also deduct up to $3,000 of excess losses against your ordinary income each year. So you use the $3,000 against your salary to also lower your tax bill in year two.
Year three rolls around and you can use up the rest. So maybe you sell Apple for a $12,000 gain. You use the last $12,000 in losses to offset that so you have no taxes again. And there you go. You've basically offset a lot of gains for the
next three years because of your one nuclear stock pick in year one. The key takeaways here is that losses offset gains first and you can use losses to eliminate capital gains taxes. Number two, $3,000 annual deduction. You can
against your regular income. The third can carry forward losses year after year until you use them all up. And takeaway number four here is that the order really matters. So, the losses offset
gains first and then you can take the $3,000 in income deduction if you have losses remaining. So, while losing 50K absolutely sucks, at least the IRS lets you use those losses as a tax shield, if you will, for potential years to come.
learned in my 30s is that your genius friend isn't always a genius. The subtle trap that catches even the best investors is assuming that someone who investment will give them another one again. So, here's my personal anecdote.
In 2023, a friend of mine recommended a few stocks to me. I invested in one of those stocks he mentioned and I actually made some money. I checked on the status mentioned and they had all gone up. So, in my mind, my friend became kind of
like a stockpicking savant. So, when he came to me this year with another stock he liked, I blindly invested and guess what? I lost money. What I learned here is that one or two correct calls doesn't make someone an investing genius. It
could have just been luck or timing. We are in a bull market after all. Or it could be that they understood a sector really well before, but this new stock at all. You guys all know this. The financial industry puts disclaimers on
everything. Past performance does not guarantee future results. And there is a reason for that. Instead, what I would implore you to do, even if you have one you've made some money on, always question every single new individual
play last year might not work in today's research when it comes to investing your own money. So, there you have it. Let me If you enjoyed this video, I think you
here, which is the seven signs someone is secretly wealthy. In that video, I distilled the habits and signs to look for when it comes to building wealth silently. So, if that's up your alley, I will see you guys in that video or a
future one on the channel. Thank you for being here. Peace.