---
title: '7 Cash Flow Milestones Worth Celebrating (2026 Edition)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=B5tNY0N-7AY'
video_id: 'B5tNY0N-7AY'
date: 2026-08-04
duration_sec: 1538
---

# 7 Cash Flow Milestones Worth Celebrating (2026 Edition)

> Source: [7 Cash Flow Milestones Worth Celebrating (2026 Edition)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=B5tNY0N-7AY)

## Summary

In this video, financial advisors Brian and Bo from the Money Guy Show present seven cash flow milestones to aim for and celebrate on the path to financial independence. They emphasize that these milestones are behavioral, focusing on what you do with your money daily, and they provide practical steps to achieve each one, from being cash flow positive to saving 25% of your gross income.

### Key Points

- **Milestone 1: Be Cash Flow Positive** [01:29] — The first milestone is being cash flow positive, meaning you are not living beyond your means and have a net zero or positive monthly cash flow. This requires discipline to live on less than you make, creating margin for investing.
- **Milestone 2: Save $100 a Month** [04:31] — Saving $100 a month is a significant milestone. Over 10 years at 8% return, it grows to over $18,000; over 40 years, it can become $350,000. This demonstrates the power of compounding.
- **Milestone 3: Max Out Roth IRA** [09:41] — Maxing out your Roth IRA at the annual contribution limit (e.g., $7,500 in 2026) is a milestone. Roth IRAs offer tax-free growth and tax-free withdrawals after 59.5, and you have until tax day of the following year to contribute.
- **Milestone 4: Save $1,000 a Month** [11:44] — Saving $1,000 a month is a substantial milestone, putting you in the 'one comma club'. It can lead to maxing out Roth IRA and HSA, and over 40 years at 8% return, it can grow to over $3.5 million.
- **Milestone 5: Savings Exceed Debt Payments** [15:13] — When your monthly savings exceed your monthly debt payments, you are taking care of your future self more than your past self. The typical American has about $1,597 in monthly debt payments, so exceeding that is a big deal.
- **Milestone 6: Max Out 401(k)** [17:15] — Maxing out your employer-sponsored retirement plan (e.g., $24,500 in 2026) is a milestone. It offers tax benefits, potential employer match (free money), and automatic investing, making it powerful for long-term wealth.
- **Milestone 7: Save 25% of Gross Income** [20:39] — Saving and investing 25% of your gross income is the final milestone. This rate is recommended because most people start saving later (around 30), and it provides flexibility and freedom to handle life's uncertainties and pursue goals.

### Conclusion

These seven cash flow milestones provide a clear roadmap for building wealth, from being cash flow positive to saving 25% of your income. Celebrating each milestone keeps you motivated and on track toward financial independence.

## Transcript

love tracking our progress. So today, we're going to give you seven cash flow milestones to aim for and also celebrate. And Brian, I am so excited because when it comes to net worth milestones and 401k milestones, it can
take a long time to progress from one of the milestones to the next. But today's milestones can happen that much more quickly because you actually have >> So, I'm Brian, he's Bo, and we're
financial advisors here to help you celebrate your cash flow milestones on the way to financial independence. And with that, let's dive right in. with that, let's dive right in. >> [music]
that we're covering today are really more behavioral. They happen because of what you're actually doing with your money day in and day out, regardless of what else is going on, regardless of market factors. And some of them may
seem very simple and easy, and some of them may be a little bit harder and maybe might not even be pertinent to your situation. But I think that when going to give you that little bit of staying power in your financial journey.
>> let's be clear, even the small ones that might seem insignificant are going to have huge impacts on your future success. So don't overlook any of these, that they're building upon themselves. >> That's right. So let's jump in with the
very first one. And this one, it seems so silly and yet most Americans have a hard time getting here. It's just being cash flow positive. This is the place where you are at a net zero from month to month. You're not living beyond your
>> Yeah, this is one. We tell you the the first ingredient of the three main ingredients to wealth, that's discipline. You having that discipline to live on less than you make creates margin, or the money that actually gets
invested and you give that the enough time, magical stuff happens. >> Yeah, when you can get this net positive position, it it actually flips the financial script into wealth building because at this point when you are
living on less than you make and when you are deferring some of your cash flow into the future, now you're not moving backwards anymore. You are actively moving forward in your financial
>> Now look, I I understand that right now we're in this state where there's crazy geopolitical stuff going on. There's even weird economic stuff with like cost of education, cost of housing. And look, you don't have a lot of control over
that stuff, but you do have control on you trying to figure out how can you be >> So, what do we do? What are the steps? How do you get to zero? Well, it could be a lot of different things. It could be making the big changes. You might
need to do something drastic. Uh if you want something you've never had, you might have to be willing to do something you've never done. So, it could be moving, selling your home, selling your automobile, changing jobs.
It may require some drastic change to significantly alter your current >> And look, you might be We give a lot of grace about credit cards, but you might realize you're not a credit card type person. You know, we say credit card use
is A-OK, but credit card debt, no way. So, if you're actually like half of Americans and have credit card debt, then cut up those credit cards, make it >> Or if you find yourself in a position where the job or career you're in is
be able to provide for you to live the life that you want to live, maybe it's time to look at changing careers. Or if you're in between jobs and you're just waiting for that absolute perfect job to show up, maybe you need to widen your
net a little bit. Maybe now it might make sense to just get some job so that you can begin moving forward. >> And community resources, look, if you transportation, maybe that's going to be a great way instead of owning a car. If
ridiculous, but even libraries instead of you using Audible or or buying the next book, these little decisions can have big results in the long term. >> And what these little decisions do is
they allow you to move to our second milestone. So, milestone number one was just being net positive. Milestone number two is sort of this wonderful thing where you get to the point where you are saving $100
a month. I know it sounds small, but if you've never been there before, it is a >> is the magical one for me. If you remember, I was sitting in an economics class in high school and Mr. Morrow said, "Look, every one of you, if you
just save $100 a month, you'll be a millionaire by the time you retire." And I was broke as a joke working at the local fast food joint, but I even thought at that moment in time, I can save $100 a month. And you know what? He
step. >> So, how do you do that? How do you do that? How do you save $100? Well, it might be just lowering your fixed expenses. Do you have things like an ungrateful service provider? Whether
that be your cell phone provider or your insurance company or your utilities or maybe you have subscriptions you're not using that you don't need anymore. If you can cut those down, it will increase the margin available where you can
>> Well, I mean, we talk about the the two levers, lowering expenses, increasing income. And there's ways you can do this. And by the way, you got to these banks are making an absolute fortune off of you. If you're paying 20
fortune off of you. If you're paying 20 plus percent, you've got to get the high >> And all of these things, what they involve is being proactive, but you're somewhere you've never been, you have to do something you never done, you may
need to adjust your behaviors. You may need to think about okay, instead of eating out once a week, maybe I'm going to eat out every other week. Or maybe nice grocery store, I'm going to start buying in bulk. Those sorts of
behavioral changes can make a meaningful difference in your financial life. >> And then let's There's a lot of power in just tracking your expenses. If you want it, you can kind of now kind of trying to internalize and and know if this
you actually can control. >> Yeah, once you can see where your finances are, once you have a clear picture, it makes it very clear what you ought to be doing with your dollars and what you ought to not be doing with your
>> There is definitely some clarity and confidence that comes from tracking. And Bo, what I have found in my own personal life, a really effective tool is >> Yeah, Monarch is a personal finance app that tracks everything. It tracks
accounts, investments, savings, goals, and spending. So you can see right there right now you can get your first year of Monarch for half off, just $50 with
>> Now Brian, we were talking about it because you said hey, I actually use were saying one of the best things I like about it is that obviously we can, you know, put the put the the expenses in and we can categorize them. But you
said the visual element was probably one of the most interesting things that you offer where you actually see the money come in, but you actually see how all the it gets spent out by the different categories and it's actually represented
by the the the size of the expenses. It's really powerful cuz you know, I like to think I'm an analytical person, but definitely seeing the visual cues has an impact as well. >> And right now we have a special discount
for financial mutants. Use the code Money Guy at monarch.com to get your Money Guy at monarch.com to get your first year half off at just $50. >> That's 50% off your first year at monarch.com with code money guy.
>> And once you do this, once you're tracking it, once you see this, you can start saving $100 a month. And the And the idea becomes, okay, well, why does this matter? Why is this significant? What can $100 actually do for me? But do
you recognize if you could just save $100 a month over 10 years, you will have saved $12,000. But if you can put that money to work, and let's say that you earn on average an 8% rate of return, that $12,000 could turn into
return, that $12,000 could turn into over $18,000. Fast forward, if you can just do 30 years of saving $100 a month, just $100 years of saving $100 a month, just $100 a month, you would save $36,000, but you
could have $150,000. And if you extrapolate this behavior over an entire working life cycle, 40 years of just saving 100 bucks a month, you will have saved $48,000, but you would have $350,000
working for you. That's 86% of the amount that you were able to build was your dollars earning dollars, not money that you actually had to put everybody cuz look, a lot of you are going to watch this content, get
excited, and start saving and investing. But if you quit in the first 10 years, you've lost the plot because look, the magical thing happens really between years 20, 30, and even 40 years in the future is because the growing upon
itself, compounding growth, going from 35% appreciation all the way up to 86%. Stick with it. Early, often, stay consistent, you'll be rewarded. content for any amount of time, you know that we love the financial order of
One of the things we love about the financial order of operations is when saving that $100 a month, one of the places you're likely going to save it is of an account like a Roth IRA. Well, that actually is where our third
milestone lives because when you're at the point where you are able to max out your Roth IRA at the annual contribution limit, that is a milestone worth >> this one by the way, in 2026, the maximum is $7,500 annually if you're,
you know, just normal contributing Roth IRA age at $625 a month. And here's what we like about this. Now, really what I like is that you have until all the way to tax day of 2027. That's April 2027 to fully fund
advantage of that. >> And why do we get so excited about Roth? What makes Roth so great? Well, one, you get to pick the provider. So, you can pick a provider that has really low expenses, really low fees, the
Fidelity's, the Vanguard's, the Charles Schwab's. When you put the money into the Roth IRA and it grows, it grows completely tax-free. You don't have to pay any money as it grows. But then, assuming that you pull it out at a
certain age, after 59 and a half, those distributions are completely tax-free. So, you pay tax when you earn the money and you never pay tax again. Again, provider, the Fidelity's, the Vanguard's, the Charles Schwab's, you
can choose the entire universe of investments. And Brian already mentioned this, you have flexibility on your contributions. Even if you can't fund that maxed out the full thing between January and December, you have all the
way up until next year's tax filing deadline to get those dollars in your >> And here's another side benefit. Look, we know a lot of you want you like a system. And if you get actually load up your Roth IRA, you get to move on to
step six. You've officially graduated from step five of the financial order of celebrated. >> a milestone in and of itself. Every time you move to another step of the financial order of operations, you
should pause and think to yourself, yes, I am doing what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm moving in the right direction. And as you're doing that, as you continue to progress, you're likely going to end up at milestone number
cuz you and I have talked about this one a ton. I I don't know why this one felt us, when we did this, when we were saving $1,000 per month, we were saving
in the one comma club per month, it was substantial. because look, we know that the typical American struggles with basic discipline. There's even that stat out there that close to 60% of Americans
can't even come up with $1,000. So, for you to actually be able to save and do this monthly, it felt huge for me. And it was such a big thing that my wife and I took a milestone moment actually go out with the It's not even there
anymore, but Dante's Down the Hatch, which was in in Atlanta. It was a fondue place that had a live like alligators down there, you know, it looked like a ship in the indoor outdoor type experience. It was great, and I still
was something to be celebrated. That's why I love that we create these milestones is because as you're going through each of these big steps, make sure you are taking moments to build those blossoming memories cuz it just
the long term. >> And look, depending on if you have like an employer match, once you hit $1,000 a month in savings, there's a good chance that not only are you maxing out your Roth IRA, but maybe you're also maxing
out your HSA. I mean, if you think about it, $625 a month will max out your Roth, and then if you're on the individual HSA contribution side, $366 a month will do that. That's $991 a month, and then you've maxed out all
of your tax-free accounts. Again, that is completing step five of the financial milestone. >> a lot of you, you know, we we talk about median household income in the United States right now is just shy of $84,000.
If you look at this $1,000 a month, that puts your savings rate at right 14.3%. a minute. That's not the 25% that you still close to 10 There's a little over 10% there, but more than likely your
employer is putting in around 5%. mark. A lot of magical things are happening when you get beyond 20% >> And again, why does this feel significant? I mean, obviously it feels
cool today to be able to say, "Hey, I'm saving over $1,000 a month." But in terms of the impact, we just showed you what $100 a month can do. Well, $1,000 a month can 10x that. If you take the same illustration, you say, "I'm just going
to save $1,000 a month for 10 years." That means that you will have saved $120,000, but that pot of money could be worth $184,000 if you can earn 8% on average. Fast
forward to a full career of doing this, 40 years of saving $1,000 a month, where 40 years of saving $1,000 a month, where you will have only saved about $480,000 over that 40-year period, the pot of assets that you save could have grown to
over three and a half million. We are talking about multi-millionaire status. Once you hit this milestone, it gets really, really exciting when you see the future of your wealth-building journey. Yeah, I mean, that's why if you want to
know how to really crank up the power of compounding growth, hit a multiple. It starts at $100 a month, but it is definitely a celebration moment when you >> Now, most folks, Brian, we talk about saving in these savings milestones, but
a lot of people are start starting out, and even just getting to zero was hard, or getting to net positive was hard. And a lot of people have debt, whether it be auto debt, or they have mortgage debt, or they're satisfying some high interest
debt. Another milestone we think that is worth celebrating and worth paying attention to is there will become a moment in your financial life where how much you're saving on a monthly basis, how much you're saving for your future
how much you're saving for your future self is greater than what your monthly debt payments are. Meaning that you are now able to put more aside for your future self than expenses that you're paying for for your past self.
so you actually have some context. We went and pulled the actual data. If you look at what the typical American has going on, they actually have monthly payments of $1,597. Just shy of $1,600 a month of debt
service that they're having to pay. >> And that's mortgages, auto loans, wrapped in. >> So, if you reach the the milestone that exceeding this, that's a big sum that's actually going
>> And this is where these milestones are very subjective. You know, some of you, you might not have any debt. So, you may hit this milestone very, very early. But others of you, if you do have the student loan, and the mortgage, and the
auto loan, it may take you a long time to get here, and that's okay. But once you get here, it is worth celebrating. It's worth acknowledging, okay, I've handled the past, I've taken care of my past self, now I'm going to start
taking care of my future self. And what's amazing is when you do that, you can begin to build up momentum. And you begin to build up speed on your wealth building journey. And before you know it, as you're doing that, and as some of
those debt payments fall off, as you no longer have the auto payment, or no there's a really good chance that if you're following the financial order of operations, the next place you'll find yourself is in step six, where you You
employer-sponsored retirement plan. This one I I wish I had the like the Dante's moment with the $1,000 a month, but it was definitely one of those when I started consistently maxing out the 401k,
the way, this is not a small number. Let's be Let's be clear and honest about this is that the standard contribution in 2026 is 24,500. So, to max this out, it means you have
$2,000 a month. >> And this one you can't go back in time like you do with IRA. You actually have to get this funded from January to for those who are listening. I'll go ahead and and put this out there since
you might not be watching this content. If you want to do a catch-up, meaning that you're 50 and beyond, it's 27 and $8 a month. For those that are qualifying for this brand new super
catch-up between ages of 60 and 63, it's just shy of $3,000 a month or 2,979 or 35,750. >> So, if you are saving in your 401k and
you're maxing it out, you are saving a substantial sum of money. And why do we love 401ks? What is it that makes them so great? Well, first, you get a tax benefit, right? So, you either get a pre-tax contribution and you save money
on the taxes that you pay today or most 401k plans now even have Roth options. So, I may not get a tax benefit today, but the money that I put in can grow tax-free. And then while those dollars are invested inside the 401k, I don't
have to pay pay taxes as it goes. They grow tax-deferred. And then maybe our favorite thing, and this is the one This is the thing I think that makes the 401k the most exciting is that the majority of 401k plans out there, the employer
will say, "Hey, if you're willing to participate, if you put some money in, we are going to give you free money. We're going to give you an employer harbor contribution. We're going to give you a non-elective contribution so that
not only are you saving for your financial future, but me, we as the employer, are putting money in your account as well. It is literally free >> Well, and why do we think that 401k's are so important? Is that look, the data
shows this is that this is where I love that the behavior makes you be automatic you whether the market's volatile, whether it's going up, whether it's buying in next month. And that's why it's very easy for for people to see the
data supports this is that the first account that hits the two-comma club where actually people cross into millionaire status is typically that 401k account because of all the things that Bo just shared, the tax benefits,
that Bo just shared, the tax benefits, the free money, the consistent behavior. This is why this is so powerful for your long-term success. there's a milestone in a milestone. Not only are you maxing out your 401k, but
once you've maxed out your 401k, 403b, 457, you are continuing to move along in >> Oh, yeah. There it is. Now, instead of being in step six, once you've maxed
that out, now you move from step six into step seven. You're now getting into the hyper-accumulation phase, and that actually takes us to milestone number seven. And this is that magic moment that when you are actually
magic moment that when you are actually saving and investing 25% >> Now, this one's huge. Is And a lot of you are probably saying, "Well, why do y'all say 25%? That seems much bigger than a lot of the other,
in the personal finance space." And look, we have a reason. Is that because we know that the typical, you know, person who starts the typical American who starts saving and investing, you guys don't figure out find our content
when you're 21 years of age. I wish you would. Most of you start saving and investing when you're 30 years of age. Well, that means you have to do a little bit extra work because you didn't start in your 20s and we try to meet you right
>> And those people that either start at 30 or maybe even the ones that start early, they they likely want more flexibility. But we all know that life is not a straight line that goes from bottom left of the chart up to top right of the
chart. There are often fits and starts. And so the earlier we can begin saving 25%. The earlier we can hit that number, the more freedom and flexibility we're going to give ourselves to either one, adjust to unforeseen circumstances in
the future, or two, be able to purposefully shift and focus more on the things that we want to be doing and less on the things that we have to be doing. >> Well, also, I mean, look, there's so much chaos and noise going on the world
right now between political noise that's out there, the geopolitical stuff out all the different countries of the world, and then even the the the noise of just all this the cycle of what you can't
control in your life. And that's why I what I do like is that savings rate and have direct control and even if your intent changes, I love the additional
flexibility. You just covered that is cuz like for myself, when I graduated college, I had this this real hunger to know more, but also to put my money to because I thought I wanted to leave the workforce at age 50 years of age. Well,
I'm now beyond 50 years of age, but I actually still am happy I made those decisions. And that's why a lot of you, if you if you're just now thinking about this in in a critical way that you never have, we've done the homework for you.
moneyguy.com/resources. We've actually got a great deliverable that you're going to want to know where you take and you choose what your age is, your anticipated retirement age, if you can give us those two variables, we
can tell you what the estimated savings rate and investment rate needs to be for you to reach your financial goals. >> And and when you do this, again, when you start doing this, when you figure this out early, it puts you in control
of your financial situation because once you start saving and investing 25% of your gross income, now you're moving from step seven, hyper accumulation, into step eight. And this is likely where you begin to deploy your dollars
in the ways that you want to. You want to think about paying for the kids' education, maybe increasing the primary residence, maybe buying the different car, going on the nicer vacation. Once you've checked all the boxes and you're
saving 25% of your gross income, it opens up freedom for you to now use your dollars in the way that you want to use them completely guilt-free. Yeah, the financial order of operations literally tells you what to do with your next
dollar so you can live your best life and own your time that much sooner. I love it when we do these milestone episodes, Bo, because it lets people really take control of their army of dollars. And that's why we love creating
probably watching this and saying, "Hey, I've never thought about it in terms of, yeah, $100 a month is going to change my life in small steps." And then, "Hey, when I reach the point if $100 is great, $1,000 a month is going to be
just a lots of things that are going on from a cash flow perspective. We want you to think about money differently cuz we truly believe that there is a better way to do money. Yeah, use these milestones to motivate you to keep
taking the next step, to keep moving in the positive direction towards your great big beautiful tomorrow. Now a lot of you you're going to have a level of start thinking about this, man, my simple life is starting to get more
We're going to leave the porch lights on for you. That's the whole purpose of the you up with all the free stuff out there, but hopefully when you reach close to seven figures in success, you'll say, "Hey,
those guys told me, here I am complexity, my taxes, you know, saving for the kids college, knowing how retirement, how estate plan, and all should reach out these guys." Like I said, we'll leave the porch light on.
I'm your host Brian joined by Mr. Bo, Money Guy, out.