---
title: 'Major MONEY Milestones To Accomplish in Your 20s!'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=v9Va136MHtg'
video_id: 'v9Va136MHtg'
date: 2026-06-28
duration_sec: 0
---

# Major MONEY Milestones To Accomplish in Your 20s!

> Source: [Major MONEY Milestones To Accomplish in Your 20s!](https://youtube.com/watch?v=v9Va136MHtg)

## Summary

This video provides a chronological guide to major financial milestones to achieve in your 20s, drawn from the experience of a former financial advisor. It covers paying off debt, earning income, budgeting, and investing for long-term wealth. The aim is to build a solid financial foundation for young adults.

### Key Points

- **Pay Off Debt First** [01:24] — Prioritize paying off student loan debt (avg. $39k, 4-6% interest) before investing heavily. This provides a guaranteed return and frees you to take career risks.
- **Earn Income and Get Experience** [02:48] — Work to gain experience and find a career you love. Earning income teaches the value of money and builds skills that increase future earning potential.
- **Master the Trifecta** [04:19] — Avoid credit card debt (avg. 18% interest), build credit by paying bills on time, and practice delayed gratification. Good credit can save you tens of thousands on a mortgage.
- **Set Savings Goals and Budget** [07:23] — Set a savings goal (house, wedding, business) and create a budget. Live below your means and avoid lifestyle inflation to accelerate savings.
- **Build a Budget with the 50/30/20 Rule** [09:25] — Use the 50/30/20 rule: 50% needs, 30% wants, 20% savings. Track expenses to categorize them.
- **Invest in Retirement Accounts** [10:22] — Open a Roth IRA (max $6k/year) and maximize employer 401(k) match (free money). Invest in low-cost index funds like VOO (S&P 500 ETF) for long-term growth.
- **Stay Invested for the Long Term** [13:32] — Stay invested for the long term. Missing just the 10 best days per decade can drastically reduce returns. The market recovers over time.

## Transcript

hey guys in this video we'll be covering
what major money milestones you should
aim to accomplish in your 20s the idea
for this video came after a friend of
mine kayla who is 25 years old wanted to
know what else she needed to get done in
her 20s to achieve financial freedom so
i am 34 right now and i learned a great
deal about personal finance budgeting
and investing in my 20s in fact i was
even a financial advisor for bank of
america merrill lynch when i was 25 and
i attribute a lot of my investment
knowledge to that experience now when
you're starting off at the age of 20 i
feel like the college and education
system here just don't really teach you
that much when it comes to managing the
adult world of finance so this video is
meant to be a one-stop shop for all of
your financial needs to get a solid
financial foundation going i hope that
you share this video with a friend who
might need it and then it becomes a
resource for you in the future that you
can reference at any point in time so
with that being said make sure to hit
the like button on this video and let's
get started this video first covers what
it takes to build a financial foundation
in chronological order and that means we
need to start with the first financial
milestone which is to pay off debt or
stay out of student debt so chances are
if you graduate college you're likely
going to have some student loans and you
might even have some credit card debt
the average student loan debt in america
is 39 000 and oftentimes if you're going
to a four-year institution or even a
two-year institution after transferring
from community college you'll likely
take on some student loan debt one of
your first major milestones in your 20s
is to figure out a plan to pay off this
debt usually federal student loan
interest rates are between four and six
percent and you're gonna have many of
your friends probably tell you that you
can get an average of eight percent on
your money by being invested in the
market so they're going to say things
like why are you paying off your debt
when you can just invest it and get a
higher return while you can earn a
percent in the market many people often
forget that you can also lose that money
as well if the market doesn't do as hot
when it comes to paying off student loan
debt try to prioritize it over investing
because at least you know it's going to
give you a guaranteed 46 return on your
money and the sooner you get rid of
student loan debt the quicker that
weight is going to be lifted off of your
shoulders and you can afford to take on
more risk in life the point of paying
off debt is more so that you can afford
to take these risks in your 20s
uninhibited when you're debt-free you
might take a chance on a start-up or a
risky business venture that could net
you maybe a 50x return in the future but
when you're burdened with debt you're
basically a slave to that debt and you
have to continually service it which
means that you might have to compromise
your best learning years by being forced
to take a job you might not enjoy if
you're at the point in your life where
you still haven't entered college yet
you may want to reconsider if a
four-year institution is actually worth
it for you because taking on massive
student debt in the long run is going to
be hard also you can just go to a
community college for two years and then
transfer into that same four-year
institution in your junior year by the
time you graduate it's all the same
anyway no one really care that you went
to a community college your first two
years they're just gonna see where your
diploma came from and if it's the same
as all your peers then there you go
alright the next milestone you should be
hitting which should help with the first
milestone of paying off debt is to get a
job where you can earn income and get
experience in your 20s you want to try
out as many jobs as possible and earn
income at the same time one of the
things that you should strive for before
the age of 30 is that you've hopefully
found a career that you love and that
you can work in for a while because the
highest earning potential usually comes
from being in the same industry for a
long time think of it this way would you
rather hire a plumber that has one day
of job experience or someone who's seen
000 clogged toilets in their life over
the span of 30 years you'll probably
want that second plumber because he
knows exactly how to fix your pipes in a
fraction of the time the people that can
demand the most amount of money in the
market typically have been in their jobs
for a long time so in our 20s we want to
figure out what that is or at least hone
in on exactly what that's going to be
now if you don't find your job for life
in your 20s that's no sweat either this
milestone is more about getting
experience working having experience is
one, of the, most, valuable, things, you, can
learn because it'll also teach you of
how important it is and how hard it is
to make money so i used to think in high
school that a hundred thousand dollars a
year was gonna be so easy to make until
i actually started in the workforce and
realized like man this job is gonna take
me at least five years of working really
hard right now i'm being paid 40k and
it'll be a long time before i hit a
hundred thousand dollars a year that was
really eye-opening for me and it really
taught me the value of money and how
hard it was to make assuming you get a
job the next major milestone in your 20s
to hit is a triple threat and they all
go together so i'm basically gonna call
this milestone the trifecta milestone
and it consists of the following number
one delayed gratification number two
staying out of credit card debt and
number three building your credit wisely
so let's break this down typically in
your 20s is when you'll get your first
credit card now credit cards are not
evil per se but they can really help you
build your wealth in the 20s especially
if you use them correctly that means you
want to pay off your credit card in full
so that you don't fall into the
recurring cycle of owing money on your
credit card credit card interest rates
are on average around 18
so these can really kill your financial
foundations if you aren't responsible
with your spending with credit cards if
you are able to stay responsible with
your card you're gonna be able to build
some solid credit the biggest benefit of
having a great credit score is getting a
lower interest rate on loans and
financing for homes and cars having a
good credit score can also help you get
approved for rentals faster now a lower
interest rate i know it sounds like a
boring benefit but on a mortgage for
example the difference in just a point
five percent interest rate is absolutely
crazy on a loan amount of four hundred
thousand dollars with a good credit
rating you might qualify for a loan rate
of five percent which amounts to three
hundred and seventy three thousand 000
and change in interest over 30 years now
pretend you have a slightly worse credit
score and that means you qualify for a
five, and, a half, percent, interest, rate
over the course of 30 years that same
loan is going to cost you about 417 000
in interest that actually amounts to a
difference of 44 000
over the course of the loan that's crazy
because getting a good credit score is
not that hard as long as you pay off
your bill on time and you stay out of
too much debt now here's the thing
though about that you can never miss a
payment so to illustrate how important
this is if you make 99 of your payments
on time you basically get a b so
literally with a credit score you cannot
afford to miss any payments at all and
that's why you should always have on
autopay when you can and the last part
of this trifecta milestone is simply
delayed gratification if you can delay
your impulse purchases in your 20s
you're gonna have an easier time
compounding your wealth for the future
and that's simply due to the fact that
one dollar today is going to be worth
more than one dollar in the future the
more capital that you can accumulate
when you're young that means the bigger
the base is going to be that you're
going to have when it comes to investing
and compounding your wealth so let's
pretend we have a person a and b they
both don't invest from the ages of 20 to
30 but at least they save money person a
saves up 500 a month so by the time that
they're 30 they have 60 thousand dollars
ready to invest person b on the other
hand they save up 750 a month so they
have 90 000 by the time that they're 30
ready to invest now pretend at the age
of 30 they both start to invest in the
market and they get eight percent until
they retire and they both do the same
thing by the time they're 65 person a is
going to have an 887 000 ending balance
while person b is going to have over
1.33 million
that's a difference of 443 000 just
because person b was able to save a
couple hundred dollars more per month
than person a from the ages of 20 to 30.
so the next time you're looking at
buying those gucci slides think twice
because by delaying that purchase you
might be able to afford something way
nicer later on in life like a pair of
crocs that was a joke hopefully you got
it the next big milestone in your 20s
you should accomplish is having a
savings goal either for a house a
wedding a dream vacation or taking a
risk like starting a new business having
a savings goal i think forces you to
create a budget and that way you can
work backwards from the goal itself a
big part of your 20s is navigating the
fact that you'll be making an income and
your goal is to not spend all of it in
fact if you can live below your means
it's almost always a good idea because
it kind of goes back to this idea of
delayed gratification by living below
your means and as you start to earn more
income you're going to be able to save
for big goals like that down payment on
a home a wedding that you've always
wanted or an engagement ring i know for
me personally i've been spending roughly
the same amount of money every single
month since the year 2014 because i
track it in my expense tracker app
starting out i was spending about 1500 a
month on all my discretionary expenses
and i wasn't really making that much
money at the time about 45 to 50 000 a
year so basically my income relative to
my expenses was not that great in fact i
was barely saving any money after taxes
but as my income personally grew my
expenses have always stayed roughly the
same and i've been living like i make 50
000 a year this entire time now as a
result of that i now have a lot of money
saved up and i'm thinking about either
putting a down payment on a house or a
rental property in the bay area which
let me tell you guys is not cheap heck i
can even afford a lovely engagement ring
without even having to worry about it
damaging my finances so if you happen to
be taylor swift watching this video oh
hey or maybe another single lady make
sure you dm me
all jokes aside i was able to achieve
this because i just really haven't
changed my lifestyle that much the thing
with increasing your lifestyle and
buying new clothes or new shoes is that
they'll make you happy for like a
temporary amount of time but after that
initial honeymoon period ends your
happiness level is right back where it
started so in your 20s you really want
to focus on the things that make you
happy that aren't tied to spending more
money and that's going to go a long way
in your life okay but now you're
probably wondering what's the right
amount to save the next major milestone
you should hit is building a budget now
many financial experts recommend the 50
30 20 rule which helps you distribute
your income we'll get right into that
but first i want you guys to do the
following and it's going to take you
about an hour or two but it's going to
be well worth it basically you're going
to go into your bank statements and your
credit card statements and just comb
through them categorize each expense
into a need versus a want if it's an
expense like rent utilities car
insurance health insurance that would be
a need if you have discretionary
spending like jamba juice waffle house
or netflix that would go into the want
category the 50 30 20 rule states that
your income should be divided fifty
percent into needs thirty percent into
once and twenty percent into savings so
that means if you're making about five
thousand dollars a month twenty five
hundred would go towards your needs like
rent and utilities 1500 would go into
discretionary and a thousand should go
towards saving for future investments
and speaking of investments this next
part of the video is the fun part
assuming that most of you guys have most
of your debt out of the way a working
budget an income and at least an
emergency fund this is where you want to
start investing for the future and you
can do so starting in retirement
accounts in america there are two types
of retirement accounts that most people
will want to open the first is the roth
ira which is an individual retirement
account and the second is a 401k which
is an employer-sponsored account now
both of these accounts have a roth and a
traditional version the main advantage
of having a roth ira is that your
earnings and profits are growing
tax-free that means when you retire and
you withdraw all the earnings on this
account you won't pay any taxes on it at
all that's what the roth portion of the
ira denotes it's tax-free when you
retire but when you put in money it's
actually taxed now this benefit is so
good that the government limits how much
you can contribute to it if you're under
the age of 50 you can only contribute 6
000 a year into a roth ira and if you're
over the age of 50 you can contribute 7
000 a year an extra thousand as a
catch-up mechanism the other notable
thing is that you need to contribute to
the roth ira like i said with after tax
dollars so in a traditional ira money
going in is going to be pre-tax but
coming out you will be taxed on it in a
roth ira it's the exact opposite money
going in is going to be taxed already so
when you withdraw it they're not taxed
at all now in order to contribute to a
roth ira you need to have what's called
earned income which means that you need
to get your income working for someone
else yourself or from a business that
you own you can open up a roth ira at
any brokerage like fidelity schwab
vanguard wealthfront acorns and all
these brokerages should make it really
easy for you guys to sign up for one
once you sign up for one though you want
to transfer money from your normal bank
account to your roth account and then
the final step is to actually purchase
some investments in the account we're
going to talk about what to invest in
shortly but first let me cover the 401k
really quickly so the 401k traditional
roth is an employer sponsor account that
means you can only start it if you work
for an employer that offers it as one of
their employee benefits now many
corporations will offer this type of
retirement account and it's pretty
common across most companies you can
contribute a portion of your paycheck
into the 401k and this account has a
much higher contribution limit of 20 500
per year in the year 2022. anything you
contribute to this account in the
traditional 401k is pre-tax dollars
which means that you get taxed later on
but basically you defer your taxes to
later for many people their income and
therefore their tax rate is going to be
lower at retirement so they're paying a
smaller amount of tax on the money in
the future and that's why they would
want to defer their taxes until later
now because this is a retirement account
you're going to be taking penalties for
withdrawing any funds from it before the
age, of, 59, and, a half, now, after, the, age
of 59 and a half you can withdraw
penalty free now one of the biggest
advantages of the 401k is that if your
employer matches the contribution that's
basically like free money so a lot of
employers these days offer a 401k match
which is a benefit if you work at a
company so oftentimes if you contribute
five percent of your paycheck to your
401k companies will match your entire
contribution up to a certain amount that
means it's like free money for you and
your retirement in the future so if your
employer offers this this is an absolute
no-brainer you must do it because it is
free money again and it is going towards
your future anyway the last thing to
note is that yes you can have a 401k and
a roth ira at the same time so after you
have either one of them or both of them
you need to figure out where to invest
the money for most people investing in
an index fund or etf is all that you
need to do so an index fund is a type of
pooled investment that you can buy in
your retirement account or brokerage
account now when it comes to index funds
an index fund is basically a pooled
investment that buys into many different
other investments so for example if you
were to buy an s p 500 index fund by
buying that one fund you would own a
small percentage of every stock in the s
p 500 thus you track the entire index
that would automatically provide you
with diversification because your
investment is now spread across the top
500 companies in the us and by buying an
index fund it's actually way cheaper
than buying into each of these 500
companies individually on their own
index funds are usually safer bets in a
retirement account because based on the
average over the course of the past 80
years index funds have been proven to
return about eight percent a year some
years are going to be higher than others
but on average you can expect your money
to grow and compound over time the index
fund i love is ticker simple voo it's
vanguard's s p 500 etf now while this is
not financial advice i personally invest
in that one you can invest in what you
like there are a ton of etfs and index
funds out there if voo or your etf is
not available in your 401k just look for
another type of index fund that invests
in a lot of companies in the united
states and you should be at least pretty
good for those of you buying index funds
you want to make sure that you hold them
for the long term if you make huge
changes whenever the market fluctuates
you might miss out on some gains so bank
of america found that since the 1930s if
you sat out the 10 best days per decade
your returns would be just 45 versus the
alternative 20 000 they also found that
the probability of losing money over one
day in the stock market is a little
worse than a coin flip at 46
but the probability of losing money in
the market declines to just six percent
if you are invested for at least 10
years another reason why it's crucial to
stay invested is because usually the
best days in the market follow the worst
days and it's truly impossible to
perfectly time the market that's why
time in the market is much more
important jp morgan found that seven of
the best 10 days in the market occurred
within two weeks of the worst 10 days of
the market for these reasons when the
markets are down just don't touch your
investments and especially if they're in
retirement account you can just buy them
and basically forget about them chances
are in 30 to 40 years the market will be
much higher than what it is right now
and anything you bought in your 20s will
seem like a great deal then now this
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you guys in the next video thanks for
being here peace