7 Best Money Making Habits You Need To Know In Your 20’s

The internet is full of articles preaching about habits that will make you a millionaire, but they’re always so generic, and they’re definitely not from personal experience.

Now, I know I’m a bit of a boomer, but sometimes that can be a good thing. I’ve been around for a while, and I’ve learned an awful lot along the way.

Now, your 20’s are a fun part of your life, but they’re extremely important at the same time. So here are seven money-making habits I wish I’d known sooner because if I did, I’d have made my first million a lot quicker, that’s for sure.

By reading this article all the way until the end, you’ll be able to learn from my mistakes and hopefully do even better. Also, the last habit’s a little bit controversial, so it might be worth sticking around for.

Habit number one is embracing debt. I know this might sound confusing at first as lots of people think that debt is bad, and you should avoid it like those online courses that cost $997.

No, but seriously, it’s one of the main reasons I was able to build my wealth from absolutely nothing to a multimillionaire. In my early 20’s, I was building my businesses from the ground up, and I didn’t have a lot of cash available to me.

So I had to get very creative with my finances. I knew that if I wanted to grow my wealth, then I needed to control more assets. And the only way to do that was to use the power of other people’s money.

Now notice how I said I wanted more assets, and that’s a very important point. Lots of people do the opposite and get into debt buying liabilities.

Sadly, they’re just digging themselves into a hole that they will find it really hard to escape from. An easy way to find out if something is an asset or a liability is to figure out if the purchase is putting money into your pocket each month, or instead just draining your wallet.

My favorite thing about borrowing money is that I can buy other companies in cash, therefore getting a better price. I actually still do this today as borrowing money is currently very cheap.

How can borrowing money be cheap? This guy’s a lunatic. Well, just think, if I can borrow cash at a 2% interest rate and put my money to work at an eight to 10% return, then on my head, six to 8%.

I just always make sure to run the numbers on my decisions and not leave myself too exposed to debt so that if something went wrong, then I would be able to handle the repercussions. It’s definitely true that you should be cautious of debt, but never fear using it to your advantage.

Habit number two, being obsessed with success. I believe to become a millionaire, you must have laser focused, much like an olympic athlete. I couldn’t agree more with the quote, “When you want to succeed as bad as you wanna breathe, “then you’re gonna be successful.”

Many of you aren’t probably aware of this, but before I was known as a businessman, I was famous for flying radio control helicopters, and I competed to a very high standard all over the world.

At one point, I won bronze medal, at world championships held in Indiana, USA. I would be obsessed with every little detail of my model. I did everything I could to win.

I was absolutely relentless. To get to the top of anything, you need to put in the extra bit of work, and then a little bit more. When I started my first business, I applied the same obsession.

I set myself both short and long-term goals to keep focused at all times. Having a laser light determination to succeed is key for your growth. And I was absolutely obsessed with hitting my sales targets.

First it was just to complete a year of business, then it was to do last year’s turnover in just one month, then in just one week. But I always had the ultimate goal of becoming financially free.

Even Elon Musk claims he regularly works 80 to 100 hours a week, and this is fueled by his obsession to hit his targets and meet his goals. How else will Tesla smash earnings reports and SpaceX land humans on Mars?

The sad news is 60% of businesses fail within the first three years. And that’s why focus obsession is so important. So stay focused and keep grinding. Amazon wasn’t the biggest retailer overnight.

And Kevin O’Leary said he would have laughed Elon Musk out of the building if he’d appeared on Shark Tank with a Tesla pitch.

Habit number three is building income streams. As I’ve grown older, I must say my passive income streams have become very useful. I no longer have that energy of a 20-year old.

However, I don’t have to, as I put in the work when I was younger, and now I can reap the benefits. I created my first passive income stream accidentally when I refused to sell my apartment in my 20's.

The apartment would have sold for around 40% less than I’d paid, and I wasn’t interested in taking a hit like that, so I rented it out. This ended up being a great decision as this paid the mortgage.

And after four years, the apartment sold for 60% more than I’d originally paid. So not only did I receive rent every single month, totaling more than the mortgage payment, I then sold the property for a huge profit and put that money to work in the stock market.

This really showed me the power of passive income and I was hooked. Now, I meant the term passive income has become a bit of a buzz word online. And the truth is, no income is truly passive, as there is always something that has to be done.

However, some income sources are certainly more passive than others. The idea is to create something once and have it pay you as much as possible with minimal effort.

Passive income is very addictive, especially when you wake up and you realize you just got paid for sleeping.

Habit four, is knowing when to quit. Now, I know this one might sound a bit strange. Quitting is usually seen as a bad thing, but in my experience, it helped me go from a carpenter’s apprentice earning less than $2 per hour to a millionaire by my late 20's.

When I was working that minimum wage job and I first had an issue with my manager bullying me, I could have kept going and worked my way up the company gradually, but I decided to quit.

That led me to starting my own business. And within a few months I was drowning in all the paperwork. So I decided to quit that job and I hired someone to help.

And before I knew it, I’d replaced all the jobs I could with other people. This allowed me to focus on being the captain and steering the business in the right direction.

The big lesson here is not to be too proud to quit when you don’t like something, or you feel the effort is not worth the reward. I see so many people struggling at university and working long days and nights for a degree they don’t actually want.

They’ve just been pushed down that path by teachers and parents. Of course this isn’t everyone, but in my opinion, quitting has its time and place. And there is no shame in admitting something isn’t for you.

This isn’t to say that you should quit just because something’s hard, but there has to be a reason to put in all the hard work. Don’t let others shame you if you make the hard decision to move on to bigger and better things.

After all, the opportunity cost of staying where you are, could be much greater than you realized. Just imagine of outside work and as a cop to making wooden trash cans all my life. Nah, never have happened.

Habit Number five is treating your body like a sports car, broom, broom. I know it might be sounding a bit like a fitness guru, but as cheesy as it is, without good health, you won’t be able to unlock your full earning potential.

I had to relearn this lesson recently when the pandemic hit. Lots of my staff were in lockdown, which meant I decided to work three months flat out. I was even in the warehouse packing and shipping orders with minimal staff, as I didn’t want to let my customers down.

I actually worked 15 hours a day, seven days a week, for three months straight. I got very stressed and started having lots of migraines. And they only stopped when I decided to slow down by going back to golf and doing more fun things like whitewater rafting with my son.

I’ve also climbed Mount Snowden as well as going on the fastest zip-line in Europe. Believe it or not, these things keep me relaxed and enjoying life, which means I can put more effort into my work.

I now understand more than ever that a healthy body is a healthy mind. There’s a mountain of evidence that suggests a good night’s sleep seriously boosts productivity.

One study of 4,188 US workers found significantly worse productivity, performance, and safety outcomes among those that slept less than seven hours. That’s why I now stopped working two hours before going to bed without fail.

I’m trying to exercise more by building my own gym. And I always try to eat healthy foods to boost my productivity. The way I think of my body is like a sports car. You won’t fill with any old trash, you’d made sure everything was top of the range.

Habit six, spending to receive. If you wanna become rich it’s highly unlikely you’ll ever be able to achieve it without understanding return on investment.

If I purchase a product for $50 and sell it for $75, my ROI is $25. 50%, but the chances are, you already knew that. However, ROI stretches so much further than profit on an item you’re selling.

As a business owner, I have multiple employees, and before making a commitment to employ someone, I first have to work out exactly how much this will cost me, and exactly how much money I think that person will generate for my business.

Without calculating the return on investment, I would never be able to determine whether hiring an extra employee is the right decision. Whether you’re starting a business, investing in the stock market, or even just saving money, it’s important to understand the return on investment as well as the opportunity cost.

But return on investment doesn’t always have to be instant. One of my businesses is B to B, business to business. This means I sell products to other businesses at trade price instead of directly to my customers.

I’ve attended many radar controlled model shows over the years to showcase my product range to customers all around the country. This cost my business time and money attending the show for no immediate return on investment.

But the payoff later down the line is great when I land a big business customer who buys in bulk. So the key takeaway here is to think about how you’re spending your precious time and money, and evaluate if you’ll get in a good ROI.

Habit number seven is not being too nice. This is a real controversial one, and I completely understand why. I don’t wanna say nice guys finish last, but pushovers certainly do.

Even if you managed to build up some wealth, you’ll end up being taken advantage of and potentially lose it all. There is a difference between being a giver and being agreeable.

The key is to be a disagreeable giver. This means you have a vision, and you know where you’re going. Therefore, you’re not going to agree with everyone along the way.

However, you can still treat them with respect and take them on the journey with you. But the hard truth is not everybody is worth your time, especially when you’re trying to better yourself and brighten your future.

There’s a saying, if you surround yourself with four millionaires, you’re bound to be the fifth. And this is absolutely correct. I grew up pretty poor, but from an early age, I felt that I thought a little differently from my school friends, ’cause lots of them had a, that I’ll do approach of life, whereas I always wanted to put in the extra effort where it mattered most.

Because of this, I only keep in contact with one person from school, and two people from my first job. All three of these guys have the same attitude to life as I do. And I find this both encouraging and fulfilling.

If you look for friends that align with your values and goals, then you’ll find them too. With these friends, you can talk openly about your goals and also listen to theirs.

It’s such a great encouragement, and it forces you to level up. Many studies suggest that you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with, which is why you have to take great care when you’re building your squad.

So instead of always talking to friends about the latest Netflix series, try talking about business ideas and making money. I find this crucial, some of my best ideas have been sparked completely through a conversation.

If all I spoke about was TV shows and hobbies, I would never have got anywhere. All of these habits have undeniably changed my life for the better and shaped me into the person I am today.

The best part about all of this is it requires minimal effort, and you don’t have to spend an absolute fortune to get started. As long as you get started right away and stick with everything we discussed long-term, you’ll be good to go.

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