If you aren’t yet in college or are thinking of going back: 

You don’t NEED to get a masters degree or a fancy certification to become wealthy. In fact, with the recent growth of technology, I think these types of designations are becoming more and more irrelevant. I mean, I can start a profitable business on my smartphone and learn everything I need from YouTube and books. (95% of what I know about personal finance is NOT from school, and the only reason I give school 5% is because I took a class where I managed $3M of real money and the professor owned his own practice. 

If you do have student loans: 

You’re not alone:

• Student loans are “good” debt and provide a high ROI. If you spend $50,000 on school to earn an extra $50,000 per year on average, that’s a 100% ROI, not bad!
• The average balance of student debt is $37,000, BUT
• 3% of graduates have roughly over $200k
• Lastly, the population of people over 60 still making payments is more than double now than it was in 2007. 60?! You should be retired by then! 

So how can I get rid of this debt? 

1. Do not just pay the minimum, your balance will only grow due to interest
   • Automatic payments can lower your rate by 0.25%
   • Follow a budget (step 1 of Matt’s 4 steps). Following a budget will instantly feel like you got a raise because there will be a PLAN for your money. 
   • Bad debt needs to be taken care of first, especially if they are small.
2. Decide how much of your budget will be committed to paying off this debt. It is non-negotiable, out the door before you see it. 
3. Simultaneously grow an emergency fund so if you have an unexpected event, you don’t fall off course in your debt free journey. 
4. You only have so much income, so you may have to make sacrifices: bars, concerts, restaurants with tips ((if you can’t afford to tip someone well then you can’t afford to eat out), monthly payments like Netflix or the gym (yes you can always run outside and do body weight stuff at the house).
5. Get a side hustle to increase income: Uber, deliver food, Fiverr
6. Don’t expect an “easy way out” - humans have a tendency to not value things that are FREE. Example: Waiting on an inheritance (TERRIBLE), expecting a politician to solve your problems, hoping someone feels bad for you in the family, marrying rich

You’ll be surprised what you can accumulate once you are on a budget and a plan. Once everything is under control, don’t let your kids make the same mistake. 

• Look forward to being debt free. You won’t be “behind” because you’ll be ahead of the 45 million Americans who have a cumulative $1.6 trillion in student debt. You’ll also learn a lot of important financial literacy & life lessons along the way
• This will cause you to be very prosperous once the debt killing phase is over and you can move on to the wealth accumulation phase
• Hard things make us better
• David Goggins

“It’s so easy to be great nowadays because everyone else is weak”

“Everybody wants a quick fix. You may get results, but they won’t be permanent (6 min abs). The permanent results come from you having to suffer.”