How to Invest in your 20’s: What the Guru’s will Never Tell you

How to Invest in your 20’s

how to invest in your 20's

Learning how to invest in your 20’s will help set you up for the rest of your life.  Your 20’s is a special time.  The entire world is at your disposal.  While you may not have much money yet, you have the most valuable resource known to man – time.

Figuring out how to invest in your 20’s will ensure that you not only build wealth as a young man, and one day become rich, but that you’ll be able to live a life of freedom in the future.

Everything is an investment

Everything in life is an investment.  In this article, I’m not going to spit out advice on the right stocks to buy or the hottest real estate markets.  Because if you can focus on investing in the right things, then you can worry about that stuff when you’ve already achieved financial independence.  And right now, 95% of you don’t have that.  You are wage slaves who depend on a job to support you.

Everything you do is an investment.  When you realize this, then you’re able to make decisions that will put you ahead.

Getting a gym membership is a small monetary investment. Going to the gym and working out are investments in your time and will benefit your health + sexual market value.

Starting a business is an investment in your future.  Buying groceries are an investment in the food you’ll need to eat. Ordering an overpriced burger is an investment, yet a bad one.  Spending $100+ on drinks every weekend is also a common investment, that’s usually misplaced unless you’re rich.

Accepting that how you spend your time + money in all shapes and sizes will change the way you live your life.  You’ll stop wasting your time on stupid things that bring you no future return, and you’ll start to focus on things that will being you more happiness.

Awareness of how you invest in your 20’s

dodge divorce rape by making money

Knowing how to invest in your 20’s starts with always having the awareness of investing.  Grill into your brain that everything you do is an investment on your current happiness + future happiness.

  • If it’s good for your current happiness + future happiness, it’s an amazing investment. (starting a business + working on your purpose)
  • If it’s bad for your current happiness but good for your future happiness, it’s a good investment. (working a job you hate that pays well so you can save money)
  • And if it’s good for your current happiness but close to neutral on your future happiness, then it’s a mediocre investment. (sleeping with new girls, one drink after work)
  • However, if it’s good for your current happiness but bad for your future happiness, then it’s a bad investment (sleeping with a girl at the expense of missing your work, drinking too much, buying a car you can’t afford)
  • And if it’s bad for your current + future happiness, it’s a terrible investment (cutting yourself, dating someone you hate, etc.)

How every man in his 20’s should invest

Now you have a foundation of what great investments, close to neutral, and bad investments are like.  Ideally, you organize your life so you’re making great investments that make you happy now and in the future.  However, you’ll also need to invest in your 20’s in things that will benefit you in the future but not right now.

This means doing things you don’t want to do to get ahead.  Or also known as sacrificing temporary pleasure form long term gain.

And you’ll also need to allocate some time to things that make you happy now but don’t do much for you in the future, like sleeping with girls.  You’ll still get some benefit on positive memories you have, so nothing is ever truly a neutral investment.  However, the majority of the investment you get from sleeping with a new girl is in that moment.

There are other things like having a drink that will give you some happiness in the present, and will have a slightly negative effect in the future.  However, the effect can be minimal if you only have one drink.

Everything is about balance.  Not everything will be an amazing investment.   But as you begin to change your habits, you can develop better daily activities.  And the first thing that you absolutely need to do is you’re serious about knowing how to invest in your 20’s is getting rid of debt.

Destroy all debt

avoid debt

Debt is the killer of dreams.  Personal debt is always a bad thing.  You need to destroy debt that you have as quickly as possible.

Most young people in today’s age get bogged down with student loans, car payments, credit card debt, and mortgages.  As a man who wants to learn how to invest in your 20’s so you can achieve success, you first need to put time into getting rid of any debt.

Debt will hold you back from doing great things.  It’s hard to invest your money and time into wise areas when you constantly owe money to other people or banks.  Do whatever you can to get rid of your debt as soon as you can.

Invest in your Freedom Fund

Don’t worry right now about the stocks to buy in your 20’s.  They aren’t going anywhere.  After destroying debt, The next thing you need to invest in during your 20’s is your freedom fund.  Your freedom fund is a fancy way of saying emergency savings.  Expect emergency savings is typically just enough money for 6 months of expenses. Fuck that.

If you lose a job and it takes you a few months to find another one, then you’ve already depleted half you’re your net worth.

Your freedom fund needs to have at bare minimum 25k.  But a true freedom fund is going to be around 50k to 100k.  This way you have plenty of money in the bank for a rainy day.

I imagine most of you want to quit your jobs and live life on your own terms.  And I agree that you should do that.  But you shouldn’t do that with no money in the bank.  This will only increase the chance of you needing to go back to a corporate job or ending up on the streets.

You need to save up enough money so you’re able to take care of yourself and avoid the wage slave trap.

This means you need 50 to 100k.  It’s a lot of money.  It’s not easy to get free.  In fact, it’s hard as hell, which is why most people can’t escape.  Most people stay stuck in jobs they have because they spend way too much money on things they don’t need.

40/40/20 rule

Follow the 40/40/20 rule. 40% (give or take) of your money goes to takes.  40% goes to your savings account.  And you can live off the other 20%.  If that sounds like too little then you need to decrease your spending + increase your income.

A big part of learning how to invest in your 20’s is changing your mindset.  Most people think that they can never live off of 20% of what they make.  But most people also live way above their means in order to impress people they don’t even like.

You need to make a massive change in the way you think about money and how you allocate what you get.  The biggest expense you should have is your own apartment.  Besides that, you need to downsize on other shit you buy until you make a lot more money.

Make money in sales

make money in sales

I recommend that if you do have a wage slave job, get into sales.  When I was doing that, my $150,000 a year saw $60,000 to uncle sam, $60,000 to my bank account, and $30,000 to live off of. My rent was $1,000 a month, or $12,000 a year, which was doable. When I get my own apartment in SF, my rent went to $2,000 a month, or $24,000 a year.  I made up for it my getting my income up to $180,000, and not spending much money out.

I made a lot of money in corporate sales.  Even though I hated my job, I was able to be motivated to make a ton of money and save the majority of it.  I still was a player with women, so I needed to have my own apartment.  However, if I didn’t have much of a sex drive, then I could’ve shared an apartment and saved a lot more on rent.

But getting my income up gave me options to still escape wage slavery by building up my freedom fund + also being able to have a fun dating life.

Get into sales, sell a ton, and you can make good money.  Even if you don’t make as much money as me, you need to get close to 100k a year.  This will allow you to save a fair amount and build up a solid freedom fund within a few years.

Save the money, screw what others think

Building the freedom fund is an essential part of figuring out how to invest in your 20’s.  It will give you the flexibility you need to get ahead.  Most financial gurus will tell you that saved up money is a waste.  They’ll say to put it in an investment like a mortgage or the stock market.  Ignore that advice.  You can do that once you already have 100k in the bank.  Money is freedom if you have it.  Don’t tie it up in other assets until you already have enough cash to live off.

Remember, you’re not trying to stay in the wage slave trap as you build your wealth.  You’re trying to get free.  All of the financial advice is aimed at wage slaves.

Leftover money and time in a Business

start a business instead

The next step in learning how to invest in your 20’s is to put time into a business.  Because it’s not just enough to build up a freedom fund.  That will give you a safety net.  But even if you live cheaply, 50k or 100k will run out in a few years.

You need to invest time after work and extra money into a business.  If you’re not interested in becoming an entrepreneur, then you should quit reading this article and get off the site.  But the majority of you here into self development have the natural desire to own your time and live life on your terms.

If that’s you, then you need to start a business.  Investing in your own company is better than someone else’s company or the stock market.  Because even though the majority of businesses fail, the majority of people don’t put in the time or they choose the wrong business.

However, you’re not going to do that.  You’re going to create a purpose.  Combine something you love, with something you’re good at, and then create a business around it.

Build it up on the side.  If your business never becomes successful, then you’ll still have your main job while you can start a different side business, along with the freedom fund.  If you love what you do and are willing to put the time in, then it’s usually possible to make it work.

Put in the time

I made no money on Rebellious Development the first year it was in existence.  I just focused on creating amazing content.  Because I love what I do, know what I’m talking about, and there’s huge demand for real self development for men, I’ve been able to build this business.

Even though there’s a lot of competition, I love what I do too much to not be successful.  I also knew that I was ahead of what many other men were putting out.  There were tons of PUA’s who just chased girls all day long and had little to no other advice for men. And there were tons of men with good advice but who also sucked with women or told guys not to date and be celibate.

I knew that just being a real dude who had a lot of success with girls, and also who earned more than most men my age, that I could help guys solve both of their main problems.  Which is their dating life and their money.  And even more so, manhood.

Don’t give up on your purpose

owner of business, head pimp

So if you find something you love, then stick to it.  Don’t just give up because it’s been 4 months and you haven’t made any money yet.

Put in the time after work to make it happen.  Know how to invest in your 20’s by using the extra energy you have at your disposal.  GaryVee tells people to work 7pm-2am.  I say just do 7pm-11pm.  4 hours after work for 5 days a week is 20 hours a week.  If you do another 10 hours on Saturday and Sunday that’s 40 hours.

Putting in 20-40 hours a week on your side business sounds like a lot.  Especially if you work 40-50 hours a week as a wage slave.  But if you want to become free then this is what you need to do.  Working 60-90 hours a week for a few years while you build your freedom fund + side business is what it takes to become free.  Knowing how to invest in your 20’s is mainly about using your time wisely.

Grind it out for a few years and you’ll put yourself in a position where you can work less in the future, doing something you love, without a boss, and with the ability to get rich.

Re-invest into business

The next step is re-invest in your business.  So you have your freedom fund of 50-100k.  Then you have your business. Once your business starts making money, re-invest it back into the business.   This is how you really learn how to make money in your 20’s.  Your business is your money making machine.  If I had to give investing for dummies advice, I’d say go in on a business that you know you can execute on.

Buy Facebook ads for marketing, invest in a better website, Google ads, and whatever else you can do that will bring more revenue in.  That could mean hiring more people, getting an office space, and so on.

Once your business is self sustaining, meaning it generates enough money where there’s still leftover you can use it to grow, you can start to pay yourself.

A big part of investing in your 20’s is being able to be patient.  That means sometimes waiting to put it right back in your pocket. Put the money back into the business. And then pay yourself.

When you work a job, it’s all about collecting the money for your freedom fund.  But once your business starts to make money, you need to keep on feeding the machine.  Once it starts to grow, then you can start taking some of they money for yourself.

Typical investments

passive income from stocks

Your business is going to give you a larger return on the time and money you put in then anything else.  However, once your business starts to grow, and you’re able to invest in it and pay yourself, you can look to more typical investments.

These are things like

  • the stock market
  • real estate
  • angel investing

The stock market and real estate is how rich people stay rich and slowly get richer.  You shouldn’t start out putting your money here, because the return will be too small.  However, once you’ve built up some wealth, you don’t need to leave it all in the bank.  You can put some money in the stock market, into real estate to rent out / live in, and even invest in other people’s companies as an angel investor.

Be careful

Just be careful to treat these investments with a grain of salt.  The stock market can crash or appreciate.  Real estate can lose tons of value or gain lots of it.  Real estate investing in your 20’s can be fine if it’s not all your money, but can screw you if you can’t afford the property.  And your friend’s company will probably fail, but you could make money off of it if it takes off.

Out of these, the stock market will generally rise if you can afford to play the long game and stay invested for 20+ years. Real estate fluctuates, but putting money you don’t need into it can give you a place to stay rent-free, or give you rental income.

Learning how to invest in your 20’s shouldn’t be all about stocks, mutual funds, and property.

Instead, the right way to know how to invest in your 20’s should be to focus on saving a ton of money and investing time into a business.  That being said, you can always put that extra cash into these typical ventures that should at least maintain your wealth over the years.

But you need to maintain a freedom fund of at least 50-100k, in cash.

What not to invest in

With all of these ways to spend your time and money, it’s paramount that we talk about what not to invest in.  Because learning how to invest in your 20’s is just as much about avoiding the common pitfalls as it is laying the right foundation.

When you’re doing financial planning in your 20’s and looking where to put money in, avoid the bad investments like

  • Expensive cars
  • Extravagant vacations
  • Mortgages above your means
  • Marriage

Expensive cars

buy a sports car when you're rich

Buying or leasing a car way above your means is a stupid way to throw away your money.  You don’t need the convertible Mercedes AMG or the newest Porsche.  These things are fine to have once you’re already rich.  But do not buy these when you’re figuring out how to invest in your 20’s.  The immense stress of making a $500 or $1000 car payment when you get fired or have a bad month at work isn’t worth it.

Plus that’s money you’re throwing away.  The fat car payment or cash used to buy the car would be much better spent on your business or just stored in the bank.

Extravagant vacations

Travel light, use apps like hopper to go when flights are cheapest, and spend less on your vacations. You can’t afford to spend $5000 on a vacation when you’re in your 20’s.

Too many men, especially when they get to 25-30 and start making good money, will blow thousands once or twice a year on a vacation outside their price range.

Mortgages above your means

I generally advise against mortgages all together.  If you have a ton of money in the bank, and want to get a mortgage for tax breaks for just to not move a lot of cash into one asset, then I can see why you’d take a mortgage.

But when you spend close to all your savings on a down payment for a condo or house, you’re tying yourself down.  You just trapped yourself.  Now you need to work so you can pay off the mortgage in 30 years.

Instead, figure out how to invest in your 20’s by avoiding mortgages all together.  And especially ones that will require all of your savings.  Most men do this because they want to impress their girlfriend with a nice place, but this is a bad move long term.


Which brings up to marriage.  One of the worst investments in your 20’s to make is to get legally married.  Marriage is legally combining your assets with a woman.  Which means she can divorce rape you and take half of your net worth + alimony + child support.

Marriage simply is a terrible investment with little return and tons of risk.

You can still be in a long term relationship with a woman without getting married. You can have kids (look at every other animal and single mothers) without the marriage contract.

I’m not saying you need to be a bachelor for life.  That’s up to you how you spend your time.  But every man needs to avoid getting legally married.  It’s simply a bad investment that can ruin you in the near or distant future.  Marriage is not an option.

Someone else’s dreams

freedom fund

The worst way to spend your 20’s in investing in someone else’s dream.  This means working for a boss to make them rich, getting married because your girlfriend wants to, or doing anything else that goes against your best interest.

Build your own dreams.  Don’t financially fuck yourself with marriage.  You can work for another man while you build your freedom fund.  Just make sure to also invest in your own business on the side.

Invest in your body by working out a few times a week.  Invest in your game by dating multiple women and getting your notch count up to 10, 15, 20, even 30.  But don’t obsess and never see a girl more than once or feel the need to sleep with hundreds.  Invest in relationship skills by getting a girlfriend and learning how to be a leader.

Most of all, invest in yourself.  Everything is about your current + long term happiness.

Have the right balance of both.  If you look at everything as an investment, then you’ll be able to make the right decisions for yourself in the present and yourself in the future.  It’s not hard to figure out how to invest in your 20’s.  But it’s hard to execute on.  You need to master your schedule, put all of your free time into a business, and save like hell.

It takes serious effort to go against to tide and do the things that you need to do, but if you make it happen, you’ll be set up for an incredible life.

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