Warning: Don’t Make The Same Mistakes I Made in My 20s

The Lead on Purpose podcast is sponsored by NZ Mortgages. Learn more at nzmortgages Co nz. Okay, so this week's one to one we're going to talk about money, right? The importance of it, the advice that I think I should have got in my 20s, it would have changed everything. I wish I knew then what I know now. First up, I'm not a financial advisor, so this is not financial advice. This is some lessons I've learned, some experiences. I've sat down with some of the best investors on the planet, the best entrepreneurs, billionaires, and I've learned a lot about money. So I just want to pass on these tips to you in the hope that some of them might land for you. First things first, Number one, don't save too much. You might think that sounds so ironic. Even Irish, you might call it, don't save too much. Look, you're at the start of the journey, you're in your 20s, take risks, get, get out there. You can make so many damn mistakes and still get up again. 20s in those 20s is the time to make mistakes. Go hard, go fast, fail, get up again, try again. Don't be playing super safe in your 20s. It's the time to try and learn things about business, make investments. The best investment in your 20s. I think you can make yourself invest in yourself. That's right, in your mindset, in your skill set. Get qualifications, go to courses, read books, get mentors, be around people who are way further down the track than you. It's the best thing you can do. If you invest in yourself in your 20s, I promise you, you will have massive earnings potential in your 30s, 40s and 50s. It will set you up. Yes, you've got to have fun in your 20s. You've got all the health and the mobility in the world, most likely. So travel, have fun. But any money you use to invest, please invest it in yourself. Stop worrying about real estate, stop worrying about foreign exchange, crypto. Get investing in yourself. When you add value to any market, you get rewarded for that. So that's the piece of advice I wish I hadn't known. And yeah, I dabbled in that a little bit in my 20s. I went nuts in my 30s investing in myself, but started dabbling in it in my 20s. I wish I had went nuts in my early 20s. I love nothing more than when I host an annual event, lots of young people coming along. Now, don't get me wrong, I get people from, right, from 15 up to 75 coming to our events, but when people are there in Their teens and twenties. I'm so excited for them because they're investing in themselves. They're coming to listen to the best speakers that I bring in and learn my high performance framework. That to me is one of the biggest investments you can make in yourself is learning about things, applying them, and learning from other people's mistakes. Okay, second tip. Have an abundance mindset over a scarcity mindset. I meet people all the time who, no, let's not do that. No, the world's probably going to end. No, the world is flat. I, I hear this all the time. You know, let's be careful with our money. There's not enough to go around. Put the money away in the bank. No, like have an abundance mindset this mindset that there's so much to go around. I remember when I started my first retail business in my mid-20s, maybe early 20s, and a mentor of mine in the UK who had an amazing retail business said, james, never forget this. There's, there is room for everyone in the market. Room for everyone, abundance. And I always believe that the market will make room for greatness. Any industry in any market will make room for greatness. So if you're really good, even great at what you do, there's going to be an abundance of opportunities, clients, cash flow, investments, et cetera. So choose to focus on abundance. I mean, it makes you feel better. I'm writing a book right now, and in there I'm talking about the impact of our thoughts and our words on our emotions, but also on our endocrine system, our hormonal system. So when we have negative thoughts and we, you know, we're scarce in our thinking and limited in our thinking, it has a knock on, direct impact on our emotions, has a direct impact on the cortisol that gets released into our systems, the dopamine. So I want you to be thinking a little bit more about am I abundant or am I scarce? That's a choice. When you meet an abundant thinker, they choose to think abundantly. It's not that they aren't living in reality. They still know that things can be tough and there are challenges, but they are always looking for what is possible. What are you going to choose? You know, I travel all over the country and the world sometimes to deliver keynotes. And during that I get to meet people before and after. And it's almost instantaneous that I can tell if they're an abundant thinker or a scarce thinker. The scarce ones have less energy, lower moods. They generally have interesting relationships with food, nutrition, Addictions. But the abundance ones are looking for opportunities. Higher energy opportunities have better relationships with things that are more challenging to others in general. So I want you to think about where in my life am I maybe scarce in my thinking? And where in my life can I be more abundant? In fact, get a pen and paper right now. Or if you're, you know, got your phone, great. If you're driving, please don't do this right now, but write down abundance and then write down below where your abundance thinking shows up. Maybe it's in your health, maybe it's in your wealth. And then write down scarcity. Maybe it's in your relationships, maybe it's insecurity of home, whatever it might be. Job. Get clear on where you're abundant and where you're scarce. Where you're scarce. My challenge to you is this. Ask yourself, what must happen for me to be more abundant this area of my thinking? So just look at that scarce thinking go. What must happen for me to be more abundant in this area of my thinking? It might be changing a word. It might be writing down a positive affirmation. It might be rewiring your belief systems around that. Okay, third tip, Diversify your income. Okay. I was living in Christchurch. I was teaching drums. I ran a drumming business. All my income was derived around drums. Boom. An earthquake hits. A massive earthquake. I think it was a 7.1. There was multiple earthquakes across multiple months. The city was in tatters. The place I worked at closed down for six weeks. I panicked. I went back to Canada. Canada to think. Can I live in New Zealand any longer? Is it viable? Wrote up a pros and cons list. Look, as I did that, I realized I was very vulnerable. Why? I had one source of income and it was all to do with drumming. And it was all geo located in one place, Christchurch. That is such a risk. When I'm working with clients, whether they're running small businesses, large corporates, I'm always talking about mitigating risk and diversifying geography where possible. So important now. When I realized this, I realized I got to diversify my income streams. So I started developing one of the world's first education platforms for pipe band drummers. So I had a members library, they paid monthly subscription. I had a live inner circle. It was called where I went live and taught a lesson every week to people in South Africa, New York, Ireland, all over again, monthly subscription. So I started looking at ways to diversify. I started teaching workshops in Hawaii, Australia, north island of New Zealand. Again, geographically diversifying things. So I Want you to think about this for you. You might not be going through an earthquake right now. You might not have anything that's really, really imminent. But ambushes are exactly that. Some of my friends in the Navy SEALS and SAS can attest to that. You don't see them coming. Is your income stream diversified? Are your assets diversified? Look, if you're listening to this in your 20s, high five, I salute you. But if you're in your 30s, 40s or beyond, then this equally applies. Where are your income streams and your assets? So I want you to just look at what might be possible for you to derive a second income or a third income. If you run a business, what different product lines might you develop? This is so crucial. You know, I've got maybe five or six income streams right now. And that means when things change in the market, the world, macroeconomics change, a massive mother Nature event happens. That's okay in terms of income stream, one might dry up or die altogether, but the others are still there and I direct my focus to those. So I want you to think about diversifying income for those that are in their twenties. You have so many things at your fingertips. Get onto AI, understand it better than the average Joe. Help others. You will be paid a premium for that. Start developing, you know, AI avatars that run social media for you and they will be way more successful than a standard human running a social media account. Just start building skills that people in their 30s, 40s and 50s don't have the time to build and you will be valuable to them. If you're in your 30s, 40s and 50s, use that time from 5 to 9, 5am to 9am and that time from 5pm to 9pm to develop these other skills and value adds. I promise you, if you work for someone, it will make you more valuable. If you need to leave and move somewhere else, it's going to give you options. But the worst thing we can do is go right down to, I've got one income in one geographical location. There's so much risk in that. You know, I might hear someone who says, look, James, I'm a lawyer, I work in New York. What more can I do? Well, get some clients outside New York, start getting some business upstate. You know, start thinking about online, what you can do to add value and is there a cost to that? Start doing, you know, like telehealth. People do it right. A doctor will give you advice over the old zoom or teams do the same thing in your industry. But I want you to consider, are you diversifying your income. If not, get on it, please. Okay, point number four, invest your money, don't save it. Saving ridiculous. Doesn't work yet. A rainy day fund. I get it. Make sure you've got it. Most New Zealanders don't have $1,000 that they could access in the case of an emergency. Please make sure you focus on building that emergency fund. So critical, but invest your money. Warren Buffett, obviously a master of picking stocks. He says if he was to die, he's not leaving his fortune to someone who's going to put it in a managed fund and find and pick stocks. He said the best way for his family to live off that is to put it in an index fund. So for years now, I've been in the S&P 500 and the Vanguard International. Both give really good returns. And yes, you might find someone who goes, I can give you a way better return. Let me manage your money. They charge fees. Those fees compound. It really adds up. There's been very few, I think less than 4% of the world's fund managers that have outperformed the S&P 500 index. So get onto an index. You can use something here in New Zealand, anywhere. You can use Invest now sharesies. I personally use Invest Now. I don't get any royalties or commissions for saying that, but I love it. It's easy. So get into that. Start investing. You can start super small, but automate it. Put a percentage of your income, whatever it is, and automate it to go straight into your Invest now account. Forget about it. But boom, it goes in, you forget about it. Boom, it goes in, you forget about it. I check it once a year. I meant it for the long haul. If you're in for the short haul and you need to make quick money, fast index, probably not the way to go. But if you're there for the long haul and willing to ride the ups and downs, set it and forget it. There's a couple of great books to consider. One's called the Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. I would highly recommend it. The second is Unshakable by Tony Robbins. He also had the original book, just called Money. Money is about four or five hundred pages. Took me a wee while to read. Unshakable. It's a more modern, updated version of that couple hundred pages. Quick read. Highly recommend both books. Go get them. In terms of investing, you've got to be in an index. In some description, you've got property that you can consider. You've got obviously crypto investing in businesses. Et cetera. But if you're in your 20s, listening to this, definitely start on an index. Obviously in New Zealand you've got KiwiSaver. In other countries you'll have superannuation, pension, etc. In North America, it's a whole different ballgame. But make sure whatever stage of life you're at, you've got something happening there on the index funds. Look, before I share this last tip with you, if this has been helpful for you, please share it with someone else that might find it helpful. I would deeply appreciate that. And also just to let you know, we're going to be opening the doors very, very soon for people to become a sponsor of the podcast and or our newsletter that goes out to thousands of people all around the world every single week. So if you would like to be a sponsor or learn more about it, or to get a copy of our media kit, let us know carolinejlochlin.com or find us on social. Send us a DM. We would love to chat to you and to see if you're a right fit for lead on purpose and vice versa. Okay, point five. This is the one that most people don't want to hear, but it's super important. Live below your income means don't be spending more than you earn. So many people do this, they put things on tick and they pay later. Cut that out. My grandfather was the greatest example to me. You know, at 14, he left high school, got a horse and a cart, delivered coal all around Belfast, Northern Ireland. He then got a lorry and delivered Guinness all around Ireland. He bought things, cash, including his house. Like, the guy was a legend. Super slow, super methodical, wouldn't buy anything unless he had cash for it. Love that. So think about your means. I see so many people with lovely cars, lovely handbags and all the Botox. Hey, if they've got all that stuff and they love it, that's awesome. I salute you. It's brilliant. But if you're getting it and it's putting you out of pocket and putting you into debt, that's a problem. That's a real dangerous, slippery slope. People with nice cars and all those lovely things. I high five you. If you've got them because you love them and because it makes you feel good and you can afford them. But when it puts us into this cycle of never being able to catch up, that's so dangerous. So if you know you're getting looking after yourself, whether it's hair, nails, Botox, cars, accessories, iPhones, concerts, whatever your thing is Think first. Is this in my spending plan? That's the one task I've got for you right now. Don't think about a budget. A budget means you're restricted. There's no expansiveness in that. But a spending plan that tells your subconscious mind you've got money to spend. Budget means, oh, no, we've got no money to spend. We have to budget. Where a spending plan means, hey, every week I can spend this. What's your number? What's your number every year that you need to live? Food, clothing, fuel, travel, insurance, phone, hair, nails, etc. Mortgage, electricity. What's your number? Most people don't know their number. If you don't know your number, you're probably living in and out of credit cards. Let's think about getting clarity. Clarity precedes victory every day of the week. Let's get clarity on what your number is. What do you or your family need to survive? How much are you earning? Hopefully you're earning way more than you need. That gives you options. That gives you an opportunity to invest your money. So wherever you're at, whatever age or stage you're at, I want you to think about your relationship with money and where you could level up and learn more about it. I've got a few friends who are incredible financial advisors and I would recommend them highly to you, but I want you to go and look for that. If you're looking for your own financial advisor, make sure they are a fiduciary, that they've got your interests at heart, that they're not just receiving kickbacks and commissions without letting you know. Be careful who you work with. Depending on what country you come from, there's really strict compliance laws. New Zealand's one of those, which is great. Other countries don't have them, but be careful. Your money is your money. It's hard earned. Take your time, be careful, automate some investments, invest in yourself and be really clear on what abundance looks and feels like. But until next time, please get out there and lead your life on purpose. The Lead On Purpose podcast is sponsored by NZ Mortgages. Learn more at NZMortgages Co NZ.