10 Things I Wish I Knew In My 20's (Now I'm 45)

you know how often you wake up in the morning and you don't know you feel lost you don't know what your direction what your destiny or your purpose in and in life is you don't know how to figure it out you have no way to you don't know how to educate yourself you know that you're destined for more you know that you're you need and you should do more you just don't know how today I'm going to go over 10 things that I wish I would have learned in my 20s I wish somebody would have

taught me and in all honesty this goes for everybody at every age it's doesn't matter we can all benefit from it it's life lessons that I've learned now that I'm 45 and I wish I I wish like hell I would have learned this 20 25 years ago now even though I have these things not these even though these are numbered I don't actually have them in in any real order of priority except for the first one and that's nutrition when I was in my 20s I didn't give a about my nutrition I'd say mid 20s

especially I was always stressed my quartis all levels were were through the roof I worked at kajil in hours and I completely neglected my nutrition hello hey I knew better but I didn't give a damn I was 20 I was indestructible now that I'm in my now that I'm 45 I know the air in my ways after I got out of the military I put on about 80 lbs over the course of a year I did good for a while but the amount of stress that I was under between my job and a business that

had failed which I'll actually get into later I let everything just go to complete and now that I'm 45 I know the importance of proper nutrition I understand the importance of it it would have saved me years of depression anxiety weight gain I could have maintained the physique that I once had when in my younger years it would have saved me years of mental anguish the number one priority the number one thing that we should all pay attention to is our nutrition without it you don't have anything the second thing number two your employer doesn't

give a about you your empy only gives a about you and is only willing to pay you just enough so that you don't lead so that you don't leave and to keep you productive to where you feel comfortable to where you feel like you can't leave you feel stuck you're trapped and no more when I was about 25 years old I put everything on the back burner and I sacrificed my my physical mind my body my health for a boss hello I sacrificed everything for an employer that could give a about me I hurt my

back I herniated three discs in my lower back at that point I learned that I was replaceable I was Expendable I was not important I was a liability to my to to the the to my employer over the last 20 years I've reinjured my back several times I just reinjured my back a couple of weeks ago I to take two weeks off from work about maybe 3 weeks ago couldn't hardly walk hello hello couldn't stand up straight and where's my employer from 20 years ago you think they give a about me you think they give

a about my back hurting me 20 years later they don't care it means absolutely nothing to them and now my current employer and I are left with a end result and I gave everything I had to that employer and I will never do it again your health is the most important thing it's all you got that's all that's it the number three thing I want to talk about investing your money in your future investing in the stock market buying that rental property and house hacking you go buy that uh go buy that that fourplex and

you live in one of them you rent the other three out you come up with enough of a down payment to where you don't have to worry about paying the entire mortgage yourself if you do that before you get into a relationship it's going to be a thing it's going to make things a hell of a lot easier you don't want your your wife to have to live in an apartment complex if you can avoid it you don't want your kid to grow up in an apartment complex if you can avoid it I've lived in

them but it just makes life that much easier when you avoid that situation if you're able to do it before you settle down and you start getting serious about establishing a marriage establishing your future you're going to thank yourself in the future because you're going to be able to gain off of owning a property owning a future rental property that rental property is going to gain you money in every way the property is going to appreciate and somebody else is going to pay it down for you and while you're living there while you're living there

somebody's paying it off for you there's no way way somebody's paying it off for you and you're able to save the money and not pay rent yourself you're able to not have to worry about covering the mortgage you're able to not have to worry about any of it and you're able to invest even more money into your future into more real estate into more put more money in the stock market take care of your future better you're able to house hack and you're you're able to become extremely wealthy off of virtually nothing the shitty part

about that is I actually know a guy that did exactly that God only knows what he's worth nowadays he's started out cleaning up people's dog in their backyard he rode his bicycle to work every day so that he didn't have to pay for the car he kept his bills to an absolute minimum and now he's he's hands down the wealthiest person I know hands down multi- DEA millionaire and he will never have to worry about money for the rest of his life because in his early 20s he got started and he did everything the right

way I was stupid and I didn't think that I would be able to pull that off he would he would have absolutely taught me everything he knows he probably still would if I wanted to but instead I was listening to people that had no idea what to do with their money and I wasted all of mine that leads into the that leads into the fourth thing and it it goes right with number three and that's take your risks early the earlier you can set yourself up the easier it is to overcome because you have time

on your side say you go and buy that fourplex or you buy that that just regular house and you decide to rent the rooms out to your friends or Perfect Stranger you go house hacking if for whatever reason you had to move back into mom and dad you weren't able to cover the bills anymore if that if that house if that situation went bad if it went South you're able to recover from that but as you get older your mom and dad you can't really move back in with them they might be getting they might

pass away but as you get older it's harder it's it's harder to to recover from those those potential risks you don't have the compound interest on your side because you don't have the time mom and dad mom and dad might be deceased they might have passed away when you're in your 20s and you just you first move out it's going to be a hell of a lot easier when everything goes south go back to mom and dad there's no there's no shame in that dust yourself off and then start again do it all over again

figure out where you went wrong and do it find those risks figure that out you can do it especially if you're in your 20s but the risk the amount of risk that's involved it does nothing but going up it gets it gets more and more every single year as you get older number five the fifth thing I want to number five on that list is the bars are always going to be open and your friends are always going to be there you can go to that bar and you can go hang out with your friend

anytime you want when you go to a bar how much money do you spend can you even go to a bar anymore for less than 100 bucks and then you see people that are going out there and they're charging that on their credit card they're going over there and they're running up a $100 tab they're getting shitfaced every every single weekend Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday just constantly getting shitfaced think about all that money that you're throwing right in the toilet if you spend 100 bucks a weekend $400 a month if you were to just invest

that in a simple Index Fund every month from the age of 20 to 50 you'd have right around $2 million on average let's say I was half wrong about that let's say I was I was half wrong with with a 2 million bucks and you only end up with a million how much better are you going to be when you turn 50 years old with a million dollars in your bank account because you made it you decide to make the smart choices at your younger years alcohol is Poison the bars are poison and saying no

to your friends saying no to the bar all it's going to do is help you in the future it's only going to benefit you in the future I know that feeling that going drinking it helps you loosen up it helps you feel better but that's only a symptom of the problem hello the problem is your insecurities those insecurities are deep down inside of you and you need to figure out how to how to overcome those insecurities cuz all you're doing is makeing them worse now you're a drunk with insecurities instead of just being a normal

person with normal insecurities that everybody has say no to your friends stop going to the bars number six you don't have anything to prove to anyone and you don't owe anybody anything you don't have to give anybody any explanations you don't have to prove anything to anybody ever that person that thinks that you're full of because you're trying to make strides you're trying to get get ahead in life you're trying to do something to benefit your your future to benefit your family in the future screw that you don't owe him anything and you don't need

his validation you don't owe anybody anything so so far you fixed your nutrition you're investing in yourself you don't have any debt you're investing in your future you don't owe anybody anything you're not going to the bars and you're making All the Right Moves you want to focus on a family you want to focus on passing on a legacy you want to focus on being able to create a legacy and you're able to do that because the first first steps that you're taking with a responsibility in your life are going to allow you the opportunity

to do that you meet the girl of your dreams you guys decide to have kids that leads us to the seventh thing that I wish I would have known and that was to create more memories and put less focus on stuff and more focus on memories as you get older life goes faster life pass as you buy faster think back to when you were a freshman and you're sitting in high school and you were thinking to yourself all you have is four more years it's going to take forever for you to finish school you don't

know if you're ever going to be able to finish school it feels like it's never going to end and it seems like the next thing you know you blink and you're done you're in your senior year and then your senior year is over and now life just started getting real you have to start adulting you have to start doing things that are hard making decisions that are hard you have to take responsibility for your actions there's consequence quences to your actions you're now an adult when you have kids and you get married you only have

18 Summers with those kids and it goes by fast there's actually a mathematical equation somebody way smarter than me I couldn't tell it to you but you can look it up there is a mathematical equation that actually breaks down and proves that the older you get the faster your life goes it's not just Theory it is fact before you know it the days are long and the decades are short make those memories but since you've been a good Steward with all of your with your money you're not going to the bars you you're focusing on

your future you're in a great relationship with your wife with your wife you've got kids or you've got kids on the way you're establishing yourself you're building yourself up and doing the right thing you're going to end up putting less stress on your marriage you're going to put less stress in your household cuz you're not worried about what the boys are doing anymore you're not worried about the car payment and finances you're not worried about how you're going to keep the lights on you don't give a about that anymore because you've been doing you have

been taking the proper steps that a responsible adult should be taking you're going to find that your marriage can be more successful and happier you don't give a about the stuff even if you can't afford the the car or whatever you can afford the payment that's no way to live that will sneak up on you before you know it here come the fights about finances that will happen if you're not a good Steward with your money and if you just delay that gratification until later on in your in your life you will be able to

afford anything you want and truly be able to and there won't be any stress involved with it and you'll truly be able to afford and enjoy whatever it is that you want to enjoy that badass car that you've been wanting your whole life it's not going to bring stress into your house it's not going to bring negativity into your life because you can actually afford it the eth thing you've been a good Steward with your money you've established yourself and you've taken tons of risk and you've gotten it out of the way you've been been

able to recover from failure if you need to you're able to have a happy marriage happy marriage a happy H household you're able to accomplish whatever it is that you want your confidence is up because you're keeping your nutrition and you've done things in the right steps you've done things the right way in order for you to be able to get to the point that you're at now when I was in my 20s any of you guys that have been with me for a while you know that I I I used to be a plumber

and at the time I was doing construction I went and got my contractor's license I formed an LLC and I started a plumbing business I knew how to do the service type work but what I really knew was the construction what I found out is there isn't any money in construction especially in 20072 2008 when the real estate market was collapsing and I was facing and I was facing multiple layoffs in one year my business failed I didn't realize that the money in the plumbing industry was was in service I thought it was in construction

all the people that I'd worked for for they were all multi-millionaires they had everything going on they had more money than they knew what to do with but the only way that people make money on construction is by volume and it's an extremely extremely difficult Market to actually be able to break into be successful and make money at it just because you're a good plumber doesn't mean that you're a good business owner but what I did wrong the reason why my business failed was because I was scared to go big I did things right as

far as I I established an LLC I had my my my contractor's license I I was insured I was bonded I had everything done properly to the te but what I didn't realize is what hurt me what I didn't realize is why my business failed now back when back then in 2008 2007 I was I was based out of the Phoenix area and back then the way to get your business booming the way to get plenty of customers to come in in the service industry was to have a Yellow Pages ad in the phone book

now I was a new I was just starting out and I didn't have any way I didn't have any word of mouth I didn't know how else to get my word out to get word out there remember Google was in its infancy YouTube was just started Facebook wasn't even a thing there was you either had TV commercials or the phone book and that's about it or a word of mouth when you're just starting it's difficult to get that word of mouth but in the Phoenix area in order to put a full page ad in the

phone book in the Yellow Pages it was $28,000 a month not 2,800 28,000 000 a month I was scared I was scared to go too big I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to cover the $28,000 and that fear is what held me back and that fear that fear that fear is what held me back and that fear is why I failed I end up spending $10,000 a month on a half page ad the best month that I had there was $330,000 everything was going good for for a little while until it wasn't and

what I found out is since I did everything right since I set since I established everything the right way and I did things the proper way since I had an LLC I had nothing to fear and I should have just gone big from the word go now a bit of a recap you've got your nutrition squared away you've invested in your future you've been a you've been a good Steward with your money you stayed away from debt you invested in the stock market or real estate you've got your you've got your your your life is

coming for your life is going going just well for you you don't have a ton of stress you find that lady that you want you have that kid you're D you're living the dream life you start your own business then you have to realize that life isn't about you life is about a bigger picture when you have kids you'll you'll learn this you'll figure this out you'll know you'll you'll you'll understand what I'm talking about when you have kids or if you have kids you know what I'm talking about at least I hope like hell

you know what I'm talking about life is about other people and helping other people life is about establishing a good life for you for the children that you brought into this Earth life is about taking care of that family and giving and being generous to everybody that's how you become grateful that's how you become grateful that's how you give back to humanity that's why we're here that's why we're put on this Earth that's why we're put on this planet is to give back to humanity it's not about us in fact we we almost have nothing

to do with anything the only thing that we have anything to do with is helping our fellow man it's learning and understanding that is our purpose that is our destiny our destiny is to bring Prov provide value to those around us that's the value that you provide is is the cap that is is the value that you provide to society is what provides your wage the more value that you provide to society to humanity the more money you're able to make the less value you provide to society and Humanity the less you make minimum wage

we're put on this Earth to provide and help one another the best thing you can do is help other people to find the Gratitude in this world and in this life that we should all feel hello the 10th thing that I want to talk about is be teachable I know when I was in my 20s I thought I had it all figured out I thought I knew everything I was indestructible I was successful I'd been through a lot in the Years prior my teenage years in early 20s they were brutal they were downright downright brutal

I thought I had wisdom I didn't think I had anything to learn I was ignorant as hell out I was an idiot people would try to give me advice and i' be like ah just blow them off older people that most likely had wisdom people that were definitely wiser than me when I was in my 20s you have to be teachable there's people in this world that have something to offer all of us there's something that that there's there's people in this world no matter how smart you are or you think you are there's always

somebody smarter bigger and B than you are we'll often overcompensate we'll over often overcompensate our ego our arrogance and try to pretend that it's confidence anybody with any sort of intelligence is going to see right through that ego AR ego arrogance and conf are all complete different things ego is actually necessary arrogance is a is a coping mechanism and confidence is something that you build don't forget happiness only requires gratitude that's it if you ever want to be happy if you're not happy in this life if you can't find happiness the way that you find

it is through gratitude that's all that's required to be happy is to be grateful for what you have Aristotle said The more you know the more you realize that you don't know and you'll find that out if you're not teachable anyway that's all I got for tonight guys I appreciate each and every one of you I appreciate every one of you showing up I'm absolutely grateful for every one of you that put algor room in the comments from yesterday's video you don't know how much that means to me that's one of the biggest compliments that

you can give this guy and I appreciate the hell out of it I appreciate the hell out of you and I hope you have a wonderful day peace