By

Joshua Okhoinmwenre. Edo (ANIPR-0150470),

BUILDING A CAREER PATH FOR joshuaedo@yahoo.co.uk,joshuaedo@gmail.com

THE FUTURE Mobile: 08054777317, 08092608297

FOR
Young Adults & Youths

1

Relationship & Business
Questions: when you grow up what do you want to become?
What make you make the choice of your current career?
What made you make the choice of a life partner?
Is career the same thing as your education?
How does finance and relationship work?
Invention + need=innovation
A Shocker: Education is not career- how?
My work: ―Building a career path for the future – a case study of the Nigerian
Child‖ (paper presentation by Joshua O. Edo 2014 May 30th).
Creative thinking: A picturesque kind of mind of what you want and then acting it
by working towards it counting the cost Lk. 14: 28
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Meaning of Career:
1.
an occupation or profession, especially one requiring special training, followed as
one's lifework:
He sought a career as a lawyer.
2.
a person's progress or general course of action through life or through a phase of
life, as in some profession or undertaking:
His career as a soldier ended with the armistice.
3.
success in a profession, occupation, etc.
4.
a course, especially a swift one.
2. Synonyms: vocation, calling, work, lifework, livelihood.
A rear gem statement of a course:
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new
nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are
created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation
so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of
that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place
for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting
and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not
hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have
consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note,
nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It
is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they
who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here
dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we
take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of
devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—
that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that
government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the
earth.
Abraham Lincoln (Gettysburg Address: November 19, 1863)
Career planning is not an activity that should be done once — in high school or
college — and then left behind as we move forward in our jobs and careers. Rather,
career planning is an activity that is best done on a regular basis — especially given
the data that the average worker will change careers (not jobs) multiple times over
his or her lifetime. And it‘s never too soon or too late to start your career planning.
Career planning is not a hard activity, not something to be dreaded or put off, but
rather an activity that should be liberating and fulfilling, providing goals to achieve
in your current career or plans for beginning a transition to a new career. Career
planning should be a rewarding and positive experience.
Here, then, are 10 tips to help you achieve successful career planning.
1. Make Career Planning an Annual Event
Many of us have physicals, visit the eye doctor and dentist, and do a myriad of
other things on an annual basis, so why not career planning? Find a day or weekend
once a year — more often if you feel the need or if you‘re planning a major career
change — and schedule a retreat for yourself. Try to block out all distractions so
that you have the time to truly focus on your career — what you really want out of
your career, out of your life.
By making career planning an annual event, you will feel more secure in your
career choice and direction — and you‘ll be better prepared for the many
uncertainties and difficulties that lie ahead in all of our jobs and career.
2. Map Your Path Since Last Career Planning
One of your first activities whenever you take on career planning is spending time
mapping out your job and career path since the last time you did any sort of career
planning. While you should not dwell on your past, taking the time to review and
reflect on the path — whether straight and narrow or one filled with any curves and
dead-ends — will help you plan for the future.
Once you‘ve mapped your past, take the time to reflect on your course — and note
why it looks the way it does. Are you happy with your path? Could you have done
things better? What might you have done differently? What can you do differently
in the future?
3. Reflect on Your Likes and Dislikes, Needs and Wants
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Change is a factor of life; everybody changes, as do our likes and dislikes.
Something we loved doing two years ago may now give us displeasure. So always
take time to reflect on the things in your life — not just in your job — that you feel
most strongly about.
Make a two-column list of your major likes and dislikes. Then use this list to
examine your current job and career path. If your job and career still fall mostly in
the like column, then you know you are still on the right path; however, if your job
activities fall mostly in the dislike column, now is the time to begin examining new
jobs and new careers.
Finally, take the time to really think about what it is you want or need from your
work, from your career. Are you looking to make a difference in the world? To be
famous? To become financially independent? To effect change? Take the time to
understand the motives that drive your sense of success and happiness.
4. Examine Your Pastimes and Hobbies
Career planning provides a great time to also examine the activities you like doing
when you‘re not working. It may sound a bit odd, to examine non-work activities
when doing career planning, but it‘s not. Many times your hobbies and leisurely
pursuits can give you great insight into future career paths.
Think you can‘t make a hobby into a career? People do it all the time. The great
painter Paul Gauguin was a successful business person who painted on the side. It
actually wasn‘t until he was encouraged by an artist he admired to continue painting
that he finally took a serious look at his hobby and decided he should change
careers. He was good at business, but his love was painting.
5. Make Note of Your Past Accomplishments
Most people don‘t keep a very good record of work accomplishments and then
struggle with creating a powerful resume when it‘s time to search for a new job.
Making note of your past accomplishments — keeping a record of them — is not
only useful for building your resume, it‘s also useful for career planning.
Sometimes reviewing your past accomplishments will reveal forgotten successes,
one or more which may trigger researching and planning a career shift so that you
can be in a job that allows you to accomplish the types of things that make you most
happy and proud.
Research on Tracking and Leveraging Accomplishments.
6. Look Beyond Your Current Job for Transferable Skills
Some workers get so wrapped up in their job titles that they don‘t see any other
career possibilities for themselves. Every job requires a certain set of skills, and it‘s
much better to categorize yourself in terms of these skill sets than be so myopic as
to focus just on job titles.
For example, one job-seeker who was trying to accomplish career planning found
herself stuck because she identified herself as a reporter. But once she looked
beyond her job title, she could see that she had this strong collection of transferable
skills — such as writing, editing, researching, investigating, interviewing, juggling
multiple tasks, meeting goals and deadlines, and managing time and information —
skills that could easily be applied to a wide variety of jobs in many different
careers.
For more about transferable skills, read: Transferable Skills.
7. Review Career and Job Trends
Everyone makes his or her own job and career opportunities, so that even if your
career is shrinking, if you have excellent skills and know how to market yourself,
you should be able to find a new job. However, having information about career
trends is vital to long-term career planning success.
A career path that is expanding today could easily shrink tomorrow — or next year.
It‘s important to see where job growth is expected, especially in the career fields
that most interest you. Besides knowledge of these trends, the other advantage of
conducting this research is the power it gives you to adjust and strengthen your
position, your unique selling proposition. One of the keys to job and career success
is having a unique set of accomplishments, skills, and education that make you
better than all others in your career.
For more about researching careers, review our Career Research Checklist.
8. Set Career and Job Goals
Develop a roadmap for your job and career success. Can you be successful in your
career without setting goals? Of course. Can you be even more successful through
goal-setting? Most research says yes.
A major component of career planning is setting short-term (in the coming year)
and long-term (beyond a year) career and job goals. Once you initiate this process,
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another component of career planning becomes reviewing and adjusting those goals
as your career plans progress or change – and developing new goals once you
accomplish your previous goals.
9. Explore New Education/Training Opportunities
It‘s somewhat of a cliche, but information really does lead to power and success.
Never pass up chances to learn and grow more as a person and as a worker; part of
career planning is going beyond passive acceptance of training opportunities to
finding new ones that will help enhance or further your career.
Take the time to contemplate what types of educational experiences will help you
achieve your career goals. Look within your company, your professional
association, your local universities and community colleges, as well as online
distance learning programs, to find potential career-enhancing opportunities — and
then find a way achieve them.
10. Research Further Career/Job Advancement Opportunities
One of the really fun outcomes of career planning is picturing yourself in the future.
Where will you be in a year? In five years? A key component to developing
multiple scenarios of that future is researching career paths.
Of course, if you‘re in what you consider a dead-end job, this activity becomes even
more essential to you, but all job-seekers should take the time to research various
career paths — and then develop scenarios for seeing one or more of these visions
become reality. Look within your current employer and current career field, but
again, as with all aspects of career planning, do not be afraid to look beyond to
other possible careers.
Final Thoughts on Career Planning
Don‘t wait too long between career planning sessions. Career planning can have
multiple benefits, from goal-setting to career change, to a more successful life.
Once you begin regularly reviewing and planning your career using the tips
provided in this article, you‘ll find yourself better prepared for whatever lies ahead
in your career — and in your life.
Using available opportunities in fed. Govt. & state:
Join http://smallbusinessclub.ng/
DO YOU NEED A FREE WORKSPACE/FACTORY FOR YOUR BUSINESS FROM The broad mandate is to assist small scale budding entrepreneurs to overcome the
THE FG? JOIN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT INITIATIVE FOR SMALL initial hurdles of bringing viable research and development (R&D) results and other
BUSINESS OWNERS AND START-UPS technologies into profitable enterprises.

To this effect Technology Incubation Centres is searching and inviting already

existing Entrepreneurs and budding Entrepreneurs (with viable ideas or existing
businesses) that are willing to start up their businesses.

PROJECTS ALLOWED FOR INCUBATION

1. LOW TECHNOLOGIES
* Manufacturing of simple equipment and machineries
* Upgrading of traditional Technologies & handicrafts

2. MEDIUM TECHNOLOGIES
* Manufacturing of Electrical and Electronic components and equipment
* Chemical processes, manufacturing plastic items
* Manufacturing of Scientific equipment etc

3. HIGH TECHNOLOGIES
* Biotechnology processes and products
Technology Incubation Programme is a programme of the Federal government * Information and Communication Technology Software and Hardware, Space
through the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology (FMST) is put in place Technology Software and Hardware
with the collaboration of States and/or Local Governments and other relevant * Artificial Intelligence
stakeholders. * Robotics

4. EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
* Advance Material
* Nano Technology
* Laser Technologies and others

SERVICES PROVIDED BY TECHNOLOGY INCUBATION CENTRES

Design and Fabrication of processing equipment
Writing of feasibility report and business plan
The National Board for Technology Incubation (NBTI) coordinates the Technology Product publicity
Incubation programme while the actual Incubation process takes place at Consultancy services
Technology Incubation Centres (TICs). To this end, Technology Incubation Conducting market survey and research
Centrrs was established to transform the State Governments through the Ministry Training on Peach tree accounting
of Commerce and Industries. Management training/workshops
Network troubleshooting solutions
Web designing and updating
Assist in facilitating product registration with NAFDAC, SON etc

5
The Technology Incubation Centres provides the following facilities to its
entrepreneurs
* Standby generator
* Adequate water supply
* Adequate conference hall for meetings and lectures
* Participation in International and Local fair/ exhibition
* Internet Facility
* Linkages with Banks, Tertiary institutions, Research institutions, Small &
medium Enterprises, Governments, Private Organizations and NGOs‘.
PROCEDURES FOR ADMISSION
• Possession of Commercialisable Research and Development (R&D) results or
innovations
• Feasibility study of Projects showing Market potential, economic Benefits,
Financial budgets, Business plan and Technological viability
• Managerial Qualification, experience and Integrity
• Patented Technology will be given preference
• Guaranteed environmental pollution free business
• Completion of approved Application Form (it is free)
For enquiries contact the undersigned.
THE SCIENTIFIC OFFICER II
Technology Incubation Centre (of your respective States in Nigeria)
National Board of Technology Incubation
Federal Ministry of Science and Technology
Prospective incubatees are strongly advised to visit the Technology
Incubation Center Office in your respective States in Nigeria for further details.
To know the address of the office in your State, please visit the website of the
National Board of Technology Incubation, Federal Ministry of Science and
Technology
Starting up a legitimate online Business in international trade
―Deerfield Beach, Fla.—Oct. 27, 2014—For international consumers, access to
the U.S. products is often limited or overpriced. BedaBox, a new global commerce
website that launched, is addressing the trade barrier between U.S. merchants and
international consumers.
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BedaBox provides a gateway for international consumers to purchase any American
goods, literally from a book to a boat. The company works with international
shoppers to purchase U.S. merchandise on their behalf and then ships it directly to
them. However, international consumers aren‘t its only target audience.
All bitcoin users (whether in the U.S. or abroad) and U.S. merchants also benefit
from BedaBox. Thanks to the website‘s bitcoin payment processing capability,
bitcoin users gain new access to U.S.-based e-retailers. Further, U.S. merchants can
expand their reach to tap new international markets.
―There is a void in global commerce that became apparent when I relocated to the
United States,‖ BedaBox‘s Founder and Executive Director Jan Bednar states. ―As
soon as I moved here, my friends in the Czech Republic were constantly asking me
to buy and ship them merchandise. I started BedaBox to address this demand and
cater to international consumers hungry for American goods. By accepting bitcoin,
the company is also able to tap a viable market, here in the United States.‖
BedaBox accepts multiple forms of payment. In addition to bitcoin, the website
accepts PayPal, U.S. bank credit cards, Western Union transfers and affiliate
payments (via an area representative). BedaBox currently operates in the Czech
Republic, Slovakia, Panama, Germany and the United States, fluently serving
customers in their native languages. The company plans to expand customer service
with native language fluencies to China, Japan, Russia, Brazil, Argentina and
Canada in 2015.
After winning two startup competitions with BedaBox, Bednar was recently
accepted into Florida Atlantic University‘s Tech Runway program. The new startup
accelerator awarded him a $25,000 grant to further develop BedaBox with.
21 Things That Young Adults Absolutely Need to Know About Money
I had to under go a three credit course called Personal Finance
(www.rci.rutgers.edu/῀boneill/), HP E-Learning plat form(http://www.life-
global.org/?s=/go/esp) even as a Bank officer. Unfortunately only a small fraction
of students and other universities receive any formal education in money
management. Below are "cliffs notes" for those who leave school without learning
about personal finance.
Budgeting
1. Create a Spending Plan (Budget)
Track your monthly income and expenses and "tweak" the numbers until cash flow
is positive (income greater than expenses). Use this Student Budget
Calculator(http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/smart-spending/college-student-
budget-calculator.aspx) from Bankrate to get started.
2. Learn to Use a Checking Account
Compare bank and credit union accounts for students. Reconcile your checkbook
register with print or online statements and avoid fees for low balances and out-of-
network ATMs.
3. Pay Bills on Time
Use a calendar and/or e-mail or text message alerts to keep on top of bills for car
insurance, utilities, credit card balances, etc. Better still, pay bills promptly when
they first arrive.
Credit and Debt
4. Don't Borrow What You Can't Repay
Outstanding debt ties up future income, costs money (interest and/or fees), and can
cause physical symptoms of stress (anxiety, insomnia, etc.).
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5. Double the Minimum
Ideally, plan to pay credit card bills in full. If you can't, pay at least double the
minimum amount due to save on interest and cut the repayment time. For example,
doubling the minimum payment on a N1, 000 balance on an 18% APR credit card
will save N399 in interest and four years of payments.
6. Compare Student Loan Debt to Future Earnings
Financial aid counselors recommend not borrowing any more than the expected first
year salary for the career that you expect to have after graduation.
7. Know Your Score
Credit scores are based on data found in credit reports. Credit reports are like a
"report card" with detailed information about credit use while credit scores are like
a "GPA" with a single number between 300 and 850 that tells how you are doing.
For a free credit report, see AnnualCreditReport.com.
Saving and Investing
8. Be Future-Minded
Set financial goals with both a dollar amount and time deadline. Then calculate the
required savings. For example, to have N1,000 for spring break in 40 weeks
requires N25 of weekly savings. Use this financial goal worksheet to "do the math."
9. Pay Yourself First
From every dollar you earn, save at least a dime (10%). Automate your savings
through direct deposit, payroll deduction (e.g., 401(k) plan), and automatic transfers
from a checking to a savings account.
10. Save Early and Often
Take advantage of the awesome power of compound interest. For every decade that
you wait to start saving for a financial goal, the amount you need to save
approximately triples. For more information about saving, visit America
Saves(www.americasave.org),LAPO(www.lapo-nigeria.org), First Bank other
Savings Schemes in the Country
11. Understand the Rule of 72
Divide the expected return on an investment into 72 (e.g., 72 ÷ 8%). The result
(e.g., 9) is the number of years that it will take to double a sum of money. To build
wealth, you'll need to take some risk and invest in stocks or stock mutual funds. At
a 1% rate of return, money will double in 72 years.
12. Learn About Investment Risks
All investments have some type of risk including risk of loss of principal (e.g.,
stocks) and risk of loss of purchasing power due to inflation (e.g., money market
funds). Learn more about investing from the Cooperative Extension basic investing
home study course Investing for Your Future.
Insurance
13. Insure Against Large Financial Losses
"Big ticket" risks include medical expenses, loss or destruction of property,
disability caused by an accident or illness, and liability for damages to others or to
their property.
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14. Buy Health Insurance
It's not just a smart financial move, it is required by law. Young adults can stay on
their parents' plan until age 26 or they can purchase insurance through an employer
or their state's health insurance marketplace. For more information, see Oceanic
Health, NHIS.
Spending
15. Determine Needs and Wants
Needs (e.g., food, housing, utilities, and transportation to a job or school) are
necessary expenses. Wants are everything else. Set money aside for needs before
spending it on wants.
16. Follow the Rule of Three
Compare the features, including price and consumer feedback ratings, of at least
three vendors for "big ticket" products and services. To organize the information
that you find, try using this comparison shopping worksheet.
17. Step Down to Save
"Stepping down" means getting things that you need or want at a lower price point.
For example, buying clothing in good condition at a thrift or consignment shop
instead of at a department store.
Other
18. Guard Your Identity
Place documents with sensitive data (e.g., bank and credit card numbers) in a secure
location and don't divulge Social Security or credit card numbers except when
required by trusted sources.
19. Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle
The greatest wealth is health! Eat healthy meals, be physically active, get adequate
sleep, and avoid vices, such as cigarettes and pot, that are expensive and can cause
future problems.
20. Build Your Human Capital
Never consider your education finished. To advance in your career, continue to
learn skills that employers and/or clients (if self-employed) value and maintain a
robust professional network.
21. Keep Learning About Money
Some helpful websites for information about young adult finances include Money
Under 30, 20 Something Finance, Cash Course, and, of course, Wise Bread.
Did you learn personal finance in college?
Dr. Barbara O'Neill, Ph.D., CFP®, is a Distinguished Professor and
Specialist in Financial Resource Management for Rutgers Cooperative
Extension. Follow Dr. O'Neill at @moneytalk1.
A Guide for Young People: What to Do With Your Life
By Leo Babauta
I had a 15-year-old write to me and ask about figuring out what to do with her life.
She writes:
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‗As a high-school student I‘m constantly being reminded to figure out what to do
with my life, what career I would like to have and so on. I definitely feel huge
amounts of pressure when my teachers and parents tell me to figure out something
now. I‘m young and I don‘t want to make a mistake and ruin my future. I know
what I like and what my interests are but when I read about a job related to those
interests I always feel as if I wouldn‘t enjoy it and I don‘t know why.‘
What an extremely tough thing to figure out: what to do with your future! Now, I
can‘t really tell this young woman what to do, as her parents might not like that
very much, but I can share what I‘ve learned looking back on my life, and what I
would tell my kids (oldest is 21 and still figuring things out, but I also have 17- and
16-year-old boys and a 14-year-old girl).
Here‘s what I‘d say.
You can’t figure out the future. Even young people who have a plan (be a doctor,
lawyer, research scientist, singer) don‘t really know what will happen. If they have
any certainty at all, they‘re a bit deluded. Life doesn‘t go according to plan, and
while a few people might do exactly what they set out to do, you never know if
you‘re one of those. Other things come along to change you, to change your
opportunities, to change the world. The jobs of working at Google, Amazon or
Twitter, for example, didn‘t exist when I was a teen-ager. Neither did the job of Zen
Habits blogger.
So if you can‘t figure out the future, what do you do? Don‘t focus on the future.
Focus on what you can do right now that will be good no matter what the future
brings. Make stuff. Build stuff. Learn skills. Go on adventures. Make friends. These
things will help in any future.
Learn to be good with discomfort. One of the most important skills you can
develop is being OK with some discomfort. The best things in life are often hard,
and if you shy away from difficulty and discomfort, you‘ll miss out. You‘ll live a
life of safety.
Learning is hard. Building something great is hard. Writing a book is hard. A
marriage is hard. Running an ultramarathon is hard. All are amazing.
If you get good at this, you can do anything. You can start a business, which you
couldn‘t if you‘re afraid of discomfort, because starting a business is hard and
uncomfortable.
How do you get good at this? Do things now that are uncomfortable and hard, on
purpose. But start with small doses. Try exercising for a little bit, even if it‘s hard,
but just start with a few minutes of it, and increase a minute every few days or so.
Try writing a blog or meditating every day. When you find yourself avoiding
discomfort, push yourself just a little bit more (within limits of reason and safety of
course).
Learn to be good with uncertainty. A related skill is thriving in uncertainty.
Starting a business, for example, is an amazing thing to do … but if you‘re afraid of
uncertainty, you‘ll skip it. You can‘t know how things will turn out, and so if you
need to know how things will turn out, you‘ll avoid great projects, businesses,
opportunities.
But if you can be OK with not knowing, you‘ll be open to many more possibilities.
Read more on uncertainty.
If you‘re good at discomfort and uncertainty, you could do all kinds of things: travel
the world and live cheaply while blogging about it, write a book, start a business,
live in a foreign country and teach English, learn to program and create your own
software, take a job with a startup, create an online magazine with other good
young writers, and much more. All of those would be awesome, but you have to be
OK with discomfort and uncertainty.
If any opportunities like these come along, you‘ll be ready if you‘ve practiced these
skills.
Overcome distraction and procrastination. All of this is useless if you can‘t
overcome the universal problems of distraction and procrastination. You might
seize an opportunity because you‘re good at uncertainty and discomfort, but then
not make the most of it because you‘re too busy on social media and watching TV.
Actually, distraction and procrastination are just ways of avoiding discomfort, so if
you get good at discomfort you‘re way ahead of most people. But there are some
things you can practice — read more here.
Learn about your mind. Most people don‘t realize that fear controls them. They
don‘t notice when they run to distraction, or rationalize doing things they told
themselves they wouldn‘t do. It‘s hard to change mental habits because you don‘t
always see what‘s going on in your head.
Learn about how your mind works, and you‘ll be much better at all of this. The best
ways: meditation and blogging. With meditation (read how to do it) you watch your
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mind jumping around, running from discomfort, rationalizing. With blogging, you
are forced to reflect on what you‘ve been doing in life and what you‘ve learned
from it. It‘s a great tool for self-growth, and I recommend it to every young person.
Make some money. I don‘t think money is that important, but making money is
difficult. You have to make someone believe in you enough to hire you or buy your
products/service, which means you have to figure out why you‘re worthy of
someone believing in you. You have to become worthy. And you have to learn to
communicate that to people so they‘ll want to buy or hire you. Whether you‘re
selling cookies door-to-door or an app in the Apple store or trying to get a job as a
cashier, you have to do this.
And you get better with practice.
I worked as a clerk at a bank and then a professional intern with NTA Benin, and
those were valuable experiences for me.
Protip: save an emergency fund, then start investing your earnings in an index fund
and watch it grow over your lifetime.
Build something small. Most people fritter their time away on things that don‘t
matter, like TV, video games, social media, reading news. A year of that and you
have nothing to show for it. But if you did a sketch every day, or started writing
web app, or created a blog or a video channel that you update regularly, or started
building a cookie business … at the end of a year you‘ll have something great. And
some new skills. Something you can point to and say, ―I built that.‖ Which most
people can‘t do.
Start small, and build it every day if possible. It‘s like putting your money in
investments: it grows in value over time.
Become trustworthy. When someone hires a young person, the biggest fear is that
the young person is not trustworthy. That they‘ll come in late and lie about it and
miss deadlines. Someone who has established a reputation over the years might be
much more trusted, and more likely to be hired. Learn to be trustworthy by showing
up on time, doing your best on every task, being honest, admitting mistakes but
fixing them, trying your best to meet deadlines, being a good person.
If you do that, you‘ll build a reputation and people will recommend you to others,
which is the best way to get a job or investor.
Be ready for opportunities. If you do all of the above, or at least most of it, you‘ll
be amazing. You‘ll be way, way ahead of pretty much every other person your age.
And opportunities will come your way, if you have your eyes open: job
opportunities, a chance to build something with someone, an idea for a startup that
you can build yourself, a new thing to learn and turn into a business, the chance to
submit your new screenplay.
But if "follow your passion," "give 110%," and "be true to yourself" just aren't
cutting it for you anymore, perhaps advice like, "don't work too hard" and "relax"
are more up your alley.
These successful people have offered some of the best — and oftentimes
unconventional — advice for people in their 20s:

These opportunities might come along, and you have to be ready to seize them. View As: One Page Slides
Take risks — that‘s one of the advantages of being young. And if none come along,
create your own.

Finally: The idea behind all of this is that you can‘t know what you‘re going to do Warren Buffett: Exercise humility and restraint.
with your life right now, because you don‘t know who you‘re going to be, what
you‘ll be able to do, what you‘ll be passionate about, who you‘ll meet, what
opportunities will come up, or what the world will be like. But you do know this: if
you are prepared, you can do anything you want.

Prepare yourself by learning about your mind, becoming trustworthy, building

things, overcoming procrastination, getting good at discomfort and uncertainty.

You can put all this off and live a life of safety and boringness. Or you can start
today, and see what life has to offer you.
Warren Buffett.Alex Wong/Getty
Lastly, what do you do when your parents and teachers pressure you to figure things
out? Tell them you‘re going to be an entrepreneur, start your own business, and take In a 2010 interview with Yahoo, Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO Warren
over the world. If you prepare for that, you‘ll actually be prepared for any career. Buffett said the best advice he ever received was from Berkshire Hathaway board-
of-directors member Thomas Murphy. He told Buffett:

25 super-successful people share their best career advice for 20- "Never forget Warren, you can tell a guy to go to hell tomorrow — you don't give
somethings up the right. So just keep your mouth shut today, and see if you feel the same way
tomorrow."

During this year's Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting, Buffett also
told a curious seventh-grader that the key to making friends and getting along with
coworkers is learning to change your behavior as you mature by emulating those
you admire and adopting the qualities they possess.

Maya Angelou: Make your own path.

Yahoo president and CEO Marissa Mayer.Ruben Sprich/Reuters

If you're young and your career is in its early days, you've likely been privy to Maya Angelou.Mary Altaffer/AP
plenty of career truisms and clichés.

11
In her book, "The Best Advice I Ever Got," Katie Couric quotes author, poet,
dancer, actress, and singer Maya Angelou:
My paternal grandmother, Mrs. Annie Henderson, gave me advice that I have used
for 65 years. She said, 'If the world puts you on a road you do not like, if you look
ahead and do not want that destination which is being offered and you look behind
and you do not want to return to you place of departure, step
off the ro ad. Build yourself a new path.'
Richard Branson: Never look back in regret — move on to the next thing.
Richard Branson.Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images
Richard Branson's mother taught him that.
"The amount of time people waste dwelling on failures, rather than putting that
energy into another project, always amazes me," The Virgin Group founder and
chairman told The Good Entrepreneur. "I have fun running ALL the Virgin
businesses — so a setback is never a bad experience, just a learning curve."
12
J.K. Rowling: Embrace failure.
J.K. Rowling. Ben A. Pruchnie/GettyImages
J.K. Rowling, author of the best-selling children's book series "Harry Potter,"
knows a lot about achieving success — and failure.
"I don't think we talk about failure enough," Rowling recently told Matt Lauer on
NBC's "Today" show. "It would've really helped to have someone who had had a
measure of success come say to me, 'You will fail. That's inevitable. It's what you
do with it.'"
Before Rowling became one of the wealthiest women in the world, she was a single
mom living off welfare in the UK. She began writing about her now famous
character, the young wizard Harry Potter, in Edinburgh cafes, and received "loads"
of rejections from book publishers when she first sent out the manuscript, The
Guardian reports.
"An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone
parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless
... By every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew," Rowling said during a
2008 Harvard University commencement speech.
She went on to say that she considered her early failure a "gift" that was "painfully
won," since she gained valuable knowledge about herself and her relationships
through the adversity.
Eric Schmidt: Say yes to more things.
Eric Schmidt.REUTERS/Ruben Sprich
In her book, "The Best Advice I Ever Got," Katie Couric quotes Google executive
chairman Eric Schmidt as advising:
Find a way to say yes to things. Say yes to invitations to a new country, say yes to
meet new friends, say yes to learn something new. Yes is how you get your first
job, and your next job, and your spouse, and even your kids."
Marissa Mayer: Pick something and make it great.
Marissa Mayer.AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau
In a 2011 interview with the Social Times, current Yahoo president and
CEO Marissa Mayer revealed the best advice she ever received:
13
My friend Andre said to me, 'You know, Marissa, you're putting a lot of pressure on
yourself to pick the right choice, and I've gotta be honest: That's not what I see
here. I see a bunch of good choices, and there's the one that you pick and make
great.' I think that's one of the best pieces of advice I've ever gotten.
Steve Jobs: Don't just follow your passion but something larger than
yourself.
Steve Jobs.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
In a recent Business Insider article, Cal Newport, author of "So Good They Can't
Ignore You," referenced Steve Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson, who recalled an
exchange he had with Jobs shortly before he passed. Jobs reportedly told Isaacson:
Yeah, we‘re always talking about following your passion, but we‘re all part of the
flow of history … you‘ve got to put something back into the flow of history that‘s
going to help your community, help other people … so that 20, 30, 40 years from
now … people will say, this person didn‘t just have a passion, he cared about
making something that other people could benefit from.
Suze Orman: With success comes unhelpful criticism — ignore it.
Suze Orman.Leigh Vogel/Getty Images
In a LinkedIn article about the best advice she ever received, motivational speaker,
author, and CNBC host Suze Orman wrote that success has often made her a target
of nasty criticism "entirely disconnected from facts." At first these attacks made her
angry, but she eventually learned to ignore them.
"A wise teacher from India shared this insight: The elephant keeps walking as the
dogs keep barking," she wrote.
"The sad fact is that we all have to navigate our way around the dogs in our career:
external critics, competitors, horrible bosses, or colleagues who undermine. Based
on my experience, I would advise you to prepare for the yapping to increase along
with your success."
Bill Gates: Keep things simple.
Bill Gates.REUTERS/Rick Wilking
In a 2009 interview with CNBC, Microsoft cofounder and chairman Bill Gates
admired Warren Buffett's ability to keep things simple.
14
You look at his calendar, it's pretty simple. You talk to him about a case where he
thinks a business is attractive, and he knows a few basic numbers and facts about it.
And [if] it gets less complicated, he feels like then it's something he'll choose to
invest in. He picks the things that he's got a model of, a model that really is
predictive and that's going to continue to work over a long-term period. And so his
ability to boil things down, to just work on the things that really count, to think
through the basics — it's so amazing that he can do that. It's a special form of
genius.
Arianna Huffington: Don’t work too hard.
Arianna Huffington.Business Insider Video
In a LinkedIn post last year, The Huffington Post president and editor-in-chief
Arianna Huffington revealed that she's often asked if young people pursuing their
dreams should burn the candle at both ends?
"This couldn't be less true," she writes. "And for far too long, we have been
operating under a collective delusion that burning out is the necessary price for
achieving success."
She says she wishes she could go back and tell her younger self, "Arianna, your
performance will actually improve if you can commit to not only working hard but
also unplugging, recharging, and renewing yourself."
Stewart Butterfield: Have an 'experimental attitude.'
Stewart Butterfield.Slack Marla Malcolm Beck, CEO of Bluemercury, said in an interview with Adam Bryant
of The New York Times that she always reminds students that "nobody ends up in
the first job they choose out of college, so just find something that is interesting to
Stewart Butterfield, the cofounder of Flickr and chief executive of Slack, one of
you, because you tend to excel at things you‘re interested in. But just go do it. You
the fastest-growing business apps of all time, recently shared his best advice for
have nothing to lose."
young people with Adam Bryant of The New York Times:

Her other piece of advice: Go into tech. "If you look at all the skill sets companies
"Some people will know exactly what they want to do at a very young age, but the
need, they involve a comfort level with technology," she told Bryant.
odds are low," he said. "I feel like people in their early- to mid-20s are very earnest.
They're very serious, and they want to feel like they've accomplished a lot at a very
young age rather than just trying to figure stuff out. So I try to push them toward a T.J. Miller: Work harder than anyone else around you.
more experimental attitude."

George Stephanopoulos: Relax.

T.J. Miller.Steve Jennings/Getty Images

George Stephanopoulos.
T.J. Miller, comedian and star of HBO's "Silicon Valley," told personal finance
"Almost nothing you're worried about today will define your tomorrow," "Good website NerdWallet this is truly the formula to success. "It worked for me, and I
Morning America" coanchor George Stephanopoulos told personal finance have mediocre talent and a horse jaw."
website NerdWallet.
Alexa von Tobel: Get up, dress up, and show up.
"Down the road, don't be afraid to take a pay cut to follow your passion. But do
stash a few bucks in a 401(k) now."

Marla Malcolm Beck: Remember that you won't end up where you start.

Alexa Von Tobel.LearnVest

Marla Malcolm Beck.Kate Warren

15
What Alexa von Tobel, founder and CEO of LearnVest and the author of New York Hermione Way: Start your own business.
Times bestseller "Financially Fearless," means is that it's important to wake up
excited for what's coming, dress the part, and always show up ready to go.

"As a new hire, you will likely find yourself in tons of new situations, and it's up to
you to figure out how to navigate them," she wrote in an article for Business
Insider.

"Remember that your manager is strapped for time, so know when to ask questions.
Are you unsure of the objectives for an assignment? Asking her to clarify is crucial, Hermione Way.Zatphoto
since it's pretty hard to make the mark if you don't know where it even lies.
"There has never been an easier time to start a business," Hermione Way, founder
"On the flip side, avoid bombarding your manager with petty questions that could
of WayMedia and star of Bravo's "Start-Ups: Silicon Valley," told personal finance
be answered by your peers or a quick Google search."
website NerdWallet.

Mark Bartels: Map out a timeline for yourself when you start a new job. "There are so many free online tools. Just start, and if you fail you can always go
and get a normal job, but you will learn so much along the way it will be a great
experience."

John Chen: Being a 'superstar' can hurt your career.

Mark Bartels.stumbleupon

"We talk about budgets; we talk about planning your finances; but what a lot of
people don't do is plan out the next 12 to 18 or 24 months of their
careers," StumbleUpon CEO Mark Bartels tells Business Insider.

He says that lack of planning can be costly, both professionally and existentially, John Chen.Jin Lee/Bloomberg
while having an agenda provides a metric for evaluating your success.

"Most employees think that the best way to show value to their boss and get
promoted is to aggressively claim credit and ownership over everything they do,"
BlackBerry CEO John Chen wrote in a LinkedIn post earlier this year.

"While it's important to be recognized for what you do and the value you add,
grabbing the glory is going to turn off your coworkers." It can also turn off your
boss, he warns.

16
"Trying too hard to show you're a superstar tells me that you only care about what's
best for you, and not the company as a whole."
Salli Setta: Never eat lunch alone.
Salli Setta.Red Lobster
Red Lobster president Salli Setta tells Business Insider it's important to get out from
behind your screen at lunchtime because lunch is a prime networking opportunity.
The benefit of always having lunch plans with someone are two-fold: You can get
information that will help you "think about your job differently," and you also get
on your companion's radar.
"It isn't about saying 'hi, what are we going to talk about, let's talk about sports,'"
Setta says. "It's about identifying the object of this lunch in your mind" and going in
armed with "a couple of things that you want to ask, and a couple of things you
want to share."
Deepak Chopra: Embrace the wisdom of uncertainty.
17
Deepak Chopra.Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images
In a LinkedIn post last year, Deepak Chopra, popular author and founder of The
Chopra Foundation said he wished he embraced the wisdom of uncertainty at a
younger age.
"At the outset of my medical career, I had the security of knowing exactly where I
was headed," he wrote. "Yet what I didn't count on was the uncertainty of life, and
what uncertainty can do to a person."
"If only I knew then, as I know now, that there is wisdom in uncertainty — it opens
a door to the unknown, and only from the unknown can life be renewed constantly,"
he wrote.
Cynthia Tidwell: Be patient enough to learn, but impatient enough to take
risks.
Cynthia Tidwell.Royal Neighbors of America
Cynthia Tidwell, CEO of insurance company Royal Neighbors of America, told
Business Insider her favorite piece of advice for young people is be patient enough
to learn, but impatient enough to take risks. "I encourage taking risks," she said.
"What is the worst thing that can happen? You can go back and do what you were
doing before."
Brian Chesky: Don't listen to your parents. The questions are:

1. What qualities will a person in this role need to be successful in your company
culture — as an individual and as a worker?

2. What's the company's position on education and development, including student-

loan reimbursement and tuition assistance?

3. How does the company keep employees excited, innovative, and motivated?

Diane von Furstenberg: Keep it real.

Brian Chesky.Kimberly White/Getty

Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, said in an interview with The New York Times'
Adam Bryant that recent grads shouldn't listen to their parents.

"They're the most important relationships in your life, but you should never take
your parents' career advice, and I'm using parents as a proxy for all the pressures in
the world," he told Bryant. "I also say that whatever career you're in, assume it's
going to be a massive failure. That way, you're not making decisions based on
success, money and career. You're only making it based on doing what you love."
Diane von Furstenberg.Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
David Melancon: Ask 3 important questions at the end of every interview.
In a recent interview with Adam Bryant of The New York Times, fashion designer
Diane von Furstenberg says she has learned that trusting yourself is the key to
success.

"In order to trust yourself, you have to have a relationship with yourself," she told
Bryant. "In order to have a relationship with yourself, you have to be hard on
yourself, and not be delusional."

Rick Goings: Be nice to everyone.

David Melancon.Courtesy of David Melancon

When a hiring manager turns the tables at the end of an interview and asks, "do you
have any questions for me?" David Melancon, CEO of btr., a corporate-rankings
platform that focuses on holistic performance, says there are three questions far
more important for you to ask than what the salary is or what the job requirements
are.
18
Rick Goings.Courtesy of Tupperware Brands
Rick Goings, CEO of home-products company Tupperware Brands, which brought
in $2.6 billion in revenue last year, shared his favorite pearls of wisdom for young
people with Business Insider. One of them was be nice to everyone when you go on
a job interview.
"I like to check with the driver, our receptionist, and my assistants on how the
candidate interacted with them. How you treat others means the world!"
The Experts: The Best Financial Advice for Young People Starting Out
April 24, 2013 6:25 p.m. ET
What's the best financial advice for young people just starting to make money? The
Wall Street Journal put this question to The Experts, an exclusive group of industry
and thought leaders who engage in in-depth online discussions of topics from the
print Report. This question relates to a recent article that discussed advising young
people financially and formed the basis of a discussion in The Experts stream on
Wednesday, April 24.
Carl Wiens
A lot of job-switchers are ignoring what may be one of the best options to get the
most out of their retirement: Moving their savings into their new employer's
401(k). MarketWatch's Jim Jelter explains the benefits. (Photo: AP)
The Experts will discuss topics raised in this month's Wealth Management Report
and other Wall Street Journal Reports. Find the finance Experts online at
WSJ.com/WealthReport.
Also be sure to watch three wealth-management thought leaders— Meir Statman of
Santa Clara University and author of "What Investors Really Want," Terrance
Odean of the University of California, Berkeley, and consultant, writer and
investment adviser Tom Brakke—speak about controlling your feelings when
investing and explaining behavioral finance in a video chat that aired on April 23
at 3 p.m. EDT.
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Manisha Thakor: Three Lessons That Can Change Your Life
There are three financial lessons that I believe can literally change a young person's
life forever. They are:
(1) Know what healthy spending looks like. Most of us were never taught what
healthy spending looks like. My favorite rule of thumb comes from (Sen.) Elizabeth
Warren's book written with her daughter, Amelia Warren Tyagi, called "All Your
Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan." The rule of thumb: 50/30/20. The idea
is 50% of your take-home pay goes to needs, 30% to wants, 20% to savings. Keep
that rule of thumb in mind and a young person can avoid so many classic financial
mistakes.
(2) Start saving now. Those are the three most powerful words in personal finance.
Who wants to be a millionaire? A lot of young people. How do you get there? By
saving $5,000 a year starting at age 25, doing so every single year until you are 70
and earning 6% compound average returns. But wait until age 45 to start that
savings and you'd need to sock away over $18,000 a year. Ouch! (And thanks to the
ravages of inflation, if you want that to be $1 million in inflation-adjusted dollars
you'd need to essentially double those savings targets.)
(3) Don't expect to live like mom and dad right out of the gate. Thanks to the
proliferation of 24/7/365 media images portraying "average" lifestyles for young
people that are anything but…I've noticed an increasing number of young people
expecting to have lifestyles like their parents within a few years out of school. To
the extent you can remind yourself of the price your parents had to pay to get where
they are and base your expectations on your income and not what you see in the
media, you will find yourself on much more solid financial ground.
Manisha Thakor (@ManishaThakor) is founder and chief executive of Santa Fe,
N.M.-based MoneyZen Wealth Management LLC.
Tom Brakke: Thrift Trumps Faith
Concentrate more on saving than investing. It's a lot easier to save your way into a
secure future than to invest your way there.
Both are important, but thrift trumps faith (in investment returns) as a foundation
for your plans.
Tom Brakke (@researchpuzzler) is a consultant, writer and investment adviser who
specializes in the analysis of investment decision making and the communication of
investment ideas.
Rafael Pardo: Harness the Power of Compounding
From Day One, it is crucial to set aside some portion of each paycheck toward a
retirement account. When retirement is four decades away, it is all too easy to give
into the temptation to kick the can down the road. There is no doubt that living in
the moment and consuming your earnings can be a lot more fun than the delayed
gratification of saving for retirement. But some quick calculations will quickly
reveal how difficult it is to make up for lost time.
Suppose, for example, you start saving today $100 per month over a 40-year period,
which compounds monthly at a 5% rate of return. At the end of 40 years, in 2053,
your $48,000 contribution ($100 per month for 480 months) will have grown to
approximately $152,602. If, instead, you wait until 2023 to start saving, you would
have to contribute approximately $66,010 over a 30-year period ($183.36 per month
for 360 months) in order for your savings to grow to approximately $152,603 by
2053. And finally, if you wait until 2033 to start saving, you would have to
contribute approximately $89,105 over a 20-year period ($371.27 per month for 240
months) in order for your savings to grow to approximately $152,604 by 2053.
The simple truth is that the compounding of earnings in a retirement account creates
the potential for an exponential increase in your retirement savings. And to harness
the power of compounding to its full extent requires savings discipline, which is no
different than exercise: It's always better to do a little bit on a regular basis, rather
than to postpone, hoping that a longer, more intense workout later on will get you
back into shape.
Rafael Pardo is the Robert T. Thompson professor of Law at Emory University,
where he specializes in bankruptcy and commercial law.
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Eleanor Blayney: Two Words: Human Capital
"Plastics." That was the one word given to the Graduate in the 1960s as the key to
his future financial success.
My advice today to young graduates and those beginning their careers is slightly
more complex. Two words: "Human Capital."
We usually think that wealth is built through money management, but just as
important is the management of another sort of capital—namely, the education,
training, skills and experience that an individual brings to the workplace. These
resources require investment, monitoring, rebalancing and diversification
throughout one's life to produce the highest possible risk-adjusted returns.
Young people today are faced with a shortage of jobs, but also increasing demand
for scarce skilled labor. They can expect to be working for several more years than
did their parents or grandparents. Their ability to trade their human capital for
goods and increase their earnings over their lifetimes will be critical to their
financial survival, if not their success.
Eleanor Blayney (@EleanorBlayney) is consumer advocate of the Certified
Financial Planner Board of Standards.
Charles Rotblut: It's Better to Save Some Than Nothing
Save early and often. It may be difficult to do so when loans and bills are high
relative to one's salary, but every little bit helps. Even a very small amount saved in
one's 20s can grow to a significant sum by one's 60s if it is kept in the market.
It's better to save a minimal amount than not to save anything.
Charles Rotblut (@charlesrotblut) is a vice president with the American
Association of Individual Investors.
Greg McBride: Prepare Financially for Rainy Days
Build an emergency savings cushion! Nothing helps you sleep better at night than
knowing you have money tucked away for a rainy day. Having that money stashed
away is a great stress reliever the next time an unplanned expense arises, or even for
those surprise opportunities like your friend's destination wedding in Maui. The best
way to get this habit started is by having money directly deposited from your
paycheck into a dedicated savings account. And this is not a temporary habit, but
rather a lifelong habit. As your expenses grow in the years to come, so too will your
need for an ever-larger savings cushion.
Greg McBride (@BankrateGreg) is a senior financial analyst and vice president for
Bankrate.com, providing analysis and advice on personal finance.
Michelle Perry Higgins: Contribute to That 401(k) and Eliminate Debt
I constantly preach these two lessons to any young adult who will listen: First, start
contributing to your company 401(k) plan immediately. Resist the temptation to
"start the plan when you are making more money." Every year you get a raise,
increase your contribution level until you are maxing out the pretax allowable by
the IRS. You will thank me in 30 years. Next, you should be laser focused on
getting rid of any student loans or credit cards. Start an aggressive debt payoff
schedule. Debt is your enemy, so don't get comfortable with holding on to debt.
Michelle Perry Higgins (@RetirementMPH) is a financial planner and principal at
California Financial Advisors.
Rick Ferri: Read This Book!
Read "The Richest Man in Babylon" by George S. Clason and then start paying
yourself first.
Rick Ferri is founder of Portfolio Solutions LLC and the author of six books on low-
cost index fund and ETF investing. His blog is RickFerri.com.
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Scott Adams: Find a Red Herring
Young people are making money? I assume you're talking about criminals, so my
advice to them is to bring a pair of gloves that are two sizes too small and leave
them at the crime scene.
Scott Adams is the creator of the Dilbert comic strip that appears in thousands of
newspapers world-wide and www.dilbert.com.
Michael Kitces: Your Income Must Rise Faster Than Your Lifestyle
The point that you first start to really make more money than you earn and have
something left over can be a pretty exciting time. What to do with the money?
Beyond making sure you have a reasonable emergency fund, the first thing you
should do is give yourself permission to enjoy some of the money. But just some of
the money, and just on something you will do once. Taking a little bonus vacation:
good. Upgrading your TV: fine. Buying a bigger car or apartment: not a good idea.
Those aren't just short-term spending decisions; those are long-term commitments
that permanently commit you to higher spending in the future, and can make it
harder to deal with the uncertainties of life later. In fact, if you make good prudent
decisions about the big things like what you drive and where you live, it actually
leaves a lot of flexibility to not need to sweat the small stuff at all.
The added benefit is that by avoiding the trap of permanent increases in your
lifestyle that put a permanent burden on your future, maintaining your lifestyle—or
just increasingly it slightly—will make it a lot easier to save even more later. The
key to a successful—or even early—retirement is not to save a little and invest it
big, nor to just invest a flat percentage of your income every year, but to make sure
your income rises faster than your lifestyle and let the big savings that come over
the years get you easily to the finish line. If you make $50,000 now and spend
$45,000, and in a decade you're making $100,000 and "merely" increase your
spending to $70,000, you're still increasing your lifestyle but you're saving so much
that getting to retirement will be a breeze.
In fact, supporting the growth of your income is so powerful, that if possible,
consider investing not just in a retirement account, but in yourself and your "human
capital" and future earning potential. After all, the reality is that investing $2,000 on
classes that improve your job skills and get you a $1,000 raise in your base salary
can, over the next 40 years, generate nearly 20 times the wealth of merely saving
the $2,000 in a Roth IRA and growing it for decades.
Just make sure you save a big chunk of that future income when it comes!
Michael Kitces (@MichaelKitces) is director of research for Pinnacle Advisory
Group Inc., and publisher of the financial planning industry blog Nerd's Eye View.
You can connect with him on Google+.
George Papadopoulos: Maximize Your 401(k) Plan
My main advice would be to maximize their 401(k) Retirement Plan contributions.
Where else can you get an immediate return on your money with a tax deduction
while allowing for tax-deferred growth for decades? Adding employer matching to
it and making consistent contributions will allow the magic of compounding to take
place. We have a saying in my firm: "The earlier (you begin investing), the more
(you invest), the better (your retirement security)." I have turned away prospects in
their 50s who just recently decided to get serious about retirement planning. On the
other hand, I have accepted young professionals with healthy money habits who
were willing to listen to my advice. The prospects in their 50s may have more
money but the younger folks have a more valuable commodity: time. At the same
time as they are starting their 401(k) contributions, I tell my young clients, start
immediately to put away money for an emergency fund and after that money to buy
a home. In the meantime, they need to make sure they do not have any major gaps
in insurance coverage and that their basic estate planning documents are in place. A
relationship with a fee-only comprehensive financial adviser will certainly help to
provide the necessary discipline to follow through with the recommendations and
help them avoid making mistakes and/or procrastinating.
George Papadopoulos (@feeonlyplanner) is a fee-only wealth manager in Novi,
Mich., serving affluent individuals and families.
Sheryl Garrett: Meet Your Biggest Ally: Time
Put 5% in your rainy-day fund and 10% away for the long-term. It sounds like a lot
of money; however it's not going to get any easier as you begin to make more
22
money over time. The power of compound interest through time is truly amazing.
Let time be your biggest ally, and keep in mind that this is the biggest money that
you've ever made, so you can afford to save a bit of it every paycheck.
Sheryl Garrett (@SherylGarrett) is founder of the Garrett Planning Network Inc.
Larry Zimpleman: Pay Yourself First
I think the most important advice to young people is to "budget" for their savings
and investments just like they budget for other necessities like rent, car payment,
entertainment and so forth. Pay yourself first. Ideally, young people would get in
the habit of saving approximately 10% of each paycheck. You'll never miss the
amounts you set aside for saving and as the investments begin to accumulate, you
will feel a real sense of control because you know you have the assets to ride
through tough times.
Larry D. Zimpleman is chairman, president and chief executive of Principal
Financial Group.
Erin Lantz: Plan Early If You Want to Be a Homeowner
For young professionals, buying a home is often a lofty goal. Preparing to buy your
first home can take several months to years so it is important to plan as early in
advance as possible. Check your credit now to look for inaccuracies and to see how
far your current credit score is from the ideal score for lending, 740. Start setting
money aside each month toward your down payment. The amount you set aside
each month is dependent upon when you plan to buy and your target price range.
You'll want to make sure that you have at least 10% of the sale price in savings to
cover closing costs, which typically run about 3% of the sales price, moving costs
and the minimum down payment allowable, 3.5% by the Federal Housing
Administration (FHA).
Erin Lantz (@Erin_Lantz) is the director of Zillow Mortgage Marketplace.
The Six Key Steps to Healthy Finances in Your Relationship
If you‘ve ever been in a relationship for very long, especially if you were married or
living together, I can almost guarantee that you‘ve had a money fight.
One of the biggest causes of problems in relationships is differences in values and
goals and habits when it comes to money, and especially communication about
money issues.
Money can‘t buy you love, but it sure can tear it apart.
And while I can‘t claim that my wife and I are perfect when it comes to money and
relationships, I can say that we‘ve come a long way, and we rarely ever have money
disagreements anymore. It wasn‘t always that way, and we‘ve had our share of
fights along the way, but we‘re in a much more solid relationship these days
because we learned how to talk about money, and how to align our financial goals.
That‘s the crux of this post, in two simple steps: learn how to talk about money, and
learn to align your financial goals. If you can do those two things, you‘ve done
more than most couples, and you‘ve done a lot to keep your relationship on solid
ground.
1. Sit down and talk about financial goals and values. Many couples often
neglect this step, even if it seems obvious and common-sensical. But
because talking about finances can be uncomfortable, they leave these
important things unsaid, and often don’t even think about it individually.
They have goals and values when it comes to money, but they’re not
examined. That’s a mistake, as one person might want to be frugal in
order to save for future goals, while the other might like to spend and
enjoy things now, while the getting is good. The differences often come
from different upbringings, and they can be emotionally charged (see
next step for more on this). It doesn’t have to be difficult, though. Just tell
your partner you’d like to sit down and have a talk about the future —
what your goals are and how you can work together, as a team, to
achieve them. In the beginning, just start spitting out different things
each of you wants — a house, kids, college education for the kids, a
healthy emergency fund, nice cars, travel each year, nice clothes, gadgets
and computers, etc. Then start to prioritize, and see if you can come up
with things in common. If you want different things, it is important that
you talk about why, and consider the other person’s desires. If that’s
what makes the other person happy, you should want to make them
happy — that’s the basis of a good relationship. But relationships aren’t
one-sided, either, so you should be able to be happy too. The point is that
both sides should be considered, and you should look for a win-win
solution or compromise so that you can both be happy. It might take a
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few meetings to get to actual written goals, with a timeframe for each,
but that’s where you want to be eventually.
2. Remove emotions from financial talk. From your first meetings about
financial goals to your subsequent weekly talks (see Step 5), it’s important
that the two of you stay calm, don’t get hurt or angry over any of the
issues, and try to look at these issues objectively. Often financial issues
are tied up in all kinds of emotional issues, stemming from childhood,
from issues of security to feeling like your way is better to feeling hurt if
your way of spending is criticized in any way, and much more. These
emotional issues are all tangled together with financial issues, and it’s
important that you untangle them and just deal with financial goals and
habits. First, don’t use emotional, accusatory, or inflammatory language.
Don’t blame the other person or even be negatively critical. Simply talk
about your financial goals, developing a plan for getting to those goals,
developing a system for dealing with finances, and so forth. Also try not
to feel like you’re under attack if the other person talks about your goals
or habits — let this be an open discussion, and if you feel under attack,
stop and take a breath and remember that this isn’t a discussion about
you personally but about how the two of you are going to meet your
goals. Again, think of this as a team effort, not as a you-vs-me effort.
3. Come up with a plan to meet your goals. Once you’re able to come up
with common financial goals (a huge step — celebrate!), you need a plan
to get you there. This will take into account your joint income, your debt,
your savings, how much you can put towards debt and/or saving each
month, whether you want to cut back on certain things in order to meet
your savings goals, how long you want to give yourself to meet financial
goals, and so forth. Start by having a definite timeframe for each goal,
and then figure out how much you need to save (or pay towards debt)
each month to get to your goals. Create a spending plan (if you haven’t
yet) for each month, and see if you can adjust it to meet that monthly
goal. You might need to cut back on some things, or earn extra income, or
both. Or you might discover that your goals aren’t realistic and you need
to cut back on them, reprioritize, or push them back a bit in order to meet
them. This plan to meet your goals is how you will align your daily and
monthly spending with your long-term goals. It’s also a great way to
resolve minor short-term disputes — you should definitely buy fewer
shoes, and I should buy fewer video games, so we can buy that house in
three years and travel to Europe in two years.
4. Develop a system for finances that works for both of you. In order to put
your financial plan into action, you’ll need to figure out how you’re going
to pay your bills, pay debt, deposit into savings, have money for various
 spending needs (like gas and groceries and eating out), and so forth.
Someone will have to take responsibility for each part of the system (it’s
better if you’re both involved, but you should find what works best for
you as a couple). One person might go to the bank while the other
updates your financial program (like Quicken or Money) or your checking
register to make sure you’re in balance, for example.
5. Have weekly financial meetings. This is very important, and it’s a step
that many couples overlook. Just because you have common financial
goals and a plan and a system doesn’t mean that everything is fine. If one
person takes responsibility for the finances, for example, and the other is
out of the loop, then there will likely be problems down the road. I’ve
known several couples like this — one partner took care of the finances
and the other was blissfully ignorant … until it was revealed that they
were way behind on payments and would soon have to file for
bankruptcy. That wasn’t a good time in their relationship. To prevent
problems like this, have a weekly meeting where you sit down and talk
about finances. You can review your accounts, your spending plan, what
is coming up in the next few weeks that you’ll need to budget for, any
problem areas, what to do with your annual bonus, where you are with
your goals, and so forth. Make sure you’re both caught up on everything,
and that you’re working well as a team.
6. Above all, stay positive and be honest. Remember: you’re a team. You
have the same goals and you want each other to be happy. Team
members can help each other out and encourage each other, or they can
rip the team apart by being negative, by blaming, by working against
common goals. If you always stay positive, you’ll succeed as a team. Be
encouraging, stay focused on solutions not blame, and make sure love is
the foundation of everything you do.

―We can tell our values by looking at our checkbook stubs.‖ -Gloria Steinem

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