Ryan Francis - The Money CEO

Stick with it! Keep building.
Those big gains will come with time.

And eventually...your money will be working harder than you ever could!

-Ryan

This is the EASIEST way to become a millionaire and I remind you all every single week on my story!

Don’t forget to take your employer match (if you have one) first before investing in a Roth IRA!

This is a very proven plan. The S&P 500 has historically returned 10% and almost 12% in the last 30 years.

Now if you want to get there sooner and if you want more money, you need to invest more. (I highly recommend you invest more if you can).

You can also do the same thing, but substitute the S&P 500 index fund with a target date fund if you want.

If you are going to do a target date fund, I recommend doing Vanguard target-date funds. They have the best target-date funds out there.

And I would make sure your Roth IRA is also at Vanguard if you’re going to do a Vanguard Target date fund. If it’s not, you’ll have to pay a transaction fee every time you invest, which is not a good idea.

Both are good options. We will break it down further and discuss it more in other posts.
The biggest key here is actually investing.

-Ryan

I prefer investing in index fund mutual funds over ETFs for these 2 reasons.

This is NOT to be confused with actively-managed funds that have very high fees.

Index fund mutual funds and ETFs do the same exact thing and both can have very low fees, so you might as well get the added benefits 😎

-Ryan

I always tell people, find a way to get to your first $100k invested quickly. This will really help set you on a quicker path to financial freedom, especially if you want to retire early.

You want to get a big chunk of money working with time.

And don’t stop there, keep adding to that, and your money will compound into millions over time. 

Returns on 6 figures are a different game. Imagine getting a 30% return on your $100,000 portfolio if the market performs like last year. That’s $30,000! That’s a lot!

The key is to build up a large portfolio as quickly as possible so you can take advantage of market gains over time.

That first $100k is the hardest goal, but I highly recommend aiming for it as quickly as possible! You got this!

-Ryan

It’s simple. Invest into assets so it can work harder than you ever could AND save you money in taxes.

If you don’t invest your earned income, you’ll continue to pay high taxes and you’ll have to work forever.

Investing into assets seems like a no-brainer to me!

-Ryan

I think this statistic speaks for itself.

The S&P 500 has nearly outperformed all funds in it’s class.

It’s so great that Warren Buffett has instructed the trustee to invest 90% of the money into a low-cost S&P 500 index fund.

This is coming from arguably the best investor ever!

Now, I think you should have international stocks and bonds (as you get older) in there too, but I would NEVER invest in a high fee, actively managed mutual fund.

If you’re going to invest in the stock or bond market, index funds are the way to go.

Index funds are simply a basket of stocks or bonds. So instead of buying individual stocks or bonds, you can buy a group of them all at once.

You can buy pieces of the best companies all at once. And index funds automatically filter out the bad companies, too.

Index funds outperform 95-99% of investors and, over a long time, are almost impossible to beat.

Index funds will make you wealthy, and the average person can invest in them with little to no effort. They’re incredible. This is why we preach index funds so much. They’re the 🐐

-Ryan

If you turned on the news at any given point this year, you’d think it was the end of the world and that you need to sell all your investments. It’s just BANANAS. In reality, the market really isn’t down that much. It’s OKAY. The media is just trying to get views.

I’m here to make sure you don’t make a bad financial decision by cashing out your investments at the worst possible time. Buy and hold, buy and hold, buy and hold. Don’t cash out.

LONG TERM is the game. These dips mean nothing in the grand scheme. It will be okay.

I’ll buy REGARDLESS of what the market is doing every single month. And when the market has a dip, I invest any extra cash we can find. 

The best thing you can do is hold on and control your emotions. And if it continues to dip, buy more. That’s the best strategy. Cashing out your investments during a dip or crash is not smart. That’s literally the worst time to sell.

-Ryan

This question always cracks me up.

I often hear people complain about investing over a long period of time saying it’s not worth it, so they choose not to invest at all. This makes no sense to me.

Start investing today. Your future self will thank you.

-Ryan

Do you believe money buys happiness?

-Ryan

It’s NOT always about HOW MUCH money you make.

You can earn a LOT of money and still be broke.

It’s about how you MANAGE your money.

Financial literacy is needed at EVERY income level and net worth. 

There’s a reason lottery winners and professional athletes go broke so quickly - after having 10s of millions of dollars. They’re not financially literate.

If you can’t manage $1000, you’re not going to be able to manage $100,000 or $1,000,000.

Regardless of your income or net worth, your financial education matters. Make sure you take the time to educate yourself and pass it on to others.

80% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, and it’s not exclusive to high income earners. The more financial education we have and the more we spread the word, the better our world will become. 

-Ryan

Do you know how much you need for retirement? The 4% rule can

What’s your number? Comment below!

-Ryan

I often heard growing up that the rich are rich because they were born rich and inherited their money.

The data shows that this couldn’t be further from the truth. Most millionaires are self made and that’s backed up by a ton of research and data. They became millionaires because they were disciplined financially. 

You’d also think most millionaires are super flashy and live in mansions. Also not true. Most of them are normal people and you probably couldn’t tell they were millionaires by looking at them. 

A few other millionaire habits/behaviors:

-they don’t make excuses
-they’re ambitious and not afraid of failure 
-they read more than they watch TV
-they’re constantly learning and focusing on self education 

Almost every self made millionaire I’ve met and know is a down to earn, kind and generous person.

Don’t believe the lies.

-Ryan