### The Weight Of Income

Before we can invest, save, and spend, we need income. For many new professionals, it can be overwhelming trying to decide what to do with that newfound income - it's not something we were taught in school. The goal is to feel confident in making the right financial decisions early on, so it doesn't lead to a delayed retirement, inability to provide the desired lifestyle, or overall financial stress and dissatisfaction down the line. Much of this stress can originate from uncertainty about job stability or doubts that one's career path can ever afford the lifestyle they envision. It can.

It's easy to feel like there isn't much money in your area of interest, but if you're passionate about something, chances are others are too and willing to pay for it. The journey may involve reevaluating career prospects multiple times before finding the right path. Don't be discouraged if your first job out of college isn't your dream job. Use it as a stepping stone and opportunity to gain valuable experience.

The key is to identify what's needed or desired, and fill that void with your skills and passion. Look for gaps in the market that your talents can address. It may take some creativity and thinking outside the box, but that's where the best opportunities lie.

### Mastering The Bend

>"The most successful professionals are those who can adapt and apply their skills to new challenges... Become a versatile problem-solver."

Don't limit yourself to a single definition or the name of your degree. Just because you studied finance, for example, doesn't mean the only option is a finance career. The degree likely equipped you with problem-solving skills that can be applied across various disciplines with tools like programming, communication, software, and analysis. Your abilities extend far beyond the confines of your major.

Even if an entire industry disappeared, problem-solvers would still be in demand. The most successful professionals are those who can adapt and apply their skills to new challenges. It's about mindset more than it is a narrow expertise. Become a versatile problem-solver.

![investant-man-with-investant-business-card-stock-photo.jpg](https://res.cloudinary.com/dnmr13rcg/image/upload/v1715833657/investant_man_with_investant_business_card_stock_photo_4e204e0ea9.jpg)

It all comes down to marketing – marketing yourself to employers based on the value you offer, not just your current skill set. What problems can you solve for them? How can you make their lives easier or their business more profitable? Frame your background through that lens.

Similarly, if you market goods or services directly to customers, focus on the value you provide to them. This is basic economics – meeting needs and desires in exchange for payment. But you have to make those needs and that value crystal clear.

### "Don't Put Me In A Box"

Think outside the box when it comes to marrying your passion with income potential. If you're passionate about painting but don't see a financially viable path as an artist or teacher, consider supporting the artist community in other ways. What persistent pain points or unfulfilled needs exist?

Put yourself in the shoes of your target audience, whether employers or consumers. What do they need in 2024 that isn't being adequately provided? Is there a new service, product, platform, or tool you could create to fill that void? Innovative solutions often come from a fresh perspective.

Never stop learning and growing your professional skills. Continuous improvement is vital in a rapidly changing world. In any position, continually look for new tasks to take on or ways to enhance existing processes. Can something be done faster, cheaper or automated? Does it truly need to be done at all? Develop a mindset of always raising the bar.

This hunger for optimization and commitment to finding better ways is what separates good employees from great ones. It demonstrates creativity, problem-solving skills, and a bias for action rather than complacency. These are qualities highly prized at the most successful companies.

With a continuous improvement mindset, a history of solving diverse challenges, and a propensity to take initiative, you'll have a competitive edge in the job market no matter your location. You'll be seen as a valuable asset who can drive positive change.

![OriginalLogoInvestantTHIN.png](https://res.cloudinary.com/dnmr13rcg/image/upload/v1701147178/Original_Logo_Investant_THIN_1c2347d933.png)

The right mindset to approach employers and the workforce for new professionals.

A Career Mindset In 2024

Personal finance is made out to be more complicated than it actually is. If you work to earn, spend less than you make, and invest the difference you are well on your way to financial independence. Scott Galloway (professor of marketing at NYU) creates a good equation for wealth:

>**Focus + (Stoicism x Time x Diversification)**

The **focus** portion of this equation is (for most people) in the form of a career. By focusing on your career and professional growth you will earn a paycheck, which can then be used to invest in assets that generate additional income. Unless you were born rich right out of the gate, most of us earn money through our careers. 

The **stoicism** portion of the wealth equation is just as important as focus. If you fall into any societal trap _(lifestyle creep, comparisons, keeping up with the joneses, etc.)_ you will sabotage yourself and end up in a worse position than if you just cared less about what other people thought of you. This is a very real risk. Data shows that 36% of earners making $200k+ per year are living paycheck to paycheck in the U.S. If your expectations increase faster than your income, it doesn’t matter how much you make. Your relationship between production and consumption will determine how wealthy you become, not your income. 

**Time** is the most valuable resource on the planet. Lose money? You can always earn it back. Squander time? It’s gone forever. Rich is a relative term. One persons idea of rich may be to have a fancy sports car, large house, lake house, and flying private. Whereas another person may think being able to cover their rent passively using investments is the coolest thing in the world. You define what you value. Not society. 

**Diversification** is incredibly important. Since it’s impossible to predict where the stock market will be 5 years, 10 years, 30 years from now, we want to remove as much [unsystematic risk](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/u/unsystematicrisk.asp) as possible. This can be done through diversification. The old saying “don’t put all of your eggs in one basket” illustrates the importance of diversification. Making all your money “in the form of a job” is not diversified. We want to spread out our risk so that we can sustain ourselves in the case of a job-loss. 

### Everything has a price

It’s important to know yourself extremely well. There are a million different paths that you can take in life, and you need to have a good understanding on what you do, and more importantly what you don’t want in your life. Everyone seems to want to earn more money, but very few people highlight the price you pay in terms of stress, anxiety, more student debt, more responsibility, and low job security. This tradeoff has led many people to work harder and longer hours for a prize that they later determined wasn’t all that important to begin with. 

### Financial Base
	
New graduates and regular people tend to build wealth slowly, and over long stretches of time. The average financial picture usually looks a little like this: 


>An IRA (Roth for young people, Traditional for some older individuals), a 401k plan offered through some companies (pensions in rare cases), home equity, potentially an HSA, and individual brokerage accounts. 

The 26-year old tech bro that gets rich from employee stock options at a startup after an [IPO](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/ipo.asp) is a rarity, not the norm.

### What does financial success look like?

Have little to no debt? Make more than you spend each month? Have enough to save and invest the difference and maintain an emergency fund? In that case, you are in good shape! 

Try and ignore the noise of influencers and other hustle culture promoters who treat life as a “race” that has to be won. They may have a lot of money from misleading people, but you can take pride in the fact that you aren’t nearly as obnoxious and vain as them!

![OriginalLogoInvestantTHIN.png](https://res.cloudinary.com/dnmr13rcg/image/upload/v1701147178/Original_Logo_Investant_THIN_1c2347d933.png)

Setting up a financial base and exploring important habits to create lasting security for you and your family. 

Building a Financial Base

Remember when you used to be able to enjoy life? Where it wasn’t taboo to work a 9-5 to pay the bills? When could you have hobbies that weren’t economically viable? When you didn’t have to start an e-commerce site and call yourself a “business owner” while selling informational products you stole from TikTok? We all remember those days; most would consider them pleasant.

> "The grift is largely undetectable on the surface, but insidious when you look deeper down."

Economic headwinds in the housing and rental market have led to a psychologically stressed middle class. People have become increasingly desperate to generate additional income to make ends meet, and there are a group of people who are hyper-aware of this fact. It has become increasingly popular to use the internet to mass-market at scale and use human psychology against the consumer who has been conned into believing the dreams that are sold to them. In another age, this would be called “grifting.” The grift is largely undetectable on the surface, but insidious when you look deeper down.

### The Fools' Expectations

- **Do you enjoy coffee at Starbucks?** Cut it.
- **Do you work a 9-5 to keep the lights on?** You are a slave.
- **Do you actually provide something of value to society?** You should quit that and build a brand indoctrinating the masses into how they should live their lives.

This predatory narrative has a profound effect on the mental health in our nation. People are increasingly stressed, discontented, and have been heavily influenced into believing that what they are doing to provide isn’t enough. The ironic thing being this is impacting people across the wealth spectrum from the lower middle class to the upper-middle class. Consumerism has evolved from conspicuous consumption of products to conspicuous consumption of information. Indoctrination has been branded “education” and people have lost sight of who they truly are. The constant onslaught of information has single-handedly increased the amount of worry and overwhelm in America.

Online “experts” have drank their own Kool-Aid and oftentimes don’t realize the destructive nature of giving uninformed advice to a broad audience. The self-help industry has become too profitable. Convincing people to hyper-optimize their lives does more harm than good. Constantly buying into this type of content has a detrimental effect on the bank accounts of most people in the form of lost opportunity and savings, while the ones who win, are the ones that are selling the dream.

### Set On The Right Path

- **Have a system that works for you?** Stick with it.
- **Have hobbies that don’t make money?** Good, that’s normal.
- **Don’t have social media?** You’re probably leagues ahead of many.

Avoiding this predatory cycle of greed, envy, and fear will increase your resilience and sensitivity to marketing and sales tactics that play on emotions and insecurity. Influence is incredibly powerful, and if you aren’t aware of its impact, it is extremely hard to guard against. This subtle realization will save you money and time and make you happier and more content with who you are and how you live.

![OriginalLogoInvestantTHIN.png](https://res.cloudinary.com/dnmr13rcg/image/upload/v1701147178/Original_Logo_Investant_THIN_1c2347d933.png)

How fear, greed, and envy created a culture of hustle until you drop while harming people's financial future.