The principles, in the order they matter
Ten things I'd tell my twenty-year-old self.
I built F2 Tool because a chart convinced me of things that no article had. These pages are the other half: the principles behind the numbers, as I learned them, in the order they matter. They are not advice for your situation. They are principles you can test on your own numbers, because every page below reads them from the planner.
First get paid properly and decide what you want. Then save, because nothing else works without it. Only then decide what the saved money does. Most people do it backwards: they pick investments before they have a cushion, and buy a car before they know what a month costs them.
Earn and aim
Before anything else: what you are paid, and what for.
- Decide what freedom means to you — A number on a chart is only useful if you know what it is for.
- Never let your work be valued low — The first raise is the cheapest money you will ever make.
Save
The habit everything else is built on.
- Know where your money goes — You cannot save what you have not noticed spending.
- Build a cushion before anything else — Three to six months of spending, boring on purpose.
- Pay off expensive debt before you invest — No investment reliably beats what a fast loan charges.
- Save half of every raise — Lifestyle creep is how well-paid people stay poor.
Put it to work, in this order
What the saved money does, and what it does first.
- Cash loses to inflation — Money that sits still is money that shrinks.
- Start now, keep it simple — A broad, low-cost index fund, every month, ignored.
- The big purchases shape the chart — A home and a car decide more than any fund.
- Plan on the line, not the best case — The band is real. Take less risk once you live off the pot.