How to Build a More Secure Financial Future in 2024
And we are back for another season to build a better financial future.
For anyone new here, The Neighborhood Finance Guy writes about financial literacy topics such as How to Grow Your Wealth, Budgeting, Investment Strategies, Retirement tips, and more. The goal is to help you make effective decisions, and set S.M.A.R.T+E.R. goals with your money.
The information is FREE but the struggle is not sold separately.
Table of Contents
Welcome back TNFG fans and any Newcomers
Hope you are having a wonderful start to the new year. In the North East, we were snowed in so it gave me time to write this. Sadly, Budgeting and Net Worth Tracking aren’t the norm but being normal leads to being broke.
With so many retiring broke and wishing that they understood personal finances, now is a great time to start. Turns out time is the only true natural resource.
A better Financial Future requires a bold approach while investing the difference
As for our household, my wife and I are starting the year with some much-needed introspection, and a lot of fun vision boarding. We added +$200,000 to our net worth in 2020 and 2021 respectively. 2022 slowed down to less than +$100,000 while 2023 clawed back a massive +$360,000.
If you were tracking with us, we hit average millennial millionaire status in August of 2023 due to the Public Student Loan Forgiveness of nearly $89,000. All in all, the big lesson is that when quality stocks are on sale, you should lean in a BUY. As long as you have a long-term perspective that’s in line with your risk profile, you should edge out 10 percent annualized gains.
Now, we are setting bigger and bold goals for the future. For one, 2024 is a setup year for massive home renovations. Secondly, we are aiming to be investment millionaires by year-end 2025 which would mean that we need to add $150,000 per year. Learning to dream bigger and then conceptualize a reality where it works. The idea here is to think of a probable future and visualize the work you need to do to get there.
Feel free to check out the recap for December 2023, “How we created $30k worth of investments wealth”
Our Estimated Net Worth at Year-End
Our Estimated Household Expenses For 2024
I’m all about Work Smarter, Not Harder to Grow Wealth
Since 2012, my wife and I have been on a mission to revolutionize our lives. So much so, that we documented the entire process on The Neighborhood Finance Guy website.
I strongly believe that with the Net Max Financial plan, Americans can cut down the number of years required to work and become millionaires in less than 20 years. Turns out, we did it in less than 6 years.
As bold as that sounds, understanding how money works can help you generate more wealth than your 9-5 ever could. It’s all about working smarter and not harder. Even if some doors close, just focus on the doors that you can open.
At this stage, I’m more concerned with netting +7% to keep up with inflation. Expenses are slated to increase by 30% in 2040, the struggling season is just beginning if people stay under-prepared. That’s what worked for us.
We are sticking with the long-term wealth approach. Social media is replete with get-rich schemes and zero-risk returns; the truth is, that wealth takes time to build. You might not even see the fruits of it. This is why I strongly advocate wellness in association with building wealth.
Every new dollar is not as dreamy if you are sick, depressed, or both. Find financial stability and you will find freedom.
If you need more information on how to process wealth building, check out the Money Guy Show video below.
Building a Million-dollar Investment Strategy Grow your wealth
We experienced our first super big investment drop of $50,000 in March 2020.
We stuck in through and found that long-term investments favor wealth. Once you establish your financial foundation and stability, the next part is just having fun. And once you master that, rebalance annually or semiannually.
If you do nothing else, just invest in an ETF stock like $VTI or $VOO. I found it to be more beneficial for people to be in the game versus waiting for the right time to jump in. These are all ways to grow your wealth. This might be the last great chance to buy great companies at a discount and to ride the wave to 2025.
Don’t get cute with trying to stockpick or cryptocurrency your way to financial stability. It doesn’t work. Try my patterned tips for increasing your household’s investment potential by 111%.
Invest in a SMARTER Strategy to Grow Fearless Wealth
Unfortunately, Dave Ramsey would disapprove.
When people are hyper-focused on paying down debt, they often neglect all the areas where they could have reduced their taxes, increased their assets, and secured their financial future.
Just like having the PSLF pay off almost $90,000 for me, it was a better play to buy my time and invest the difference. In the end, I think I paid around $40k in student loan debt in contrast to starting with $125,000. The definition of working smarter, not harder.
In 2023, we will likely spend $22,500 on travel via credit cards. While packing credit card debt is generally a bad idea, if you can manage it well it might be a reward card. Let me repeat, if you can MANAGE it. In the end, we paid $1,275 in credit card fees. Not great but not too shabby.
We aren’t passing up on 125,000 credit card reward points for travel in 2024. Because of this, we will be tracking to be credit card debt-free by March 2025. With any luck and no emergencies. We are very strategic with how we spend and invest to make up the difference.
Our goal is to reach wealth velocity while avalanching our way up. Inflation and high prices are hitting but here we are. Wealth is (Contribution x Rate of Return) to the power of time.
This is why time is money. Your efforts today will compound tomorrow. Either positive or negative.
Estimated Net Worth Month-to-Month Tracking
| Net Worth | Growth/Loss in Dollar Value | Growth/Loss as a Percentage | |
| January 2024 | $1,147,528 | +$31,391 | +2.74% |
| February 2024 | $1,203,615 | +$56,087 | +4.66% |
| March 2024 | $1,262,157 | +$58,542 | +4.64% |
| April 2024 | Est. $1,264,500 | +$2,350 | +0.19% |
| May 2024 | $1,296,051 | +$31,544 | +2.43% |
| June 2024 | $1,309,512 | +$13,461 | +1.03% |
| July 2024 | $1,322,170 | +$12,658 | +0.97% |
| August 2024 | $1,306,006 | -$16,164 | -1.24% |
| September 2024 | $1,319,342 | +$13,336 | +1.01% |
| October 2024 | $1,332,428 | +$13,086 | +0.98% |
| November 2024 | $1,343,764 | +$11,336 | +0.84% |
| December 2024 | $1,355,081 | +$11,317 | +0.84% |
| Est. Total Change as of 4.3.2024 | +$238,944 | +21.41% |
Post-High Inflation into an Election Cycle
Goldman Sachs Economic Estimates for 2024
Here are a few ways to Grow Your Wealth Like Us:
- Boost Bank Savings to $5,000 and keep 10% dividend cash reserves in investments to buying opportunities in 2025.
- To begin with, Invest an Average of $1,250 per month in M1 Finance Brokerage focused on Growth and Dividend Income that generates at least $1,500 in passive income in 2025.
- Check out my portfolio in real time for pointers. If you like the platform and want to start investing, I have the $10 for $10 referral for added motivation – https://m1.finance/SYdqDJ2SyADC.
- Some deals for $30 or $50 match drop sporadically.
- Shooting for a sustained investment rate with the push for a $1,250,000 net worth.
- To help monitor your savings, cash flow, net worth, investments, retirement, and more. FREE with Personal Capital! Sign up with my link & get a $20 Amazon gift card. *Terms apply. https://pcap.rocks/lawrencegonz
- Work on blog consistency while adding eBooks and eCommerce. Pushing to build out for the next 3 years until we hit a $2,000,000 net worth valuation.
Disclosure:
This post is brought to you by the Neighborhood Finance Guy. We highlight financial literacy information, resources, and more on your way to money management goals and personal wealth. Our goal is to help you make S.M.A.R.T.+E.R. decisions with our money. We do not give investment advice or encourage you to adopt a certain investment strategy. Your ‘personal finance’ is up to you. If you take action based on one of our recommendations, we won’t earn a dime as of 5.2022. We operate independently.
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Good Reads:
- Top Financial Literacy YouTubers for Beginners, and
- Top Financial Podcasts for Beginners,
- Top Three Apps to Make Budgeting Easier.
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