If I thought differently at age 17, I could have made thousands of dollars, doing nothing. My money mindset cost me $10,000 and more in opportunity cost.
Let’s rewind. When I was 15 years old, I started my first job. I worked as a team member at a fast food restaurant. I saved almost all my money and bought myself a car in cash when I was 17.
It’s one of the best things I ever did for myself, because that car lasted me until I was 22.
I climbed the ladder at my job and was making around $20 an hour. I made about $12,000 a year working part time. I had to pay for my own car insurance and gas, which cost me about $200 a month.
With the rest of the money, I built myself a $3,000 savings pot. I figured that was enough to keep in savings for car emergencies (and it was).
So I maintained that $3,000 and spent the rest of it.
I grew up in a frugal household. We didn’t eat out or buy things new. I decided that I wanted to use my money to live differently. What I didn’t realize it that it was fine to buy new things and treat myself, but spending all my money was a mistake. I don’t have much to show for it now.
I thought because I had emergency savings, I was set until I graduated college.
I invested a little bit of money in random stocks (about $500), that I eventually sold when I moved away to college.
Because I did have a car emergency. I had several repairs that cost me hundreds of dollars. And because I wasn’t working as much as I used to, I couldn’t replace my emergency fund.
I didn’t have a vision for my financial future.
I didn’t think ahead to when I would need to use my emergency savings. Or that my car would eventually run into the ground. Or that I would get married and have to pay for the wedding on my own. Or that I wouldn’t find a full-time job right away.
I didn’t think about when I wanted to retire, when I wanted to buy a house, or when I wanted to have children.
If I had that vision, I wouldn’t have let my money go to waste.
I could have easily bought some of the things I wanted and gotten my hair done every couple of months while saving $500 a month. I lived at home with few expenses. If I had put that money into the S&P 500 from age 17 until I moved away to college at 18, I would have my $3,000 savings fund and invested $9,000 in my future.
That $9,000 would have grown. Using the average rate of return in the S&P 500, I could have gained about $800 just for the remaining two years before I moved for college. Even if I needed to withdraw some, I wouldn’t have needed all of it. It would have continued to grow at least hundreds by today, at age 22.
Money that I didn’t think I needed, I could have used.
All because I didn’t have financial motivation.
Am I angry at myself?
No. I don’t think most people were investing from their teenage jobs. I’m grateful to be where I am now, investing in my early 20s and rapidly paying off debt. I just can’t help but wonder how much easier the last couple of years could have been if I had a financial vision for my life.
Maybe you don’t think mindset is important.
But our mindset guides our actions.