So when it comes to investing your money, you can go in many different directions. Some say you should Max your employer's 401K out every year. You may also hear that you could be taking advantage of the crazy high interest rates that things like bonds are giving out. But then there's some people that Advocate real estate is the only true way to grow generational wealth. While there are a ton of different ways to begin investing I Wanted to share with you what I think is the perfect order for you to start before you begin investing. It's important to always have a rainy day or an emergency fund of at least six months worth of expenses. Now for some people, their cost of living isn't going to be that high, so a thousand dollars might be enough. Where others you may need ten thousand or twenty thousand dollars or more. Storing this money in a checking or high yield savings account that you have fast access to is gonna be the key. Now the benefits of having a Rainy Day fund is that you'll become less emotional in your other trades where if you invest everything you own, you're gonna be constantly worried, anxious, and fearful just because you don't have anything to lean back towards when you're in that negative. State you can find that you may be making some more poor investment decisions. With the safety net of a Rainy Day fund. you can know that even if your Investments are taking a dip, you won't need that cash now or anytime soon. Another reason why this is so important is because currently we're in a recession that's becoming only worse and worse as the time goes on. Naturally, one of the prolonged side effects of a recession are going to be Mass layoffs and higher unemployment rates. If you are unfortunately laid off at your job, you're gonna have to have a rainy day fund to pay for your bills while you apply for other jobs and continue your career path. Life is always going to be looking for ways to challenge you in New and unique ways. So it's important to be prepared for the worst case scenario. and in just having this one step: I think everything else then Falls in order according to the urban: Institute More than 64 million Americans Right now carry some type of credit card debt. Before the average credit card debt used to be anywhere from 2 twelve to sixteen percent for Prime borrowers, but right now the national average is at around 19.44 So before you consider even just investing any of your funds, it is more important to have a strategy in paying down high interest debt. First, the reason for this is because you're more likely to be paying a higher interest rate on that debt rather than what you could be earning from your Investments. So just as an example, even within the last one year, the S P 500 is still down about 14.3 percent. On top of that, the NASDAQ is also down about 28.78 for this year. If you had put your money in the NASDAQ index fund and then you already had a 20 interest rate you're paying on your debt, you would be down a significant amount. So far. This year, when it comes to paying off your debt early, there's still a lot more benefits than just the financial aspect. When paying off your debt, you have to realize that there is a psychological and emotional component as well, which is a huge reason why you want to focus on this. next. Last not least, by paying off any of your debt, you will be raising that credit score. It will look good to people who will lend you money, and the high credit score is going to give you more options and opportunities in trading that high interest debt for low interest debt with much more favorable terms. Now, when paying off your debt, there's two ways that you can get started. First is by paying off the highest interest debt and working your way down the list. Now, the second way is by starting with the smallest to largest amount regardless of how high the interest rates are through Dave Ramsey's snowball method because you'll be using the psychological principle of momentum in small wins in order to continue rolling through and knocking out your remaining balances. For those who don't know, a 401k is a retirement Savings Plan offered by many American employers that has tax advantages for the Saver. In addition to that, there's something called a 401k match. So Brian How does a 401k match work? And is this even really that important? Well let me tell you this before investing where you might be making 5 10, 15 return on the market. If it is favorable within your terms, a 401k match is going to give you a 100 return back on your investment with little to no risk. Say you earn 60 000 a year from your job and your employer is gonna match a three percent amount of your annual income. This means if you max out your retirement account which is known as that 401k, it will equate to an additional eighteen hundred dollars that your employer will give to you. So whatever you put into this retirement account, you're getting it back and then you can choose what you do with that money. Now sometimes employers are going to have some terms like you got to be with the company for x amount of years or they'll only match maybe not a hundred percent or a partial like 50. But that right there is still free money. And I recommend anyone who has the option from their employer to ask if they offer it and to take advantage of it if you are prospecting for a new job or they told you about it and you're like yeah, I don't care about it, Trust me, this is something that you should be looking into. So the Roth IRA is something so important that not many people are still taking advantage of. And this is because Roth IRAs are arguably one of the most tax efficient investment accounts that anyone can open for free. Now for those who don't know what a Roth IRA is, these are contributions that are made on an after tax basis, but any growth is considered to be tax-free Roth IRAs are going to be best for when you have marginal taxes that are higher in retirement than they currently are now. So if you expect your income to be higher at present and lower in retirement, a traditional IRA or a 401k might be a better option for you. Now, the maximum annual contribution that you can make to your Roth IRA for the year going into 2023 is going to be sixty five hundred dollars. For the last four years, it was just at six thousand dollars. So you have five hundred dollars more that you can contribute going into the new year. If you are above the age of 50, shout out to anyone who's in their 50s watching these type of videos. I Still got love for all of my people, every demographic. Basically, your contribution is going to go up from seven thousand dollars to seventy five hundred dollars moving forward for the year of 2023.. Now, if you put your money into any of these tax efficient investment accounts, you need to realize that there are going to be some withdrawal requirements. First of all, you're gonna need to leave the money in your Roth IRA for at least five years and the Roth IRA holder is at least age 59 and a half when the distribution occurs. If you do decide to withdraw your cash from the Roth IRA before any of those conditions are met, you're gonna have to pay some taxes and penalties in order to get that money out. While most people hop immediately into just a trading brokerage without utilizing these benefits first, you'll be saving yourself a ton of money in those taxes paid. While there are a ton of other brokerages that you can use in order to maximize your Roth, the one that I've been using is I Trust Capital. The benefit of I Trust Capital is that they have a ton of different assets from crypto all the way to Gold and Silver and you can pretty much choose when to make those Investments and you can make adjustments time. I Really think this is one of the best ways for you to plan long term for your future as well as the benefit of the tax savings you get from putting your money in an IRA now I trust Capital has gotten over 4.5 billion dollars in investments from over 10 million users. They have no monthly fee and also they only take a one percent crypto trading fee and they handle all of the tax reporting for you. I Also have a link Down Below in the description. It is completely up to you if you want to take it. if you're already using a Roth IRA just stick with that. but if you are brand new, you can earn a hundred dollars into that IRA account just by signing up using my link and leaving it funded for 30 days, down below foreign of those tax benefiting accounts. What you can do next is by looking into stocks, bonds, ETFs indexes, crypto, or any other investment that fits under your umbrella. This is because the most common mistake that you know I'll admit I made to is just investors are opening up fully taxed accounts before setting up any of their retirement accounts. If you're planning to invest for the long term which I recommend most people to do, then you'll be wanting to make sure you've utilized all the tax advantage possibilities first and then invest into those regular accounts. Under The Umbrella of where you can choose it really just depends on your cup of tea, but at the end of the day I Know what people want? People want to be able to make as much money as possible and try to reduce that risk. Well, at the time of filming this video I mean it looks like Bitcoin is down over 80 percent. We have most stock indexes and some of the ones that have taken a huge huge ride over the past few months now down at near all-time lows, opening up some more opportunities when the markets are red, when people are running for their lives, it's oftentimes when you want to start dollar cost averaging in them. If you are already too leveraged within other investment accounts, you can always take the conservative route bonds other Investments and even just utilizing saving accounts or just bare minimum interest bearing accounts that you'll get within holding certain assets, that is still a very viable way to go. Real estate should be the end goal for many people, and this is because when you make solid real estate Investments investors can enjoy predictable cash flow, they can have excellent returns, you get tax advantages, and you get real diversification within your portfolio now. Real Estate Investors can make money through rental income, just pure appreciation of the property, and just any profits generated by business activities depending on what kind of property you end up buying, There's a reason why owning real estate has been long associated with what we call the American dream. Owning properties allows you to create true generational wealth because over time real estate tends to become more and more valuable as land becomes scarce. Now, as you pay down a property mortgage, you begin to build equity, which is an asset that is directly tied into your net worth. As soon as you build up that Equity you have the leverage to buy more properties, increase your cash flow, and even increase your wealth more if you want to invest into real estate. but you aren't ready to make the jump because let's be real, properties are still pretty expensive. There's a ton of different Alternatives As an example, you can buy and sell publicly traded REITs on major stock exchanges where you don't have to tie up a lot of your money and REITs pay out ninety percent of income to investors. so they typically offer higher dividends than many stocks and this allows you to still get some type of exposure to real estate. Now keep in mind guys: I have a little bit of exposure to real estate I'm building a home in a pretty well developed area right outside the DC District I also have Equity within a restaurant within the same area and I'm also currently involved in a new deal where I'm buying another commercial property that went on auction. You're still going to be able to invest in real estate. Enjoy this diversification without the downsides of having too much cash locked up foreign by following this investing order. I Believe you'll be putting your future self in the best financial position possible. Now, it's pretty rare that most people can retire comfortably with just their savings alone coming from their salary. So if you're investing now, you'll be saving yourself a ton of money in the future and you'll be taking matters into your own hands. So if you guys did enjoy today's video, be sure to like this video down below. comment down below the secret phrase word chord And also, if you guys found value, make sure you share it with someone that you care about. Share with a friend so that they know exactly what they should be doing moving forward to set up their future self for Success On top of that, follow me on Instagram subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so already and additional links will be down below in the description. And until next time I'll see you all soon! Peace.