What 9 Successful People Wish They'd Known About Money In Their 20s

Learn to manage your credit cards.

Mark Cuban, billionaire entrepreneur, investor:

"That credit cards are the worst investment that you can make. That the money I save on interest by not having debt is better than any return I could possibly get by investing that money in the stock market. I thought I would be a stock market genius. Until I wasn't.

"I should have paid off my cards every 30 days."

Skills are worth more than a job.

Tim Ferriss, angel investor, best-selling author of "The 4-Hour Workweek":

"In your 20s, optimize for learning, not earning. Work directly under or with master dealmakers, and acquire skills. This is particularly true for negotiating and hard skills like coding.

"What would you rather have: $20,000 more per year in your 20s, leading to making $100,000 to $200,000 a year in your 30s, or a lower-paying job from 20 to 25 — but one like a real-world MBA you're paid for — leading to making millions in your 30s?  

"It often comes down to prioritizing skill acquisition over immediate postcollege earning. McKinsey or Goldman can be seductive, but it's easy to get trapped in a 20-plus-year path of paying for a bloated lifestyle that is always a bit more expensive than the year before. Serfs can become self-made kings, but consultants tend to remain consultants. The only true job security is a superior skill set."

You need a plan for your money.

Alexa von Tobel, founder/CEO of LearnVest.com, author of "Financially Fearless":

"Not having a financial plan is a plan — just a really bad one! Given what I see as a general lack of personal-finance education, it can be all too easy to wing it with your money.

"I was lucky enough to learn this lesson while still in my 20s, so I had time to put a financial plan into place for myself (and start LearnVest to help people nationwide do the same!)."

Do something you love instead of chasing money.

Blake Mycoskie, founder, chief shoe giver of TOMS:

"In my 20s I wish I knew that the best advice for any person is to follow their passion as opposed to chasing money. I've seen time and time again that the people who foster their true passions and true callings are the ones that end up the most successful.

"It's hard in your 20s not to worry about money, but to focus on making sure you do something you love. Today, I feel like every time I've made a decision at TOMS that I'm passionate about and improves someone's life, the company grows and makes more money."

Buy high quality.

Kate White, former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, author of "I Shouldn't Be Telling You This":

"I was a great saver in my 20s — my dad had persuaded me to save for retirement, which seemed insane at the time, but I'm eternally grateful. But what I didn't know and wish I had is that it's so much smarter to buy a few great quality items — in terms of clothes, furniture, accessories — rather than a bunch of cheaper stuff.

"Oh, sometimes you get a great bargain — I have two Pier 1 prints hanging in my living room that look like antiques but cost $25 — but so often cheap stuff is poorly made and falls apart in no time.

"But the right quality goods last forever and are often timeless in design, something I discovered much later when I could afford better things. I wore a Prada dress the other night that I bought 16 years ago and it still looks good. If you can swing it, go for quality and you'll save in the long run."

Understand the power of investing.

Kevin Cleary, CEO, Clif Bar & Company:

"In my 20s, I wish I better understood the power of investing. At the time, I had fewer expenses, more free time, and a long investment horizon — it would have been the perfect time to learn about investing.

"While I was disciplined about saving money, I missed the opportunity to leverage my money over the long haul."

Your company is more important than your role.

Adam Nash, president, CEO of Wealthfront:

"I was fairly fortunate to have been raised with a strong sense of the importance of saving and living below your means.

"However, it wasn't until later that I learned just how much of your long-term economic success depends on your professional career.

"I'm a huge believer that people in their 20s should seek out opportunities at later-stage, hypergrowth companies. When you think long term, the company you join is far more important in your 20s than the specific compensation or role."

Money doesn't make you happy.

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Matt Maloney, CEO, GrubHub:

"Money does not define success or happiness. In fact, if you are truly effective at what you enjoy, money usually follows your passion. Passion drives interest, which in turn drives focus and commitment. Both qualities are requirements for success.

"When given a choice between ambiguous paths, choose the course that will bring you the most emotional and intellectual satisfaction — not the most direct path to riches. Don't be afraid, you can live a very full life earning far less than you think you need." 

Learn to manage the money you have now, no matter how little.

Debbi Fields, founder, Mrs. Fields:

"Looking back now, I know that I would have greatly benefited had I initiated an investment strategy as a young adult. I was so busy trying to save every dollar and living paycheck to paycheck that the idea of wealth creation was never really a consideration.

"Not thinking bigger than my bank account was my error — I could have set up a simulated investment account, joined a club, or learned about the buying and selling of securities.

"The key to managing money and building a nest egg is learning how to manage small amounts and grow them wisely over time. It can start with pocket change and grow beyond anything you imagined! The key word here is 'imagined' ... You have to add a zero or two to your net worth and direct your attitude and financial strategy toward getting there."

From Business Insider

8 Things My Dad Taught Me About Entrepreneurship and Life

Even at the ripe young age of 83, my dad is still fixing vacuums and sewing machines as part of the repair business he started 30 years ago after retiring from a career at Western Union.

He no longer runs the business from a shop, and he certainly is nowhere near as busy as he once was -- due mostly to the fact that you can replace the devices far easier then repairing them -- but he still manages to pick up a job from time to time to keep himself busy.

His business and entrepreneurial aspirations had a lasting and (I would like to think) positive impact on me. In my business, as in my life, when I find myself in a conundrum, I often default to asking, "What would my dad do?" Inevitably, I will recall one of these lessons:

1. Quit complaining. Complaining solves absolutely nothing. In fact, more times than not, it just compounds the problem. My dad is the most optimistic person I know, never uttering a negative thing about anyone or complaining about his work.

He even stays neutral in political conversations. He always has a zip in his step and a generous helping of affection for everyone. Even today, as I have become older and more crotchety, he is quick to force the conversation into a more productive tone.

2. Appreciate what you have. One does not make a fortune fixing vacuums and sewing machines for a living, though my dad always seemed to provide enough to make us all happy. More importantly, he made certain we all realized how fortunate we were to have what we had, a modesty I still carry with me today as I sit in my hot office typing on old, refurbished furniture.

3. Frame and control your message. My dad was a marketing genius. He was profoundly good at negotiating because he could turn negative concerns into positive attributes almost magically.

This might be most true with my birthday, which falls on Christmas Eve. By most accounts, this is a terribly inconvenient and unlucky time of the year to be born, but because my dad always reinforced how "lucky" I was to have a birthday so near Christmas, I never thought twice about it. Even today, I am giddy about my birthday.

4. Make time for those you love. It did not matter what my dad had to do or how exhausted he might be, he always made time for me and my brother to throw a baseball or integrate us into his household chores, something we loved to do.

He taught us that there will always be time for work, but rarely time for others, and he would remind us that when we die, we will not regret spending too little time at the office.

5. Give more than you take. My dad helped everyone, often at the expense of his business. I can remember numerous times when someone would visit his shop and inquire about something simple, such as a new vacuum bag or belt, which he often would give to them at no charge.

Even at a young age, I understood that if you run a business, you should charge people money for what you do. He always pointed out, however, that little displays of kindness go much further than nickel-and-diming people. Later, I understood this more, as I learned that most of his customers were repeat clients.

6. Wake up early. My dad rarely slept in. Regardless of when he went to bed, he was always up before us. He was typically engaged in some household chore before he slipped off to the shop. I would later learn that he did that so his afternoons would be free to spend with his family.

7. Nurture close relationships. My dad does not have a great number of friends, but the ones he does have been around for as long as I remember. I learned from him that you should never take your closest colleagues or best friends for granted. They require just as much attention and respect as your family.

8. Watch your cholesterol and your mind. For as long as I can remember, my dad has maintained a healthy diet and remained very active. He also reads and keeps his mind sharp. The benefits of taking care of your body and mind, starting at an early age, are undoubtedly clear. Like him, I too hope to act 20 years younger well into my twilight years.

Bonus: Take a nap. We both recently discovered the incredible value of a power nap, although his are a bit longer than mine. Take naps. You will not regret it.

My dad and I share a similar background. We both left established corporate jobs to start a business. Neither of us had any experience in the industries or businesses we started, and for the most part, we both have had a bit of success in our entrepreneurial endeavors. 

The difference is that I had my dad as a role model, and he had nobody -- which in my mind makes his courage and accomplishments much more admirable.

From Entrepreneur

7 Hard Truths About Life That People Don't Like to Admit

While people generally like to think they're in touch with reality, the truth is that many of us shield ourselves from certain unpleasant facts to make us happier and more productive.

Users on Quora recently discussed the question: "What is an example of something true that nobody generally wants to admit?"

From unpleasant insights about love to the truth about meritocracy, here are seven uncomfortable truths people don't like to admit:

1. Looks matter.

It's nice to believe in karmic justice where good things happen to good people, but Quora user Dania Faruqui points out that actually, good things tend to happen to good-looking people.

"We keep denying it all the time, but an attractive person has an upper hand over a not-so-attractive person most of the time. Ugly truth," Faruqui writes.

Indeed, research suggests that attractive people make more money and are seen as smarter and more trustworthy than people who aren't as alluring.

2. No one is truly altruistic.

Suraj Agarwal writes that "we are all self-centric; it's just the radius that varies," meaning that the only difference between selfish and unselfish people is how intensely they pursue their self-interest.

Ramachandra Bhakta takes this notion even further by sharing a quote from the Indian philosopher Chanakya to point out that even our most intimate relationships are created to serve our own needs: "There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no friendship without self-interests. This is a bitter truth."

3. There is no such thing as a soulmate.

Quora user Soumadeep Mazumdar says that despite our personal delusions of grandeur, nobody is actually unique.

"No matter how ahead of the curve you think yourself to be, there will be thousands like you walking the same curve," Mazumdar writes. "You will think that you are the only one who has those odd fetishes or you are the only one awake at that particular hour of the night. But the truth is, there are hundreds, perhaps thousands who are exactly like you."

As a result, Mazumdar says that searching for your "one, true love" is a silly pursuit.

"There are millions who would satisfy your criteria of Ms. Right and Mr. Perfect. It is just coincidence that you found one of them and were acquainted to him or her and now consider them your soulmate."

4. Life is precious.

One of the most popular responses in the thread pointed out that everyone eventually dies, and it could happen at any moment.

While we all know we'll die one day, the suddenness with which death could come is something most of us try to forget.

As Quora user Mohit Sharma put it: "It's not like they don't believe it; they just ignore the fragility of life."

5. Nobody has any idea what to do.

If you are confused about what you want to do with your life, take solace in the knowledge that most, if not all, of us are also still figuring things out.

Quora user Josh Vogel writes: "It's drilled into our heads that we have to speak with certainty and confidence about things, especially if we are 'expert' in these things, but the truth is that we don't know."

Sri Teja adds that this uncertainty extends even to successful people who seem to have everything under control.

"The people you look up to are just as nervous as you are," Teja writes. "Succeeding gets a lot easier when you realize that everyone who has ever succeeded has doubted that things will work, has failed terribly, and has generally been where the rest of are: worrying and certain that they aren't good enough."

6. Success doesn't happen over night.

Quora user Samyadeep Basu writes, "Most successes happen in small steps and take a long time."

While many people search constantly for a quick fix to turn their lives around, the truth is that the hard work you put in today will most likely only begin to pay off months, if not years, down the road.

Even then, Samantha Deakin writes, our hard work doesn't necessarily guarantee future returns.

"There are so many confounding variables in the equation, that often the most successful people have been incredibly lucky in ways that you can only really see when you look back on their lives," Deakin says.

7. The world is full of suffering.

While it is certainly worth trying to make things better, no individual's work will put a real dent in the pain and suffering people experience around the world.

In a particularly depressing post, Ishan Rana writes: "Somewhere at this very point in time, someone is being tortured, hostages are being held captive, someone is being raped, girls are being punished for studying, and maybe, just maybe, the homeless guy and his little kid you pass every day hasn't had lunch for days."

Quora user Andy Lim adds that this knowledge makes it difficult for him to enjoy his life of relative ease. "I choose to not believe this fact, at least while I'm indulging my self."

From Entrepreneur

5 Habits of People With Remarkable Willpower

We all spend three to four hours each day resisting desire. So what do people with remarkable willpower do differently?

Willpower is not something you either have or you don't.

Sure, some people may be more self-disciplined than you. Some people may be better at resisting temptation than you. But that's probably not because they were born with some certain special something inside them--instead, they've found ways to store up their willpower and use it when it really matters.

They have remarkable willpower not because they have more of it, but because they've learned how to best use what they have.

Here's how you can, too:

1. Eliminate as many choices as possible. We all have a finite store of mental energy for exercising self-control.

The more choices we make during the day, the harder each one is on our brain--and the more we start to look for shortcuts. (Call it the "Oh, screw it," syndrome.)  Then we get impulsive. Then we get reckless. Then we make decisions we know we shouldn't make, but it's as if we can't help ourselves.

In fact, we can't help ourselves: We've run out of the mental energy we need to make smart choices.

That's why the fewer choices we have to make, the smarter choices we can make when we do need to make a decision.

Say you want to drink more water and less soda. Easy. Keep three water bottles on your desk at all times. Then you won't need to go to the refrigerator and need to make a choice.

Or say you struggle to keep from constantly checking your email. Easy. Turn off all your alerts. Or shut down your email and open it only once an hour. Or take your mail program off your desktop and keep it on a laptop across the room. Make it hard to check--then you're more likely not to.

Or say you want to make smarter financial choices. Easy. Keep your credit card in a drawer; then you can't make an impulse buy. Or require two sign-offs for all purchases over a certain amount; then you will have to run those decisions by someone else (which probably means you'll think twice and won't even bother).

Choices are the enemy of willpower. So are ease and convenience. Think of decisions that require willpower, and then take willpower totally out of the equation.

2. Make choices tonight that set up tomorrow. It's also easier to make smart choices when a decision isn't right in front of you. So pick easy decisions that will drain your store of willpower tomorrow, and make them tonight. Choose what you'll wear. (Leo Widrich of Buffer found a way to make this decision incredibly easy.) Decide what you'll have for breakfast. (Ditto for Scott Dorsey of ExactTarget.)

Decide what you'll have for lunch--and go ahead and prepare it.

Take as many decisions off the board tonight as you can; that will allow you to conserve your mental energy for the decisions that really matter tomorrow. And while you're at it, decide what you will do first when you get to work. Then commit to...

3. Do the hardest thing you need to do first.

You have the greatest amount of mental energy early in the morning. Science says so: In a landmark study performed by the National Academy of Sciences, parole board judges were most likely to give a favorable ruling early in the morning; just before lunch, the odds of a favorable ruling dropped to almost zero.

Should judges' decisions have been affected by factors other than legal? Of course not--but they were. They got mentally tired. They experienced decision fatigue. The best time to make tough decisions is early in the day. The best time to do the most important things you need to do is early in the day. Decide what those things are, and plan to tackle them first thing.

Oh, I know what you're thinking. What about the rest of the day?

4. Refuel frequently. Although the judges studied started strong, a graph of their decision making looks like a roller coaster: up and down and up and down. Why? They took breaks--and they ate. Just after lunch, their likelihood of making favorable rulings spiked upward. The same was true after midmorning and midafternoon breaks.

It turns out glucose is a vital part of willpower. Though your brain does not stop working when glucose is low, it does stop doing some things and start doing others: It responds more strongly to immediate rewards and pays less attention to long-term outcomes.

Eat healthful meals. Eat healthful snacks. Not only will you feel better, you'll make better decisions--and will be able to exercise more willpower in making those decisions.

And speaking of long-term outcomes...

5. Create reminders of long-term goals. You want to build a bigger company, but when you're mentally tired, it's easy to rationalize doing less than your best. You want to lose weight, but when you're mentally tired, it's easy to rationalize that you'll start tomorrow. You want to better engage with your employees, but when you're mentally tired, it's easy to rationalize that you really need to work on that proposal instead.

Mental fatigue makes you take the easy way out--even though the easy way takes you the wrong way.

So create tangible reminders that pull you back from the impulse brink. A friend has a copy of his bank note taped to his computer monitor as a constant reminder of an obligation he must meet. Another keeps a photo of himself when he weighed 50 pounds more on his refrigerator as a constant reminder of the person he never wants to be again. Another fills his desk with family photos, both because he loves looking at them and to remind himself of the people he is ultimately working for.

Think of moments when you are most likely to give in to impulses that take you farther away from your long-term goals. Then use tangible reminders of those long-term goals to interrupt the impulse and keep you on track.

Or better yet, rework your environment so you eliminate your ability to be impulsive--then you don't have to exercise any willpower at all.

If you can't say no to checking your social-media accounts every few minutes, turn them off and put them away for a couple of hours at a time so you don't have to say no.

From Inc. Magazine

4 Tests to Tell If You're Ready to Be an Entrepreneur

There are plenty of reasons for not starting a company. Odds are good that starting a company will not make you rich or famous. Only 1 in 10,000 funded startups become worth more than $1 billion, venture capitalist Mike Maples Jr. told me in a recent interview.

I am not sure how scientific that number is, but let's assume that it's close enough to indicate that starting a company is not a sure road to riches. Another reason for not starting a company is not enjoying the experience of working for a boss. Sure, there are plenty of entrepreneurs who like to determine how they spend their time and who realize that they can hold their destiny in their own hands. But the simple reality is that entrepreneurs launching their own companies take on a new -- and often a more complex set of bosses.

One of my business-school classmates has told me that he reports to his employees. If you don't want to spend time working on their behalf, starting a company will not free you from having a boss.

Bear in mind that you'll also report to your customers, investors and suppliers, too. If those two reasons for starting a company are out the window, why do it then? 

Here are four reasons:

1. You've found a problem and are willing to work on its solution 80 to 100 hours a week for years. 

If you passionately believe that you have found such an important problem, you may have a great reason to start a company. Just realize that following your passion to solve that problem may require neglecting your family and health. It might even mean burning through all your cash. But given the long odds against success, your being willing to work under those conditions almost justifies starting a new company.

2. Many customers see this problem as a huge pain and no other firm is offering a solution.

I recently heard about an entrepreneur who believed passionately in his venture. He burned through millions of his own cash over 15 years while developing a solution to his problem. Nonetheless, last month he shut down the business -- even though his solution was excellent.

The problem was that his solution concerened a problem that some customers thought was not a huge pain. In other words, consumers were willing to get by with less elegant solutions that they already had. This is a costly lesson. Make sure you don't make the same mistake.

3. Your vision is so compelling that you're able to build a top-notch team.

Even the smartest people in the world can't build a significant company without the help of other people. If your vision for a company is compelling enough to get you to work flat out for years to realize it, you'll only succeed if you can convince talented people to join you in that quest.

Your vision must be more than just average -- since you won't be able to pay people as much as, say, Google. Your vision will have to offer them enough emotional currency so they will trade off the big salary to work for you.

4. You believe so strongly in your vision that you'd be willing to hire your replacement and walk away to realize it.

It's often true that founders lack the skills needed to turn a great product idea into a big business. Few people like Amazon's Jeff Bezos start with a business plan and end up the leader of an $82 billion company. If you're so passionate about realizing a vision that you would be willing to walk away from your startup if you couldn't do the things required to grow it from, say, $10 million to $100 million in revenue that, then you pass a final test of readiness. 

And should you be willing to walk away from being king and hand over the throne to a leader better suited to the company's next growth stage, then you may end up being rich after all.

From Entrepreneur

The Best Jobs For Every Personality Type

Does your job fit your personality?

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality test, which measures preferences like introversion and extroversion, has been part of business culture for decades. Today about 80% of the Fortune 500 and 89 of Fortune 100 companies use it to analyze the personalities of employees, in an effort to get them in the right roles and help them succeed.

To determine five of the best jobs for each of the 16 Myers-Briggs personality types, we consulted one of the most popular personality guides, "Do What You Are: Discover the Perfect Career for You Through the Secrets of Personality Type," which is now in its fifth edition and has sold over a million copies, according to its publisher, Hachette Book Group.

We also talked to one of its authors, Paul Tieger. As the CEO of SpeedReading People LLC, Tieger has spent 30 years advising companies and people on how personality types can help teams work together.

While the list below is in no way definitive — and personality preferences can be flexible over time — it may serve as a helpful guide for understanding yourself and what sort of personalities gravitate toward certain jobs.

There are several tests you can take to determine which personality type you fit into. Tieger provides a free assessment here. Figure out which type suits you best, and then check out the chart below.

From Business Insider

Want to Change the World? Maybe Try Being an Intrapraneur.

A growing number of young people are eschewing university studies in favor of pursuing a career as an entrepreneur. It’s hard to argue with the decision to avoid crushing student loan debt in pursuit of an education that often leaves graduates with poor employment prospects and little career direction.  

Aspiring entrepreneurs point to the likes of Steven Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg who managed to amass fortunes after dropping out of college. Unfortunately, for every Jobs, Gates or Zuckerberg, there are hundreds of thousands of failed entrepreneurs living in their parents’ basements.

The difference between success and failure is more than just luck. While many universities do a poor job in preparing individuals to be entrepreneurs, prospective new business owners need to learn how to be successful somewhere. And the place to best place to learn may be inside a traditional workplace, by becoming an intrapreneur.

An intrapreneur is an individual who works for another but one who treats his or her job as if he or she were running a company within a company.

One industry where an intrapreneurial spirit is especially valuable is the rapidly growing field of environmental, health and safety and sustainability consultancies. A good consultant in this field need to be able to manage clients, work independently, make sound business decisions and have strong personal and business ethics and vision.

In short, he or she needs all the things it takes to be a good entrepreneur. But the nature of the work -- travelling to remote areas conducting environmental-impact studies, conducting health and safety audits in many, geographically diverse, industrial settings or meeting with top business leaders to discuss plans for sustaining their business far into the future -- can make it tough for a young entrepreneur to succeed. But intrapreneurs, on the other hand, can enjoy the advantages offered by an existing company's global footprint, while retaining many of the perks of being an entrepreneur.

There are some strong advantages to being an intrapreneur before striking it out on your own. Intrapreneurs do the following:

1. They earn while they learn. Every employer is capable of teaching you important lessons about what to do and what not to do. Learning how to market, sell, govern and run a business while earning a salary not only allows you to gain valuable business skills but also allow you to save up much needed capital.

2. They tend to be top performers and excel in the corporate environment. Because intrapreneurs are successful at their jobs, they tend to be promoted quickly and are allowed to bid on other jobs within the company to keep them happy. Companies want to retain intrapreneurs and will often invest more to develop and hone their business skills.

3. They face far less risk. When you are an entrepreneur, even a seemingly small failure can cause catastrophic fallout that tarnishes the brand and may even destroy the company. Intrapreneurs have the opportunity to fail inside an environment that is more forgiving. An intrapreneur who makes a bad decision may get fired but seldom risks long-term career consequences.

The keys to being a successful intrapreneur include having the following qualities:

1. Patience. Intrapreneurship is not a shortcut to success. Just as an MBA takes six years (or more) to earn, gaining real-life work experience takes time.   

2. Ambition. A successful intrapreneur has to crave success and see every assignment as a step toward an ultimate goal.

3. Humility. Just as you wouldn’t walk into a college course and inform the professor he or she doesn’t know what he or she is talking about, a good intrapreneur expects to start at the bottom.

4. Political skills. Everyone you meet in the workplace -- whether you like them or not -- is potentially a key contact when you launch your company. The person you meet in the mailroom today may well be in the boardroom tomorrow. When it comes to connecting with people, everyone matters.  

Many young idealistic professionals are drawn to the environmental, safety and sustainability profession because they see it as a way to change the world. That’s tough to do as an entrepreneur but its far easier as part of a team of intrapreneurs. 

From Entrepreneur