7 Money Rules I Wish Someone Told Me at 25

Hey {{first_name|Reader}}.

I spent my twenties doing what everyone said was smart: financed a new car, stretched for a bigger house, spent money to look successful. By 30, I was house poor and stuck. The "normal" money advice had me on a treadmill I couldn't get off.

These seven rules are what we actually follow to one day get out of the vicious cycle. And today we will talk about with the added fun of some gifs.

I hope you enjoy and as always… 👇

(Tell me which rule resonated with you the most? Reply to the email.)

That car in your friend's driveway is probably a few extra years of their life sold to a bank.

When you see brand-new cars, "dream homes," luxury vacations on a credit card, and status toys, you're not just looking at stuff. You're looking at monthly payments that chain someone to a job they might not even like. That 7-year car note isn't just 84 payments; it's 84 months of "yes, sir, thank you, sir" so they can impress people who don't care.

You can have the shiny thing or you can have your time. Pick.

"Everyone else has it" is one of the most powerful, expensive sentences on earth.

Social media has turned "fitting in" into a life goal. There's always a new phone, new shoes, new plastic something from Amazon that will feel good for about 36 hours before you're itching for the next hit. That's not lifestyle; that's an addiction loop.

If you want something, save for it. If you don't want it enough to save for it, you just wanted the feeling. Let that feeling pass. Fitting in is the most overpriced product on the market.

Most people, even high earners, live paycheck to paycheck. Not because they're dumb, but because they're doing what "everyone" does: finance cars, upgrade houses every few years until the mortgage owns them, treat college as the only respectable path no matter the cost, use stuff to prove they're winning at life.

If you copy that blueprint, you copy the results. If your life looks exactly like the average person in your income bracket, don't be shocked when your bank account does too.

Being "normal" with money is a good way to guarantee a normal outcome: working until they tell you you're allowed to stop.

Here's a simple rule: if you can't at least sell it for what you paid for it, it's not an asset. It's a toy.

Assets either put money in your pocket or hold their value so you can convert them back into cash later. That includes investments, businesses, and in some cases things like the right kind of property or even a watch you can flip for what you paid.

Most of what people brag about—boats, ATVs, new cars, vacations—is actively eating their future. Toys aren't evil. But toys come after assets. Eat your investing vegetables before you get dessert.

The loudest people usually have the weakest balance sheets.

The giant house, the luxury SUV, the performative vacations—those don't guarantee anything except large fixed costs and probably some anxiety. Plenty of six-figure earners with perfect LinkedIn profiles can't cover a few months of expenses without a paycheck.

Real wealth is quiet. It looks like a smaller, paid-off or comfortably affordable house. Boring cars that start every time. A life that doesn't need every dollar of current income to survive.

You don't need to tell people you're doing well. If you're actually doing well, your calendar will show it long before your car does.

The flex isn't how much you spend; it's how much you keep.

Spending is instant feedback. Saving and investing are slow, boring, and invisible at first. That's why almost no one does it seriously. But compound interest is the closest thing to a legal cheat code that exists in money.

There's no magic percentage rule here. Just this: if investing and saving aren't clearly winning the monthly fight against spending, you're not getting free anytime soon. Set your life up so investing and saving are automatic, and spending is the part you have to think about—not the other way around.

This sounds insultingly simple. It's also the rule almost no one follows in practice.

"Rich" isn't just a big income. It's net worth that actually means something. Time freedom. Being work-optional—not terrified of losing your job.

You don't get there by out-earning your lifestyle. You get there by creating a gap between what comes in and what goes out, then shoving that gap into assets instead of upgrades. You can make less than your peers and still lap them financially if you simply refuse to play the "every raise gets a new toy" game.

Every dollar you don't spend is a worker you send out into the world to earn more dollars for you. You either build a small army of those workers or you stay an army of one, trading your own hours forever.

You don't have to follow any of these rules. You can follow the standard script: finance the car, stretch for the house, upgrade everything, and hope your body and brain hold out until the official retirement age.

Or you can treat money like what it actually is: a tool to buy your time back.

Spend less than you make. Buy assets, not toys. Ignore the noise. Build a life that doesn't need a boss. That's the only "get rich" plan that actually works.

Most people will nod along with these rules and then go right back to financing their next dopamine hit. The point isn't to memorize a list; it's to pick a side. You can either live like everyone else—chasing upgrades, buying proof you're successful, and quietly committing to work until your body quits—or you can decide your life is worth more than that trade.

These rules aren't magic, and they won't make you rich overnight, but they will shift the only two things that actually matter: how you think and what you tolerate.

Spend less than you make. Buy assets, not toys. Let wealth whisper. And when everyone else is still grinding to keep up appearances, you'll be busy living a life you don't need a vacation from.

If this hit home, share it with someone who needs to hear it. These rules only work if you actually follow them.