Career & Finance Fridays

“I've been making a list of the things they don't teach you at school. They don't teach you how to love somebody. They don't teach you how to be famous. They don't teach you how to be rich or how to be poor. They don't teach you how to walk away from someone you don't love any longer. They don't teach you how to know what's going on in someone else's mind. They don't teach you what to say to someone who's dying. They don't teach you anything worth knowing.” ― Neil Gaiman

Building wealth takes time, effort, and discipline. The good news is that anyone can follow proven strategies to grow and preserve wealth over the long term. The earlier you begin, the better your chances of success.

Below, we outline key principles for building wealth, including setting goals, managing debt, saving, investing, understanding taxes, and building strong credit. Let’s take a closer look at how these principles can help you achieve your financial goals.

Key Takeaways

• Building wealth involves earning, saving, investing, and protecting your assets while managing debt.
• Start by earning enough to cover basic needs and save any surplus.
• Set clear financial goals—whether it’s retirement, buying a home, or paying for education.
• Diversify your investments to mitigate risk and protect your wealth.

1. Earn Money 

The first step in building wealth is earning money. While this might seem obvious, it’s crucial—you can’t save or invest without income. You've probably seen charts showing that a small amount of money regularly saved and allowed to compound over time can eventually grow into a substantial sum. But those charts never answer this fundamental question: How do you get money to save in the first place? 

There are two main ways to earn money: earned income or passive income.

• Earned income comes from your job or business.
• Passive income comes from investments or businesses that generate revenue without constant effort.

To maximize your earning potential:

• Do what you enjoy: You'll perform better and likely build a long-lasting career if you're passionate about your work. In fact, one study found that more than nine out of 10 workers said they would trade a percentage of their lifetime earnings for greater meaning at work.1
• Leverage your strengths: Identify what you're good at and find ways to monetize those talents.
• Research your options: Consider career paths that align with your interests and skills. Tools like the Occupational Outlook Handbook from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics can help you assess potential salaries and career growth.

2. Set Goals and Develop a Plan

Clear financial goals are essential for wealth-building. Whether you aim to retire early, buy a home, or pay for your children’s college, setting specific, measurable, and time-bound goals will help guide your financial plan.

• Define your goals: Understand what you want to achieve and the costs involved. Examples include saving for retirement or buying a property.
• Create a plan: Build a strategy to meet your goals, including budgeting, increasing income, and investing in assets that will appreciate in value over time.
• Review regularly: Your plan should be flexible. Track your progress, and adjust as necessary to stay on course.

3. Save Money

Simply making money won't help you build wealth if you end up spending it all. Moreover, if you don't have enough money for your bills or an emergency, you should prioritize saving enough above all else. Many experts recommend having three to six months' worth of income saved up for such situations.2

To set more money aside for building wealth, consider these moves:

1. Track your spending for at least a month: You can use a budgeting app or spreadsheet to help you do this, but a small, pocket-size notebook could also work. Record what you spend, even small amounts; many people are surprised to see where all their money goes.
2. Cut unnecessary expenses: Categorize spending into “needs” (e.g., housing, insurance) and “wants” (e.g., dining out, entertainment). Focus on trimming the latter.
3. Set savings goals: Identify how much you can afford to save each month and automate your savings through direct transfers to your account. If you're meeting your savings goals, feel free to reward yourself once in a while. You'll feel better and be motivated to stay on course.
4. Contribute to retirement: Save for retirement by having money automatically withdrawn from your pay and put into your employer's 401(k). Financial planners usually advise contributing at least enough to get your employer's full matching contribution.
5. Use high-yield savings. Maximize the payoff of your savings by shopping for savings accounts with the highest interest rates and lowest fees. High-yield savings accounts (HYSAs) offer 10 to 12 times the interest rate of a standard savings account.3 Certificates of deposit (CDs) can be a good savings option if you can afford to lock up that money for several months or years.

Keep this in mind, too: You can only cut so much in costs. If your costs are already down to the bone, you should look into ways to increase your income.

Setting a spending budget is one of the best ways to ensure you are saving enough. Cut back on excess and unnecessary spending and put the money in the bank instead.

4. Invest Money

Once you’ve managed to set aside some money, the next step is investing it so that it will grow. Remember that interest rates on typical savings accounts tend to be very low, and your cash risks losing purchasing power over time to inflation.

The most important investing principle is diversification—spread your money across various investments to minimize risk. Simply put, your goal should be to spread your money among different types of investments. That’s because investments perform differently at different times. For example, bonds may provide good returns if the stock market is on a losing streak. Or if Stock A is in a slump, Stock B may be on a tear.

Mutual funds provide some built-in diversification because they invest in many different securities. And you’ll achieve greater diversification if you invest in both a stock fund and a bond fund (or several stock funds and several bond funds), for example, rather than just one or the other.

As another general rule, the younger you are, the more risk you can afford to take because you’ll have more years to make up for any losses.

Index funds, such as those in your employer's 401(k) or IRA, are a type of mutual fund or ETF. These funds typically have lower fees than actively managed funds, making them a good entry point for new investors.

Types of Investments

Investments vary in terms of risk and potential return. Generally, the safer they are, the lower their potential return, and vice versa.

If you aren’t already familiar with the various types of investments, it’s worth spending a little time reading up on them. While there are all kinds of exotic investments, most people will want to start with the basics: stocks, bonds, and mutual funds.

• Stocks are shares of ownership in a corporation. When you buy stock, you own a tiny slice of that company and will benefit from any rise in its share price and any dividends it pays out. Stocks are generally considered riskier than bonds, but stocks can also vary widely in risk from one corporation to another.
• Bonds are like IOUs from a company or government. When you buy a bond, the issuer promises to pay your money back, with interest, after a certain period. Bonds are considered less risky than stocks but with less potential upside. At the same time, some bonds are riskier than others; bond-rating agencies assign them letter grades to reflect that.
• Mutual funds are pools of securities—often stocks, bonds, or a combination of the two. You get a slice of the entire pool when you buy mutual fund shares. Mutual funds also vary in risk, depending on what they invest in.
• Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are like mutual funds in that each share holds an entire portfolio of securities, but ETFs are listed on exchanges and trade like stocks. Some ETFs track major stock indexes like the S&P 500, particular industry sectors, or asset classes like bonds and real estate.

Before you start investing, make sure you have sufficient savings and money set aside to handle any unexpected financial emergencies.

5. Protect Your Assets

You’ve worked hard to earn your money and grow your wealth. Insurance is crucial to wealth-building, as it safeguards your assets against unexpected events. Essential types of insurance include:

• Homeowners or renters insurance to protect property.
• Auto insurance to cover accidents and damage.
• Life insurance to provide financial support to your beneficiaries in case of untimely death.
• Disability insurance to replace lost income if you become ill or injured.

Even if you’re young and healthy, buying life and disability insurance early can save money in the long run, as premiums increase with age. That means even if you are 25 years old and single, buying life insurance could be much more cost-effective than when you are 10 years older with a partner, children, and mortgage.

6. Minimize the Impact of Taxes

Taxes are an often-overlooked drag on your wealth-building efforts. Of course, we are all subject to income tax and sales tax as we earn and spend money, but our investments and assets can also be taxed. That’s why it is essential to understand your tax exposures and develop strategies to minimize their impact.

There are several strategies to reduce your taxable income:

• Tax-advantaged accounts: Contribute to 529 college savings plans, individual retirement accounts (IRAs), and 401(k) plans to benefit from tax deductions or tax-free growth. Contributions to a traditional IRA or 401(k) are tax-deductible and grow tax-deferred. Investment gains in a Roth IRA or 401(k) are tax-exempt, meaning you can grow and withdraw money in a Roth account without paying taxes on any of the income or gains.4
• Tax-efficient investments: Consider holding growth assets like stocks in taxable accounts and income-generating assets (e.g., bonds) in tax-advantaged accounts.
• Long-term capital gains: By holding investments for more than a year, you can take advantage of the lower long-term capital gains tax rate, which is generally lower than the short-term capital gains tax and income tax rates.56

Given a choice, an income-producing asset like a dividend-paying stock or corporate bond should be placed in a tax-advantaged account like a Roth IRA, where these payments will not trigger taxable events. A growth stock that will only produce capital gains (rather than income) might be better located in a taxable account.

Consider talking with a qualified tax professional, such as an accountant or a certified public accountant (CPA), who can help you develop a tax strategy for your specific financial situation. By minimizing the impact of taxes, you can build wealth more effectively and preserve more of your hard-earned money over the long term.

7. Manage Debt and Build Your Credit

As you build wealth, you’ll start to find it worthwhile to take on debt to fund various purchases or investments. You may pay for things with a credit card to earn points or rewards. You might apply for a mortgage for a home or second home, a home equity loan for home improvements, or an auto loan to purchase a car. Maybe you’ll want to take out a personal loan to help start a business or invest in someone else’s.

Managing your debt carefully is essential—taking on too much debt could impede your progress toward your wealth-building goals. To manage debt, be mindful of your debt-to-income (DTI) ratio and make sure that your debt payments are manageable within your budget. You should also aim to pay off high-interest debt, such as credit card debt, as quickly as possible to avoid paying excessive interest charges. Be wary of variable or adjustable interest rate products like adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) or those with balloon payments, as changes to the economy or your personal circumstances can quickly cause those debts to become unmanageable.

If you fall into debt, your credit score can be negatively impacted, and if you default on your debts, you could face personal bankruptcy.

Maintaining a Good Credit Score

Building and maintaining a good credit score is important to growing and preserving your wealth over the long term. You’ll enjoy a lower interest rate and better terms on your loans if you have a strong credit history and high credit score, which can save you thousands of dollars in interest charges over time.7

Here are a few key steps that you can take to maintain a good credit score:

1. Pay your bills on time. One of the most important factors that affect your credit score is your payment history. To maintain a good credit score, you should make sure to pay your bills on time, every time. Late payments, even if they’re only a few days late, can significantly negatively impact your credit score.
2. Keep your credit utilization low. Your credit utilization, or the amount of credit you’re using compared to the amount you have available, is another important factor that affects your credit score. To maintain a good credit score, you should aim to keep your credit utilization below 30% of your available credit.
3. Monitor your credit report. It’s a good idea to check your credit report regularly to make sure that all the information is accurate and up to date. Today, several services will provide you with a credit report free of charge. Errors on your credit report can negatively impact your credit score, so it’s important to dispute any inaccuracies you find.
4. Avoid opening too many new accounts. Every time you apply for credit, it can have a slight negative impact on your credit score. To maintain a good credit score, you should avoid opening too many new accounts in a short period of time. Note, however, that if you do not use credit cards or don’t have enough credit lines open, you may fall victim to having an insufficient credit history. So, open some credit cards and take out some loans, but do not overdo it.

By following these steps and practicing good credit habits, you can maintain a good credit score and maximize your borrowing power over the long term.

Should I Pay Off Debt or Invest?

If you have high-interest debt, such as many credit card charges, it usually makes sense to pay it off before you invest. Few investments ever pay as much as credit cards charge. Once you’ve paid off your debt, redirect that extra money to savings and investments. Try to pay your credit card balance in full each month, whenever possible, to avoid owing interest in the future.

How Much Money Do I Need to Buy a Mutual Fund?

Mutual fund companies have different minimum initial investment requirements to get started, often beginning at about $500. After that, you can usually invest less. Some mutual funds will waive their initial minimums if you commit to investing a regular sum each month. You can also buy mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) through a brokerage firm, some of which charge nothing for opening an account.

What Is an Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF)?

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are investment pools much like mutual funds. A key difference is that their shares are traded on stock exchanges (rather than bought and sold through a particular fund company). They sometimes charge lower fees as well. You can also buy them with stocks and bonds through a brokerage firm.

The Bottom Line

Building wealth is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s a process of consistent saving, investing, and smart financial decisions. By starting early, focusing on diversification, protecting your assets, minimizing taxes, and managing debt, you’ll set yourself up for long-term financial success.

The key is patience, discipline, and a clear plan. Celebrate your successes along the way and stay focused on your goals, adjusting your strategy as needed. Over time, your efforts will compound, leading to financial independence and wealth-building success.

Money & Finances

What do you wish you would have learned earlier about building wealth?