I’m in the middle of writing my newest e-book on Investments. Any questions you want answered in it?

The goal is to make it as complete as possible and bring along all of you with me on this.

Comment your question below and I’ll be sure to add it (and the answer) to the e-book.

P.S. I’ve opened a waitlist for the book here if you’re interested to get notified when it goes live! https://www.justinhuynh.com/access/investments

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Almost everyone holds money at a bank, but why not a credit union?

An interesting (and slightly declining) artifact of the U.S financial system are credit unions, which are essentially small, localized, nonprofit banks.

Credit Unions are awesome since they are operate as nonprofits, which means they often have better customer service, lower fees, better interest terms for the customer, and more.

So why doesn’t everyone use them? They’re usually limited by geographic location for the customers they can serve. Plus, since they’re not run like a business, often times, their marketing just isn’t up to bar.

That doesn’t kill the case for big banks though — banks, due to sheer scale, have more branches, ATMs, technology, etc.

Definitely a personal preference, but check out your local credit union if you’re looking for somewhere to park your money or get a loan.

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#TheMillionImpactMission

You’re probably not saving as efficiently as possible.

And also getting screwed over by big name banks.

If you have a savings account from one of the big banks — Chase, Wells Fargo, BoA, etc — you’re probably earning 0.00001% interest on your money or 0.001% if you’re a preferred member (with lots of money).

But did you know you can switch over to an equally comparable online bank (that is still FDIC insured) and earn upwards of 2.5% interest (versus your 0.00001%)? There isn’t any catch, big banks are just not sharing the money they make with our money.

For context, that means on a $20,000 savings account, you would earn $500 in interest alone in 1 year (which is more than you would earn over the next 30 years at X big bank).

Here are my favorites:

1. Marcus (by Goldman Sachs) — 2.15%

2. Ally Bank — 2.25%

3. Sofi Savings+Checkings — up to 2.5%

The best part is that it take 5 minutes to set up your account and about 2 business days for your money to transfer over.

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#TheMillionImpactMission

One of the best personal finance tricks I learned is to set a Guilt Free Spending number.

Shout out to Ramit Sethi, author/founder of I Will Teach You To Be Rich, for this one.

The principle is quite simple. Have a dollar amount that you know you can spend guilt-free without ever thinking about it. Want that Rolex? or YSL purse? If it’s within your guilt-free number, go get it.

Calculating is just as simple.

1. Write down your net income.

2. Subtract all your necessary expenses (mortgage, loans, utilities, internet, etc).

3. Subtract all of your investments and savings.

And what you’re left with is a “Guilt Free Spending” number.

Personally, I just recently spent 6 months of my guilt free spending on one item— a pop-up camper for my car. And it was the best feeling to buy this knowing that all my expenses, investments, and savings are already taken care of. And that’s the power.

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#TheMillionImpactMission

A few weeks ago, I launched my FREE 38-page e-book to personal finance.

I wanted to share my gratitude for the positive (and constructive) feedback shared— and I wanted to let y’all know that the feedback will be implemented!

It’s now been read by over 1000 unique visitors on the site, which is insane for my first piece. So thank you all for sharing with others and reading on your own.

I’m writing my next e-book on Investments now. And I want y’all to be a big part of the direction and questions answered.

Please ask any and all questions you have about investing in the comments below, and I’ll be sure to include it in my latest e-book. By sharing your question, you’ll be one of the first notified once it launches.

If you haven’t grabbed your copy of my free personal finance e-book, feel free to grab that here: justinhuynh.com/access/personal-finance

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#TheMillionImpactMission

To my fellow GenZ crowd, don’t “act your wage.” This is so flawed.

Popularized on TikTok and the recent wave of “quiet quitters”, doing the bare minimum to keep your job is a sure way to never get promoted.

From Napolean Hill: “The man who does more than he is paid for will soon be paid for more than he does.”

And as you would expect, that will have profound differences in long term financial health.

But how big?

A one-time $10,000 raise (properly invested) can account for over $2,500,000 in additional money in retirement over 40 years.

$2,500,000!

And if you’re GenZ, a $10,000 raise is much easier to spin given the potential growth velocity you could have. Even for GenY/Millennials, the impact is HUGE.

Fight for salary bumps. They make a MASSIVE difference to where you’ll stand 40 years from now.

Interested in learning PRACTICAL financial education? Grab my free 38-page guide to personal finance here: justinhuynh.com/access/personal-finance

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#TheMillionImpactMission

In personal finance, it’s often more effective to do the opposite of what ‘everyone else’ is doing. But it’s not intuitive to most.

Many people, especially young investors, are pulling out of the market due to fear of continuing decline, and eventually recession. Crypto losses anyone?

But in reality, this is one of the best opportunities to buy back in since the market is in decline. You can think about it like a discount on the stock market altogether.

Buying on the way down will help you decrease your average cost of stocks, and thus increase profit over time.

Have extra income to invest? Now’s the time.

— Increase 401k contributions
— Max your Roth IRA
— Invest part of your HSA

Like Warren Buffett said, be greedy when others are fearful.

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#TheMillionImpactMission

$6,000 a year makes you a multimillionaire in 40 years.

$2,655,555. You contribute $240,000 ($6K x 40 years) and come out with over 10 times that in retirement.*

And you can do it in the next 10 minutes:

1. Open a Roth IRA at any major brokerage that offers commission-free trades (Vanguard, TDAmeritrade, etc). It’s free.

2. Connect your bank account to this Roth IRA and transfer up to 6,000 of taxable income every year.

3. Invest it into your favorite funds.

4. Rinse and repeat every year until you’re 59.5 years old.

Roth accounts are after-tax accounts. This means you put in money that has already been taxed. However, the massive benefit is that any interest earned in a Roth account is tax-free when withdrawn.

Want to learn more? Grab my free 38-page personal finance e-book here: justinhuynh.com/access/personal-finance

*Assumes 10% growth rate of investment

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STOP INVESTING.

…until you have enough cash.

Look, investing is all the craze today. In fact, it’s a meme that’s been gamified. And now, it’s cool and accessible to be an investor.

But investing is not the first step in personal finance.

👉 Keep at least 1 month of expenses in your Checking Account

👉 Keep another 3-12 months of expenses in a High Yield Savings Account

👉 Pay off all high interest debt (>8% interest)

Done these three? ✅

Then, start investing. Investing before this is stupid and risky.

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Building something new on the website 👀

Check it out: justinhuynh.com

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#TheMillionImpactMission

Start thinking about your purchases in units of time and not money.

Money is basically stored physical versions of your time.

You go to a job (or are self-employed) to trade your time (and skills) for money.

But when you start thinking of spending in units of time, it becomes much more apparent the things that are important to you.

Personally, I bought an Oculus VR Quest 2 from Facebook. It’s $300.

If I make $10/hour, that’s 30 hours of my life.

If I make $50/hour, that’s 6 hours of my life.

If I make $300/hour, that’s 1 hour of my life.

This mindset makes you much less careless with money.

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#TheMillionImpactMission

Budgeting really isn’t about saving money.*

It’s about finding what’s worth spending money on.

If you decide to splurge on the $100K Plaid trim Tesla, it’s fine…as long as it makes you feel fulfilled.

But if a $10 toy doesn’t make you feel fulfilled, then it should be cut from your life and spending.

You have to evaluate the things in your life that truly bring you fulfillment, otherwise, you’re wasting a ton of money.

*doesn't apply to basic needs!

Get my free 38-page personal finance e-book:

justinhuynh.com/access/personal-finance

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#TheMillionImpactMission

Be more intentional about stepping back every so often.

I try to reflect often. But when you’re in the thick of your career, in the middle of a project, and in the start of midterms, it’s nearly impossible to reflect.

But stepping back every so often to look at the problem you’re trying to solve might just be your saving grace.

It allows you to see the “why” and potentially find a new “how.”

A tip that has helped me do this is “sleep on it.” I wait a day or two before any major decision on my projects.

Sure, it slows me down a bit, but I often think of ways to improve the way I do something. For one decision in particular, it was a difference of nearly $40,000 over the past year.

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#TheMillionImpactMission

How I accidentally started a business at 14.

Yeah, it’s a funny story actually. I actually wrote about it for my university applications. It started like this,

”I share a room with 10,000 cockroaches. No, I don’t have an infestation — I keep live feeder insects for a peculiar roommate of mine, a lizard. If that wasn’t odd enough, this is all because I run a Facebook group called Bearded Dragon Obsession.”

So what was the business? It had two revenue streams:

1. I sold cockroaches (dubia roaches, for those in the biz). A female dubia roach has a market value of $2. And people bought thousands of roaches for their pets.

2. The (still active) website garnered a little over 120,000 unique visitors each year. I optimized for affiliate marketing income through the site. Some of my negotiated yields were close to 25% of the price of the item.

I don’t sell cockroaches regularly anymore— just to the regulars nowadays. But the website is still active, but hasn’t been updated for 7 years. Though, it still garners over 100,000 unique visitors and a bit of passive income for myself.

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#TheMillionImpactMission

Since I work at a startup, I’m slated to earn 17% less than my peers over the next 10 years.

Studies (link below) have indicated via meta analysis that startup employees earn on average 17% than their peers at established companies.

Why?

1. Startup Risk — Early stage startups fail at an incredible rate and have less capital to spend on salaries.

2. Job Mobility — Startup employees seldom return (or start) at established companies once they leave/are laid off from a startup, and the study suggests that it’s because startups hire generalists (aka the ‘masters of none’).

But there’s a couple alluring points to working at a startup—

1. Culture (or the lack there of)

2. Freedom (no managers peering over your shoulder)

3. Expedited experience (employees must fill multiple job roles to execute)

4. Equity (the potential for million dollar paydays at IPO is generally rare, but exciting to fight for)

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Study: https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/10.1287/orsc.2020.1371

Credit cards have a bad rep.

Popular financial talk host, Dave Ramsey, is particularly against the use of debt, especially debt with high interest rates. And popular media also continues to push that credit cards are evil.

But credit cards are one of the most fundamental parts of an optimized personal finance approach.

Credit cards can save you THOUSANDS of dollars in perks, but also, they help build up your credit score, which then may potentially save you hundreds of thousands in interest.

But promise you’ll follow 4 rules:

1. Never sign up for retail credit cards (terrible fees, APR, and worst of all: spam mail).

2. Only sign up for ones with rewards (travel, cashback, etc).

3. Cards with fees are actually worth it (if you use the perks).

4. Don’t open too many (You only need two— travel and cashback).

Want to learn more about debt and personal finance? Check out my free 38-page personal finance e-book here: justinhuynh.com/access/personal-finance

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#TheMillionImpactMission

I’m planning to be financial independent by 32 (without 29 streams of income).

It’s part of The Million Impact Mission, my personal mission to reach financial independence (FI) and bring along 1M others with me.

You can do this with a normal salaried or hourly job. No need to be a salesperson, real estate agent, etc. It’s all comes down to savings rate, or the percentage of your income that you end up saving (investing).

Financial advisors generally agree on a 10-20% savings rate as normal, but us nutjobs looking for FI are closer to the 50-90% savings rate allowing us to be financially free in 10-20 years by ruthlessly cutting our living expenses.

And you can do it too.

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Minimalists, Marie Kondo, and Ramit Sethi all have something in common.

Minimalists say, “Minimalists are those who are deliberate about removing the excess in their lives and choosing to pursue things that are more meaningful.”

Marie Kondo tells us to choose to keep things that “spark joy.”

& Ramit Sethi says, “There is power in saying no to the things we don’t care about. But there is even more power in saying a big YES to the things we love.”

The connecting philosophy here is to spend A LOT on the things that you love — and then cut costs mercilessly on the things you don’t love.

The biggest mistake people make is to cut the things they love. Knowing your finances and budgeting is the opposite— indulging on the things you love.

Obviously within reason. e.g. Don’t buy a Lambo on a $30k salary.

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First Generation Americans tend to think about personal finance differently than others.

This isn’t about being the victim. But we definitely work a bit harder to understand the financial systems around us.

In many cases, our parents simply only know the bare basics: open a savings account, save money, and plan for emergencies. It’s enough to survive, but not thrive.

Some of us even remember reading contracts or other documents in English and trying to explain them at the bright age of 5.

If you’re like me and still figuring it all out, here’s the basics—

1. Save for an emergency fund.

2. Look at investing in a retirement account.

3. Buy up to your employers 401k match.

4. Buy index funds (I like VOO and VTI).

5. Teach others. Together we rise.

Looking for more? Check out my free 38-page e-book here:

justinhuynh.com/access/personal-finance

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I’ve been procrastinating on launching this. But today is the day.

It’s quite scary to put something out into the world — fear of scrutiny and judgement are overwhelming.

I’ve written, gotten feedback, and rewrote this a few times to get it to where it is today. And honestly, re-writing was probably just a gateway for me to delay the launch as long as possible.

But today is the day for launch.

Introducing…

My very own personal finance e-book FOR FREE. It’s everything you need to know to get started in personal finance (explained in conversational English) in as little pages as possible — though it still came out to 38 pages.

All I ask in return is your email address (but a re-share is very very welcome as well).

Get my e-book for free here: justinhuynh.com/access/personal-finance

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