“Retire early” might not be on your 2025 resolution list, but maybe “save $100” can be! Here’s the crazy thing about huge long term goals: They are all accomplished with small individual steps. Sometimes I think about this when I’m going for a long hike. I can see the peak of a mountain far off in the distance. It seems impossibly far away. It’s defeating to just think about trying to get all the way up there. How could you possibly do it with just your feet?! But then I look down, and take a single step. That wasn’t so bad. Then you just keep taking more individual steps. Then, before you know it you’re on top of the mountain! No individual step was a monumental effort, but in combination it achieved something that seemed so daunting. And it got easier (and more fun!) once you started.

Personal finance is the same way. Get rich quick will never work. But taking small incremental steps over time absolutely does work. Where are you today? How can you put yourself in a better place in a year from now? Pay off debt, decrease expenses, increase your income, increase saving, increase investing, read a book, further your education, advance your career, etc. Doing these things a little bit better over time will compound into monumental wealth. Don’t let the daunting monumental goal in the distance dissuade you from looking down at your feet and taking those smaller manageable steps.

Happy New Year!

As always, reminding you to build wealth by following the two PFC rules: 1.) Live below your means and 2.) Invest early and often.

-Jeremy