4 Modern Money Tips (not taught in school)

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Learning more about money can:

- Help you save.

- Help you invest.

- Help you build wealth faster.

Unfortunately, most schools teach nothing about money.

The Money Game

Not learning about money can lead to:

- Stress.

- Anxiety.

- Having to work in retirement.

Most people want to break free from 9-5 life early.

But they don't know where to start with their money.

7 money tips I wish I knew at 21:

1. Avoid car loans.
2. Work different jobs.
3. Learn high-value skills.
4. Save money each payday.
5. Learn how to invest & start.
6. Begin working on a side hustle.
7. Plan to escape the 9-5 life early.

— JOHN HENRY (@thejohnhenry_) December 4, 2025

I've done many things wrong with my money.

And a few things right.

But investing consistently while working my 9-5 took my investments from $0 to $1M in just over a decade.

Working in finance felt like a cheat code.

To learn the things most schools don't teach.

To see and copy what successful bank clients did.

To opt out of working a 9-5 job a few decades early to do my own thing.

And I've made so many money mistakes along the way like having $50k in credit card debt in my late 20s.

The Money Levers

Learning these 4 tips "money levers" while working in finance from people much smarter than me was a big help.

Here they are (hope it's useful).

Let's dive in:

1. The Compounding Game

Compound interest made famous investor Warren Buffett rich.

Buffett's net worth is $160 billion according to Forbes.

And he started with $20k in his early 20s according to reports.

Running a few "what if" scenarios is a great to make sense of compound interest.

FN Calculator is my favorite free compound interest app to download.

For example.

Over the last 40 years.

If saving $5 per day.

And investing $150 per month.

Into the S&P500 (stock market).

Here's the math:

^{Compound interest calculator}

The S&P500 (stock market) has grown 11% per year on average the past 40 years.

Knowing how compound interest works is helpful when planning your investments.

2. The Income Game

There's many ways to make money.

But school only talks about one way.

Getting a job.

Learning these 3 important facts changed how I thought about money.

Fact #1

30 years ago:

The average income of a family was:

$34,080

Today the average income of a family is:

$83,730

That means family income went up:

145% in the last 30 years.

^{Family income}

Fact #2

30 years ago the average home cost:

$130,000

Today the average home costs:

$410,000

That means homes went up:

315% in the last 30 years (way more than peoples income).

^{House prices}

Fact #3

30 years ago.

$100 invested in the stock market.

Is worth a total of $2,216 today.

That means the stock market went up over 2,000% the last 30 years.

^{Stock market growth}

To recap.

In the last 30 years:

Homes went up 315%.

Stocks went up 2,000%.

People's income only went up 145%.

Learning these facts motivated the heck out of me to learn more about investing.

The stock market and real estate commonly grow faster than peoples income.

3. The Investment Game

Famed investor Naval Ravikant's quote is harsh but worth knowing:

Here's an example to consider:

Dave is a computer programmer.

He invests 50 hours of his time per week into his job.

But if Dave is laid off.

The 50 hours of time he invests per week into his job would stop.

And his income would stop.

But if years earlier Dave got a loan and bought a home.

And was investing part of the money he made every month.

His home and his investments would likely continue to grow in value as he searched for a new job.

Income from a job often takes 40-50 hours per week while income from investments often takes no time or a minimal effort.

4. The Taxes Game

Taxes are based on the type of income you make.

For example, if comparing:

- Income from a job.

- Income from investments.

- Income from a self employed person.

People that make income from investments often pay the least amount in taxes.

The money cruncher is a good follow for taxes (nice guy!).

Strategic withdrawals from your portfolio is the key to paying $0 in taxes.

If you are married, you can pull:
• $31,500 from your pre-tax 401k
• $58,500 of long-term capital gains from brokerage
• $10,000 from your Roth IRA

= $0 in federal taxes, $100,000 of cash. (Assuming…

— The Money Cruncher, CPA (@money_cruncher) October 2, 2025

Taxes are based on the type of income a person makes each year.

The bottom line

I remember reading about these things inside a Barnes and Noble.

Back when I lived in Los Angeles in my 20s.

And didn't have money to buy any books on investing.

Working in finance helped me learn more about these things.

And motivated me to get loans to buy property and invest in the stock market.

It's wild most people (myself included) don't learn any of these things in school:

- How Warren Buffett one of the richest guys made his money with compound interest.

- How income from a job grows slower than real estate and the stock market.

- How investments often require no work to make money unlike a job.

- How taxes are based on the type of income you make and people with investment income often pay the least amount in taxes.

These realizations where big "ah-hah" moments when I started learning more about money and investing.

Hope they're useful on your investing journey.

That's all for today.

See you next Saturday.