First to a Million: A Teenager's Guide to Achieving Early Financial Independence

by Dan Sheeks

Overview

Change the way you look at money before you turn 20—and become a FI Freak!

Most teenagers are told about only one financial path: Work until you’re old and then retire. But what if you want to spend your adult life traveling, creating, or bettering the world instead of working all day, every day?

Financial independence (FI) is the only way to win the resource you can’t rewind: time. Time for yourself, time for your family and friends, and time for your dreams. Build the freedom to define your own future by building a strong financial base—which means saving more, spending less, and starting to invest as soon as possible.

First to a Million explores the many advantages of FI while explaining the secrets of investing, living frugally, and maintaining an entrepreneurial mindset. Treating your finances differently than the average teenager will put you miles ahead of your peers, and with time (and compounding) on your side, you can win the game before it even starts!

Inside the Book, You’ll Learn:

Why the typical American Dream pathway is not for everyone

How a FI Freak can take control of their financial future

The Four Mechanisms of Early FI (Spoiler: They’re ridiculously simple!)

How to make more money as a teen with creative jobs and side hustles

How to be frugal and live richly with a life full of happiness and flexibility

The difference between income and wealth, real and false assets, and good and bad debt

Personal finance basics—like tracking income and expenses, building a credit score from the ground up, and calculating your net worth

Investing basics—like earning passive income, understanding the power of compound interest, and how index funds and real estate can build your wealth

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781947200463
Publisher:	BiggerPockets Publishing
Publication date:	12/14/2021
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	246,188
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	13 - 18 Years

About the Author

Dan Sheeks is the owner and founder of SheeksFreaks LLC, an online community dedicated to helping young people live their best lives by making smart money decisions. He has been a high school business teacher in Denver, Colorado, for eighteen years, and he’s passionate about teaching teenagers personal finance, passive income, real estate investing, and early financial freedom strategies. Dan and his wife own fifteen units and have enjoyed success with multifamily, short-term rentals, and the BRRRR strategy. In his free time, Dan likes to run, bike, cross-country ski, and attend bluegrass music festivals.

Table of Contents

Foreword Ryan Pineda 8

Introduction 14

Part 1 The Standard Path and a Different Option

Chapter 1 An Introduction to Financial Independence 24

Chapter 2 Why You Should Tell the American Dream to F Off 32

Chapter 3 The FI Equation and the Four Mechanisms of Early FI 39

Part 2 The FI Foundation

Chapter 4 Happiness 54

Chapter 5 The Concept of Enough 60

Chapter 6 Your Why of FI 65

Chapter 7 The Entrepreneurial Mindset 72

Part 3 The Keys to FI

Chapter 8 The Compounding Effect 82

Chapter 9 Real Assets vs. False Assets 87

Chapter 10 Good Debt vs. Bad Debt 91

Chapter 11 Credit Score 95

Chapter 12 Credit Cards 100

Chapter 13 Income vs. Wealth 105

Chapter 14 Passive Income 110

Part 4 How to Pursue FI: Earning and Spending

Chapter 15 Launching into the Four Mechanisms 118

Chapter 16 Earning More Income 120

Chapter 17 Frugality 128

Chapter 18 The Big Three Expenses 136

Chapter 19 Tracking Income and Expenses 149

Part 5 How to Pursue FI: Saving and Investing

Chapter 20 Saving Your Money 158

Chapter 21 Savings Rate 168

Chapter 22 Investing 176

Chapter 23 Index Fund Investing and the 4 Percent Rule 182

Chapter 24 An Introduction to Real Estate Investing 195

Chapter 25 The Pros and Cons of Real Estate Investing 200

Part 6 Where to Go from Here

Chapter 26 Should You Go to College? 218

Chapter 27 The Freakish Way to Do College 232

Chapter 28 The Pros and Cons of Being a Teenager 243

Chapter 29 The Fl Freak Checklist 250

Appendix A The Fl Freak Checklist 258

Appendix B Additional Resources 270

Notes 273

Glossary 276

Editorial Reviews

"Dan Sheeks got this feedback from one of his high school students: "I just want someone to tell me what to do and keep it simple. What exactly should I do over the next couple of years, and when should I do it?”  Dan's response is the wonderful book First To A Million. I was blown away by the 'FI Freak Checklist,' which is a nearly guaranteed path to success for every person reading this book."
—Brad Barrett, Co-host and co-founder of the ChooseFI Podcast

"Well organized into easy-to-read and reference chapters, the book simplifies a lot of what even adults may find challenging to understand in the world of personal finance... Although this book is geared toward teens, adults of all ages will surely find some truly valuable information in it that they can apply to their daily lives."
—Kristi Elizabeth, Manhattan Book Review

"Money isn't taught in schools, and certainly not how to get financial independence at an early age. I found the book to be a great read for adults, too. It goes beyond the boring stuff of budgeting and digs into what makes you happy and how to think differently about money."
—Scott Alan Turner, Rock Star Financial Planning

From the Publisher

2021-10-13
An infomercial-style book about financial independence options and long-term goals.

Sheeks’ plan for achieving FI includes four useful mechanisms with clear and concise advice on how to earn more, spend less, save robustly, and invest wisely. The formula to reduce the burden of debt and grow wealth also features several short profiles of real young people and describes their experiences. The insights about time and frugality are highlights, and the 4 Percent Rule for savings and other tools encourage helpful reflection. Sheeks discusses how aggressive saving, establishing good credit, and wise investing will help readers obtain FI long before the usual age of retirement. However, with a limited analysis of alternate viewpoints and no mention of broader societal inequities that have an impact on personal opportunities and finance, such as race, sexuality, gender identity, and social class, readers could become wary of this approach. The weak, repetitive writing quickly becomes as tedious as an awkward middle-aged relative trying to sound hip, offering a handful of valuable perspectives that go somewhat against the grain of conventional wisdom about retirement yet delivering the feel of a long-winded sales pitch complete with multiple reminders to post selfies and videos featuring the book on social media.

A mildly informative but incomplete view of financial goal setting. (checklists, resources, notes, glossary) (Nonfiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews