I’ve been reading your column in The Jewish Press for years. I am now graduating from college and entering the real world. What financial advice would you give to someone like me to get started on the right financial foot?
Thanks for reading, and kol hakavod for being proactive about your financial future.
I actually wrote an article in 2023 entitled “My Commencement Address: 7 Ways to Build Your Human Capital,” which highlighted important financial tips for recent graduates. While that advice still holds true, I can now boil the most important lesson down to a single word: consistency.
A life built around consistency can set you up for success in virtually every area, especially your finances.
Consistency is the ability to show up the same way, again and again, long after the excitement, motivation, or novelty has faded. It is the quiet force that compounds over time and transforms ordinary actions into extraordinary outcomes.
Consistency With Your Health: Most people understand what they need to do to be healthy and fit. The challenge is sticking with it. If you exercise three times a week, even if every workout is not perfect, and avoid junk food most of the time, you will likely maintain a healthy weight and physique. The key is not perfection. The key is consistency.
Consistency With Your Family: Showing up for your family, even on busy days, is essential. Choose one time each day when you are fully present with your spouse and children. Many busy professionals tell me this is either breakfast before the day begins or dinner after it ends. In the frum world, Shabbos provides another opportunity to disconnect from distractions and reconnect with family.
Balancing work, community responsibilities, and family life is not easy. However, consistently making time for your family can have a profound impact on your children’s upbringing and on marital harmony.
Consistency in Your Career: It may take a few years to settle into the right career path. Contrary to popular belief, not everyone knows what they want to do while in college, and a first job is not always the right fit. Many of my university friends now work in industries completely different from where they started. Others are on their third or fourth employer. A certain amount of trial and error is normal. Personally, I am an anomaly because I have been in the same industry for my entire career, although I am now at my fourth company.
Eventually it pays to commit to a field and go all in. The longer you remain in an industry, the more expertise you develop, the stronger your reputation becomes, and the greater your earning potential. Constantly changing directions can interrupt momentum. Long-term commitment allows you to accumulate experience, and experience is invaluable.
Consistency in Business: Success in business is built on trust. Trust is earned by consistently doing what you say you will do. Avoid get-rich-quick schemes and resist the temptation to cut corners. Short-term thinking may provide temporary gains, but it often comes at the expense of long-term success.
Building a stellar reputation takes years and develops one relationship at a time. However, after a decade of operating with integrity, you will often find that attracting clients becomes significantly easier.
Consistency in Your Community: Become an active member of your community by showing up consistently. Volunteer for the chesed committee, attend minyan regularly, participate in one or two shiurim each week, help set up the kiddush, or contribute in another meaningful way. Simply being present, week after week and year after year, transforms a person into a pillar of the community.
Consistency With Your Money: The secret to financial success is not finding the next big investment opportunity or gaining access to exclusive deals. Rather, it is creating a system that allows you to save and invest consistently using prudent, diversified investments. Even modest contributions from each paycheck can grow substantially over a four-decade career thanks to the power of compounding.
One advantage of investing is that consistency can be automated. You can arrange for a percentage of each paycheck to be deposited directly into your 401(k) and invested in a diversified target-date fund. If you begin saving with your first job and maintain a disciplined process, there is no reason you cannot become a multimillionaire by retirement.
Beyond investing, consistently practicing sound financial habits will help keep your finances on track. These habits include maintaining an emergency fund with three to six months’ worth of expenses, avoiding unnecessary debt, living within your means, and obtaining appropriate term life and disability insurance coverage early in your career. Follow these principles consistently over several decades and financial success becomes highly attainable.
Why Consistency Is So Difficult: Consistency is powerful, but many people struggle with it because of human nature. Our brains are wired to seek novelty, stimulation, and immediate rewards. That is one reason scrolling on a smartphone can be so addictive. It constantly provides something new and engaging yet often produces little lasting accomplishment.
Consistency, on the other hand, is repetitive, predictable, and slow to reward. Your biology is naturally pulling you toward what is new and exciting, while success often requires doing the same productive things over and over again.
The Importance of Your Environment: One of the best ways to stay consistent is to surround yourself with people whose values you admire. As you begin this next stage of life, seek out friends and mentors who work hard, prioritize family, contribute to their communities, maintain healthy lifestyles, and conduct themselves with integrity.
Financially, try to become part of a community that does not revolve around keeping up with the Joneses. Surround yourself with people who value responsibility, generosity, and long-term thinking rather than constant consumption.
As the well-known filmmaker, writer, and comedian Woody Allen once said, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” Show up consistently, and over time you will put yourself in a position to succeed financially, professionally, personally, and in your Yiddishkeit.