Finance

Financial advisor tells graduating class how they can become self-made millionaires

Published

2 years ago

May 27, 2024

Financial advisor tells graduating class how they can become self-made millionaires

Thousands of college graduates are entering adulthood and may need to start thinking more about money management.

Author, self-made millionaire, and host of the I Will Teach You to be Rich podcast Ramit Sethi revealed the ‘simple’ step for college graduates to be financially successful in the future.

According to NBC 10 Philadelphia, Sethi’s advice for college graduates to achieve financial success is ‘invest 10 percent’ of their salaries every year.

‘At the end of the year, increase that by one percent. Do this for as long as you can and you will be a multimillionaire,’ he told CNBC Make It earlier this month.

Sethi, who also starred in the 2023 Netflix docuseries How to Get Rich, has years of professional experience and is the founder of IWT.

Author and self-made millionaire Ramit Sethi suggests that college students look into investing 10 percent of their salaries every year to be financially successful in the future

Sethi, who starred in the 2023 Netflix docuseries How to Get Rich, is the founder and CEO of IWT – a website that hosts over one million readers a month

According to Sethi’s LinkedIn, his parents immigrated to the US in the 1970s from India.

‘With four kids and one income, they couldn’t afford to send me to college so I built a system to apply 60+ scholarships,’ he wrote in his profile description.

He went on to receive a full scholarship to Stanford University, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in 2004 and 2005.

However, after graduation, he admitted that he took his first scholarship check, invested it in the stock market, and lost around half of it almost immediately.

This incident inspired him to learn about money and that what he learned during his schooling was ‘irrelevant.’

Today, he runs IWT – a website that hosts over one million readers a month that are interested in learning more about business, careers, negotiation, psychology, and money.

His 2009 New York Times Best Seller I Will Teach You To Be Rich is a six-week finance program for individuals between the ages of 20 to 35.

However, the steps he discussed with NBC 10 Philadelphia on how college graduates will be successful may be simpler for former students to understand.

Sethi’s 2009 New York Times Best Seller I Will Teach You To Be Rich is a six-week finance program for individuals between the ages of 20 to 35

The first thing a college graduate must do to get started is open their own brokerage account, traditional IRA, Roth IRA, or any other kind of investment account.

In order to do so, the college graduate must provide information such as a driver’s license and a social security number.

Once the account is open, the owner of it can begin depositing money and select what kinds of funds they would like to invest in.

NBC 10 Philadelphia also suggests that the account holder look into setting it up so that their investment account will receive automatic deposits.

The investment will continue to grow and work well for the college graduate that is looking to be financially successful.

Despite Sethi’s suggestion in investing 10 percent of a salary every year, college graduates may not have to start doing that right away.

It’s best for college graduates to begin investing early on so that their money will have longer time to grow through compound interest.

According to Fidelity, compound interest is when interest you earn in a savings or investment account earns interest of its own.

This means that the investment account holder can earn interest on its initial balance and the interest that is added to the total amount of money over time.

An example of this would be if a college graduate was to invest $1,000 and earn an annualized return of 7 percent.

This would result in their investment growing to $1,070 by next year and earn 7 percent of their entire balance the year after that.

If college graduates were to begin contributing $100 toward an investment account that generates a 7 percent annual return rate when they’re 21-years-old, their total could be over $1.4 million by the time they’re 65.

‘By starting at your college graduation with your first job, you will set yourself up for a lifetime of living a rich life,’ said Sethi.

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Finance

Consumer confidence plunges among younger adults

Published

6 hours ago

June 18, 2026

Press Room

Consumer confidence plunges among younger adults

Consumer confidence has plunged among traditionally optimistic younger adults amid fears for their personal finances and the wider economy, figures show.

GfK’s long-running Consumer Confidence Index remained unchanged at an overall score of minus 23 in June.

However, the analyst said this was was “misleading as, beneath the surface, there are new signs that confidence is weakening”.

Source: GfK

Neil Bellamy, consumer insights director at GfK, said: “The biggest fall this month is among those aged 16 to 29, traditionally one of the most optimistic groups.

“Here confidence has dropped 11 points over the past month to minus two, the lowest level seen for two years, driven by large falls in views on both their own personal finances and the wider economy.

“More broadly, there are now no demographic groups with a positive confidence score, including higher-income households earning £50,000 or more, who have slipped back into negative territory as of June.

“Confidence remains subdued and vulnerable to further economic or political uncertainty.”

Overall, confidence in personal finances over the coming year remained flat at minus two, four points lower than this time last year.

The measures of both personal finances and the economy over the previous 12 months were both slightly down, by two points and three points respectively, “reflecting the sense that things have been extremely tough over the last year for so many”, GfK said.

The only measure to increase was expectations for the wider economy over the next 12 months, up two points to minus 36 but still eight points below this time last year.

The major purchase index, an indicator of confidence in buying big ticket items, remained at minus 20, four points lower than June last year.

Finance

How US-Iran peace deal will affect our cost of living

Published

16 hours ago

June 18, 2026

Press Room

How US-Iran peace deal will affect our cost of living

“Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!” said Donald Trump on social media after he announced the signing of an interim peace deal with Iran on Sunday. Under the agreement – which Iran acknowledged included a 60-day negotiating period for a final deal – the president said that following retrieval of mines, there would be a “toll free opening” of the Strait of Hormuz.

But many of the finer details remain “unclear”, said The Guardian. There are questions over the “exact timing of the reopening of the maritime route, who will oversee safe passage and whether any conditions will be applied”.

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Finance

Hong Kong graduates prefer careers in finance, survey finds

Published

1 day ago

June 17, 2026

Press Room

Hong Kong graduates prefer careers in finance, survey finds

Hong Kong graduates believe the city’s finance industry is its most attractive and stable sector, making them more optimistic about career opportunities than their global peers, according to a study by the CFA Institute, which trains investment managers.

The US-based institute’s “2026 Graduate Outlook Survey”, released on Wednesday, found that 71 per cent of Hong Kong graduates rated their career prospects between eight and 10 out of 10. The global average for that level of optimism was 59 per cent.

The graduates’ view of careers in finance reflected “both the sector’s resilience and Hong Kong’s continued strength as an international financial centre, which ranks third worldwide and first in Asia-Pacific”, the institute said in a statement.

The findings also indicated that young people were confident about Hong Kong’s role as an international financial centre, resilient amid global uncertainties, and strategically focused on improving skills, it said.

That confidence was “deeply grounded”, it said, with nearly 90 per cent believing they had the skills to succeed and clearly understood what employers were looking for, notwithstanding the wider adoption of artificial intelligence in the city.

“Rather than viewing AI as a threat, 38 per cent of Hong Kong graduates believe it has no negative impact on their job hunting, and 37 per cent believe it makes securing a job easier,” the institute said. “Three quarters are already actively using AI tools in their job applications, demonstrating a proactive, tool-first mindset.”