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. 

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.

Mayfield Village Council at its May 20 meeting said goodbye to Finance Director Ron Wynne who decided to leave the village to retire with his family.

Starting in 2009, Ron Wynne saw the village through some troubling times. Most notably when Progressive Insurance decided to leave the village, taking their workers and taxes with them. The hit that the village had to take didn’t pack as much of a punch as it could have, due to Wynne’s planning as he positioned the city to still have a surplus of over $40 million, cushioning the blow.

Mayor Brenda Bodnar said she was sad to see Wynne leave but was happy he would be able to spend more time with his family. She hopes he comes to visit but understands if he’s a little busy.

“Ron, I can honestly say that you have done more for us in 15 years than some do in a lifetime,” Bodnar said during the village council meeting. “I cannot tell you how much you will be missed, but I can assure you that your legacy of sound training and transparent financial management will live on here in the village.

“On a personal level Ron, I can always count on you for straightforward information, clear direction, complete candor, and a wicked sense of humor,” she added. “You are an invaluable friend, and we will all miss you greatly. And while we want you and (wife) Debbie to have an absolute blast in retirement, we hope that you keep in touch.”

Wynne himself said he was happy to be able to play golf and travel a bit. He said that although he doesn’t live in the village, he will definitely stay in touch with his lifelong friends.

“I look forward to retirement and traveling with my family,” Wynne said after the council meeting. “I’ve seen a lot of changes and a lot of positive growth, and I wish the village all the success in going forward.

“I’ve made friends here that are going to be friends way beyond my years here,” he added. “I think they’ve had great leadership in the time that I’ve been here, they have been visionaries in what they want in terms of growing the village and if they keep that up the village will be a great place going forward.”

Mayfield Village has appointed Angie Rich as his replacement, who was sworn in last month.

In April 2023, Credendo became a member of Wo·Men in Finance. This organisation was created in 2019 with the aim of accelerating gender balance at all levels within the financial sector.

Why did Credendo become a member?

Through this membership, Credendo wants to further strengthen its inclusive and diverse working environment, in which everyone is able to achieve their full potential. As you can read in our CSR report, supporting social and sustainable projects is important to us. Furthermore, one of our core values is to pay special attention to the mix of different cultures, experiences and backgrounds within our own organisation. It is also part of the Credendo Cares programme, which has been in place since a long time. It is for good reasons that we have earned the Leading Employer Quality Label.

Wo·Men in Finance will help us position ourselves even better in terms of diversity and inclusion.

By becoming a member, we are committing to:

• measuring glass ceilings within Credendo;
• sharing our gender progression at different levels and gender equality initiatives with Wo·Men in Finance;
• participating in the advisory board of Wo·Men in Finance.

Being a member gives us access to:

• 10 yearly workshops organised by Wo·Men in Finance on various themes, ranging from how to use AI inclusively and how to start employee resource groups, to sexism prevention or inclusive job offers;
• free consultancy services such as in-house training or presentations, adaptation of job offers to make them more inclusive, a review of our gender KPIs, etc.;
• our own benchmarking report with personalised advice, comparing our gender results with those of the sector;
• a Febelfin toolbox with 25 tools to improve inclusion.

Credendo is proud to have achieved significant gender diversity. Our workforce is made up of a balanced mix of men and women, with a total of 50.6% women across all subsidiaries. This result is not just a statistic for us. It demonstrates our commitment to equity and inclusion.