7 Cashflow Milestones Worth Celebrating (2026 Edition)

0:00Brian Preston:Study and play. Come together on a Windows 11 PC. And for a limited time, college students get the best of both worlds. Get the Unreal College Deal. Everything you need to study and play with select Windows 11 PCs. Eligible students get a year of Microsoft 365 Premium and a year of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate with a custom color Xbox Wireless Controller. Learn more at windows.com slash student offer. While supplies last, ends June 30th. Terms at aka.ms slash college pc. Ready to soundtrack your summer? With Red Bull Summer All Day Play, you choose a playlist that fits your summer vibe the best. Are you a festival fanatic, a deep end DJ, a road dog, or a trail mixer?

0:43Just add a song to your chosen playlist and put your summer on track. Red Bull Summer All Day Play. Red Bull gives you wings. Visit redbull.com slash bright summer ahead to learn more. See you this summer. One thing about Financial Mutants, We love tracking our progress. So today, we're going to give you seven cash flow milestones to aim for and also celebrate.

1:07Brian Preston:Brent, I am so excited because when it comes to net worth milestones and 401k milestones, it can take a long time to progress from one of the milestones to the next. But today's milestones can happen that much more quickly because you actually have control over these milestones. So, I'm Brian, he's Beau, and we're financial advisors here to help you celebrate your cash flow milestones on the way to financial independence. And with that, let's dive right in.

1:41Brian Preston:Yeah, Brian, the cash flow milestones that we're covering today are really more behavioral. They happen because of what you're actually doing with your money day in and day out, regardless of what else is going on, regardless of market factors. And some of them may seem very simple and easy, and some of them may be a little bit harder and maybe might not even be pertinent to your situation. But I think that when you track and hit these milestones, it's going to give you that little bit of staying power in your financial journey. But let's be clear. Even the small ones that might seem insignificant are going to have huge impacts on your future success.

2:19So don't overlook any of these. and we have built them in an order so that they're building upon themselves.

2:25Brian Preston:That's right. So let's jump in with the very first one. And this one, it seems so silly, and yet most Americans have a hard time getting here. It's just being cash flow positive. This is the place where you are at a net zero from month to month. You're not living beyond your means. Yeah, this is one. We tell you the first ingredient of the three main ingredients to wealth, that's discipline. having that discipline to live on less than you make creates margin or the money that actually gets invested and you give that enough time, magical stuff happens. Yeah, when you can get to this net positive position, it actually flips the financial script into wealth building because at this point, when you are living on less than you make and when you are deferring some of your cash flow into the future, now you're not moving backwards anymore.

3:16Brian Preston:You are actively moving forward. And if you're actively moving forward in your financial journey, that's a win. Now, look, I understand that right now we're in this state where there's crazy geopolitical stuff going on. These even weird economic stuff with like cost of education, cost of housing. And look, you don't have a lot of control over that stuff, but you do have control on you trying to figure out how can you be disciplined and live on less than you make. So what do we do? What are the steps? How do you get to zero? Well, it could be a lot of different things. It could be making the big changes.

3:48Brian Preston:You might need to do something drastic. If you want something you've never had, you might have to be willing to do something you've never done. So it could be moving, selling your home, selling your automobile, changing jobs. It may require some drastic change to significantly alter your current financial state. And look, Like, you might be, we give a lot of grace about credit cards, but you might realize you're not a credit card type person. You know, we say credit card use is A-OK, but credit card debt, no way. So if you're actually like half of Americans and have credit card debt, then cut up those credit cards, make it where you can't use them.

4:27Brian Preston:Or if you find yourself in a position where the job or career you're in is just not providing what you need it to be able to provide for you to live the life that you want to live, maybe it's time to look at changing careers. Or if you're in between jobs and you're just waiting for that absolute perfect job to show up, maybe you need to widen your net a little bit. Maybe now it might make sense to just get some jobs so that you can begin moving forward. And community resources. Look, if you live in an area with public transportation, maybe that's going to be a great way instead of owning a car.

5:01I know this sounds ridiculous, but even libraries, instead of you using Audible or buying the next book, these little decisions can have big results in the long term.

5:13Brian Preston:And what these little decisions do is they allow you to move to our second milestone. So milestone number one was just being net positive. Milestone number two is sort of this wonderful thing where you get to the point where you are saving$100 a month. I know it sounds small, but if you've never been there before, it is a significant milestone. Well, this is the magical one for me. you, if you remember, I was sitting in an economics class in high school, and Mr. Morrow said, look, every one of you, if you just save$100 a month, you'll be a millionaire by the time you retire. And I was broke as a joke working at the local fast food joint, but I even thought at that moment in time, I can save$100 a month.

5:53And you know what? He was spot on. So you need to get to this

5:57Brian Preston:step. So how do you do that? How do you do that? How do you save$100? Well, it might be just lowering your fixed expenses? Do you have things like an ungrateful service provider, whether that be your cell phone provider or your insurance company or your utilities, or maybe you have subscriptions you're not using that you don't need anymore. If you can cut those down, it will increase the margin available where you can actually put those dollars to work. Well, I mean, we talk about the two levers, lowering expenses, increasing income, and there's ways you can do this. And by the way, you got to eliminate the high interest debt.

6:30Look, these banks are making an absolute fortune off of you. If you're paying 20 plus percent, you've got to get the high interest debt under control.

6:40Brian Preston:And all of these things, what they involve is being proactive, but you're likely, again, if you want to be somewhere you've never been, you have to do something you've never done, you may need to adjust your behaviors. You may need to think about, okay, instead of eating out once a week, maybe we eat out every other week, or maybe instead of shopping at the expensive, nice grocery store, I'm going to start buying in bulk. Those sorts of behavioral changes can make a meaningful difference in your financial life. And then there's a lot of power in just tracking your expenses. If you want to talk behavior, if you can see it, you can now kind of try to internalize and know if this gives you clarity or confidence in what you actually can control.

7:19Brian Preston:Yeah. Once you can see where your finances are, once you have a clear picture, it makes it very clear what you ought to be doing with your dollars and what you ought to not be doing with your dollars. There is definitely some clarity and confidence that comes from tracking. And Beau, what I have found in my own personal life, a really effective tool is Monarch. Yeah. Monarch is a personal finance app that tracks everything. It tracks accounts, investments, savings, goals, and spending. So you can see right there exactly where your money's going. And right now you can get your first year of Monarch for half off, just$50 with promo code money guy.

7:57Brian Preston:Now, Brian, we were talking about it because you said, hey, I actually use Monarch. It's something I see. And you were saying, one of the best things I like about it is that obviously we can put the expenses in and we can categorize them. But you said the visual element was probably one of the most interesting things that you saw. That Sankey diagram that they offer where you actually see the money come in, but you actually see how all the, it gets spent out by the different categories and it's actually represented by the size of the expenses, it's really powerful because I like to think I'm an analytical person, but definitely seeing the visual cues has an impact as well.

8:31Brian Preston:And right now, we have a special discount for financial mutants. Use the code MONEYGUY at Monarch.com to get your first year half off at just$50. That's 50 % off your first year at Monarch.com with code MONEYGUY. And once you do this, once you're tracking it, once you see this, you can start saving$100 a month. And the idea becomes, okay, well, why does this matter? Why is this significant? What can$100 actually do for me? But do you recognize if you could just save$100 a month over 10 years, you will have saved$12 ,000. But if you can put that money to work, and let's say that you earn on average an 8 % rate of return, that$12 ,000 could turn into over$18 ,000.

9:15Brian Preston:Fast forward, if you can just do 30 years of saving$100 a month, just$100 a month, you would save$36 ,000, but you could have$150 ,000. And if you extrapolate this behavior over an entire working life cycle, 40 years of just saving 100 bucks a month, you will have saved$48 ,000, but you would have$350 ,000 working for it. That's 86 % of the amount that you were able to build was your dollars earning dollars, not money that you actually had to put away. That's the key part that I want everybody, because look, a lot of you are going to watch this content, get excited and start saving and investing.

9:54But if you quit in the first 10 years, you've lost the plot. Because look, the magical thing happens really between years, 20, 30, and even 40 years in the future is because the growing upon itself, compounding growth, going from 35 % appreciation all the way up to 86%, stick with it. early, often, stay consistent, you'll be rewarded.

10:18Brian Preston:Now, if you've been listening to our content for any amount of time, you know that we love the financial order of operations. One of the things we love about the financial order of operations is when you start doing this, when you start saving that$100 a month, one of the places you're likely going to save it is inside of your tax-free account, inside of an account like a Roth IRA. Well, that actually is where our third milestone lives. Because when you're at the point where you are able to max out your Roth IRA at the annual contribution limit, that is a milestone worth celebrating. Yeah. And this one, by the way, in 2026, the maximum is$7 ,500 annually.

10:53If you're just normal contributing Roth IRA age, that's$625 a month. And here's what we like about this. Now, what I like is that you have until all the way to tax day of 2027, that's April of 2027 to fully fund that. You got to get in there and take advantage of that.

11:12Brian Preston:And why do we get so excited about Roth? What makes Roth so great? Well, one, you get to pick the provider. So you can pick a provider that has really low expenses, really low fees, the Fidelities, the Vanguard's, the Charles Schwab's. When you put the money into the Roth IRA and it grows, it grows completely tax-free. You don't have to pay any money as it grows. But then, assuming that you pull it out at a certain age, after 59 and a half, those distributions are completely tax-free. So you pay tax when you earn the money, and you never pay tax again. Again, because you get to pick the provider, the Fidelities, the Vanguards, the Charles Schwab's, you can choose from the entire universe of investments.

11:53Brian Preston:And Brian already mentioned this, you have flexibility on your contributions. Even if you can't fund that max out the full thing between January and December, you have all the way up until next year's tax filing deadline to get those dollars in your Roth IRA. When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use Indeed Sponsored Jobs. It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications and more. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a$75 sponsored job credit at Indeed.com slash podcast.

12:31Brian Preston:That's Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Did you know if your windows are bare, indoor temperatures can go up 20 degrees? Turn the temperature down with Blinds.com and get up to 50 % off custom window treatments like solar roller shades and more during the Memorial Day Mega Sale. Whether you want to DIY it or have a pro handle everything, we've got you. Free samples, real design experts, and zero pressure. Just help when you need it. Shop up to 50 % off site-wide and huge savings on doorbusters right now during the Memorial Day Mega Sale at blinds.com.

13:06Brian Preston:Rules and restrictions apply. Another side benefit. Look, we know a lot of you, you like a system. And if you can actually load up your Roth IRA, you get to move on to step six. You've officially graduated from step five of the financial order of operations. That's something to be celebrated. That's a milestone in and of itself. Every time you move to another step of the financial order of operations, you should pause and think to yourself, yes, I am doing what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm moving in the right direction. And as you're doing that, as you continue to progress, you're likely going to end up at milestone number four.

13:42Brian Preston:And this one, Brian, is so funny because you and I have talked about this one a ton. I don't know why this one felt so significant, but I know for both of us, when we did this, when we were saving $1 ,000 per month, we were saving in the one comma club per month. It was a substantial achievement. Well, it does feel different. I think because look, we know that the typical American struggles with basic discipline. There's even that stat out there that close to 60 % of Americans can't even come up with$1 ,000. So for you to actually be able to save and do this monthly, it felt huge for me. It was such a big thing that my wife and I took a milestone moment to actually go out.

14:20It's not even there anymore, but Dante's down the hatch, which was in Atlanta. It was a fondue place. It had a lot of alligators down there. It looked like a ship and indoor, outdoor type experience. It was great. And I still have great memories of that because it was something to be celebrated. That's why I love that we create these milestones is because as you're going through each of these big steps, make sure you are taking moments to build those blossoming memories because it just will feel that much sweeter to you in the long term.

14:48Brian Preston:And look, depending on if you have like an employer match, once you hit$1 ,000 a month in saving, there's a good chance that not only are you maxing out your Roth IRA, but maybe you're also maxing out your HSA. I mean, if you think about it,$625 a month will max out your Roth. And then if you're on the individual HSA contribution side,$366 a month will do that. That's$991 a month. And then you've maxed out all of your tax-free accounts. Again, that is completing step five of the financial order of operations, a very significant milestone. Well, and a lot of you, you know, we talk about where's the typical American and the median household income in the United States right now is just shy of$84 ,000.

15:30If you look at this$1 ,000 a month, that puts you at a savings rate at 14.3%. Well, a lot of you are like, wait a minute, that's not the 25 % that you say. Well, you're right. There's still a little over 10 % there, but more than likely, your employer is putting in around 5%. You're right there at the 20 % mark. A lot of magical things are happening when you get beyond 20 % savings and investment rates.

15:56Brian Preston:And again, why does this feel significant? I mean, obviously it feels cool today to be able to say, hey, I'm saving over$1 ,000 a month. But in terms of the impact, we just showed you what$100 a month could do. Well,$1 ,000 a month can 10x that. If you take the same illustration, you say, I'm just going to save$1 ,000 a month for 10 years. That means that you will have saved$120 ,000. but that pot of money could be worth$184 ,000 if you can earn 8 % on average. Fast forward to a full career of doing this, 40 years of saving$1 ,000 a month, where you will have only saved about$480 ,000 over that 40-year period, the pot of assets that you saved could have grown to over 3.5 million.

16:44Brian Preston:We are talking about multimillionaire status. Once you hit this milestone, It gets really, really exciting when you see the future of your wealth-building journey. Yeah, I mean, that's why if you want to know how to really crank up the power of compounding growth, hit a multiple. It starts at$100 a month, but it is definitely a celebration moment when you hit$1 ,000 a month. Now, most folks, Brian, we talk about saving and these savings milestones, but a lot of people are starting out, and even just getting to zero was hard, or getting to net positive was hard. and a lot of people have debt, whether it be student loan debt that they have or auto debt or they have mortgage debt or they're satisfying some high interest debt.

17:25Brian Preston:Another milestone we think that is worth celebrating and worth paying attention to is there will become a moment in your financial life where how much you're saving on a monthly basis, how much you're saving for your future self is greater than what your monthly debt payments are, meaning that you are now able to put more aside for your future self than expenses that you're paying for for your past self. Well, and let's put some numbers to this so you actually have some context. We went and pulled the actual data. If you look at what the typical American has going on, they actually have monthly payments of$1 ,597, just shy of$1 ,600 a month of debt service that they're having to pay.

18:09Brian Preston:And that's mortgages, auto loans, personal loans, student loans, all those wrapped in. So if you reach the milestone that your savings and investment rate is exceeding this, that's a big sum that's actually going towards your army of dollars. And this is where these milestones are very subjective. Some of you, you might not have any debt, so you may hit this milestone very, very early. But others of you, if you do have the student loan and the mortgage and the auto loan, it may take you a long time to get here, and that's okay. But once you get here, it is worth celebrating. it's worth acknowledging, okay, I've handled the past.

18:44Brian Preston:I've taken care of my past self. Now I'm going to start taking care of my future self. And what's amazing is when you do that, you can begin to build up momentum and you begin to build up speed on your wealth building journey. And before you know it, as you're doing that and as some of those debt payments fall off, as you no longer have the auto payment or no longer have the student loan payment, there's a really good chance that if you're following the financial order of operations, the next place you'll find yourself is in step six, where you get to actually max out your employer-sponsored retirement plan.

19:15This one, I wish I had the Dante's moment with$1 ,000 a month, but it was definitely one of those when I started consistently maxing out the 401k, it felt like an achievement. Because by the way, this is not a small number. Let's be clear and honest about this, is that the standard contribution in 2026 is$24 ,500. So to max this out, it means you have to have a savings rate of greater than$2 ,000 a month.

19:43Brian Preston:And this one, you can't go back in time like you do with IRA. You actually have to get this funded from January to December. Yeah. We put up on the slide, by the way, for those who are listening, I'll go ahead and put this out there since you might not be watching this content. If you want to do a catch-up, meaning that you're 50 and beyond, it's$27.8 a month for those that are qualifying for this brand new super catch-up between ages of 60 and 63. It's just shy of$3 ,000 a month or$2 ,979 or$35 ,750. So if you are saving in your 401k and you're maxing it out, you are saving a substantial sum of money.

20:24Brian Preston:Why do we love 401ks? What is it that makes them so great? Well, first you get a tax benefit, right? So you either get a pre-tax contribution and you save money on the taxes that you pay today, or most 401k plans now even have Roth options. So I may not get a tax benefit today, but the money that I put in can grow tax-free. And then while those dollars are invested inside the 401k, I don't have to pay taxes as it goes. They grow tax deferred. And then maybe our favorite thing, and this is the one, this is the thing I I think that makes the 401k the most exciting is that the majority of 401k plans out there, the employer will say to, hey, if you're willing to participate, if you put some money in, we are going to give you free money.

21:08Brian Preston:We're going to give you an employer match. We're going to give you a safe harbor contribution. We're going to give you a non-elective contribution so that not only are you saving for your financial future, but me, we as the employer are putting money in your account as well. It is literally free money. Well, and why do we think that 401ks are so important is that the data shows this, is that this is where I love that the behavior makes you be automatic with it. You're consistent. It's letting you, whether the market's volatile, whether it's going up, whether it's getting its teeth kicked in, you're buying in next month.

21:42And that's why it's very easy for people to see the data supports this, is that the first account that hits the two-comma club, where actually people cross into millionaire status, is typically that 401k account because of all the things that Bo just shared, the tax benefits, the free money, the consistent behavior. This is why this is so powerful for your long-term success.