Money rules Codie wishes she’d learned in her 20s

You’re in your 20s, standing in a cramped kitchen, payslip on your phone, rent due tomorrow. The numbers look fine until you remember the train pass, the card bill, the mate’s birthday dinner, and the “quick” online shop you did at 1am.

You’ve got big plans. A better flat. A trip. A future where money isn’t a daily background hum.

Codie Sanchez talks a lot about simple money rules that lower stress and build options. Not because they’re fancy, but because they work when your income is still growing and life is messy. The goal isn’t to become a finance robot. It’s to create room to breathe, then use that room to learn, earn more, and build wealth that doesn’t rely on you being at your desk forever.

Rule one: treat your 20s like a paid apprenticeship

In your 20s, the best investment often isn’t a share, a flat, or a new car. It’s you.

Codie’s core idea is blunt: chase skills and learning before you chase the highest salary. That can feel backwards when you’re watching friends post promotion selfies. But earning power is a long game. A role that teaches you rare, useful skills can widen your income later, sometimes faster than job hopping for a few extra thousand today.

Think of your 20s like being paid to train. You’re building a toolkit you’ll carry into your 30s and beyond: communication, sales, negotiation, data sense, leadership, and the calm that comes from making decisions with incomplete info.

A short example: say you’re choosing between two offers. One pays more but has a vague job title and no clear manager. The other pays less, but you’ll work under someone who’s built teams before, you’ll own a real number (revenue, retention, cost savings), and you’ll learn skills you can take anywhere. If you can still pay rent and eat, the second job may be the one that makes you expensive later.

For more of Codie’s thinking in her own words, her Contrarian Thinking manifesto is a useful starting point.

Pick the job that buys you skills, not status

Status is noisy. Skills are quiet, and they compound.

When you’re scanning roles, look for signals that you’ll learn something hard to copy. That might be writing that changes minds, sales that closes deals, data work that guides decisions, or people management that builds trust and performance.

A quick checklist you can use this week:

• Boss quality: Will you get feedback, standards, and support, or just tasks?
• Hard-to-copy output: Will you own a result, not just “help out”?
• Skill transfer: Would this still matter if the company vanished tomorrow?
• Room for responsibility: Can you ship work, not just attend meetings?
• Money fluency: Will you learn how the business makes profit?

If a job makes you sharper every month, it’s paying you twice, once in salary and once in skills.

Spend like a student, even when your pay rises

Lifestyle creep is sneaky. You don’t wake up and decide to be broke. You just add little comforts until your pay rise disappears.

Try two or three rules that don’t need spreadsheets:

• Save first, then upgrade: when your pay rises, increase your savings rate before you raise your lifestyle.
• Keep fixed costs boring: rent, car costs, subscriptions, and finance payments can trap you for years.
• 48-hour pause for non-essentials: if it still feels worth it after two sleeps, fine. If not, you’ve just saved money without “trying”.

The point isn’t to punish yourself. It’s to keep your future choices open.

Rule two: turn what you own into cash flow

A lot of us were taught to “treat yourself” the minute money arrives. Codie flips that: aim to make assets pay you, not drain you.

Cash flow doesn’t have to mean property empires or complex investing. It can start with small, legal, UK-friendly moves, as long as you keep boundaries clear. Examples include renting out a spare room (where appropriate), renting out a car, selling unused items, or using a skill for side income.

The trick is to stop thinking of your stuff as a trophy cabinet. Think of it as a shed. If something sits there unused, it’s either costing you (space, maintenance, insurance, subscriptions) or it’s an opportunity to turn it into cash.

A note on safety and admin: any “make it pay” idea comes with boring bits. Check insurance. Keep records. Understand tax basics. Don’t invite risk into your home or your life just to earn a little extra. A small win isn’t worth a big headache.

Codie expands on the cash flow mindset on the Contrarian Thinking site, but you can start without buying anything new.

Stop buying stuff that sits still and costs you

Most money leaks aren’t dramatic. They’re quiet and monthly.

Common culprits:

• Subscriptions you forgot you had (TV, apps, “premium” tools).
• Car costs that don’t match your actual travel needs.
• Tech upgrades that solve boredom, not problems.
• Furniture and gadgets bought for a fantasy version of you.

A simple audit: scroll back three months in your bank app. Circle anything that didn’t improve your health, relationships, skills, or time. Cancel, sell, or downgrade one thing. You don’t need to cut joy, you need to cut waste.

The goal is control. When your money stops leaking, your savings start feeling “real”.

Start small: one simple ‘cash flow experiment’ per month

Don’t try to rebuild your life in a weekend. Run one small experiment per month, like you’re testing recipes.

Pick one:

• Sell a box of unused items.
• Freelance one Saturday using a skill you already have.
• Rent out a piece of gear you barely use.
• Offer a neighbour a simple service (pet sitting, garden tidy, flat-pack help).

Treat it as learning, not identity. Keep it simple, keep it safe, and stop if it turns stressful. Momentum matters more than perfection, and small wins teach you what you’re good at.

If you want a steady stream of practical money discussions, The BigDeal Podcast page is a solid listen when you’re commuting or cooking.

Rule three: build wealth by buying proven income, not just dreaming up ideas

A lot of people in their 20s get stuck in “idea mode”. You plan a brand name, design a logo, and spend weeks making it look serious, while the bank balance doesn’t change.

Codie’s angle is sharper: if you want to build wealth, consider buying something that already earns, rather than starting from zero. That might be a small local service business, a simple online business, or a micro-acquisition where the product already has paying customers.

Buying proven income isn’t “easy”. It just removes one of the biggest risks, which is whether anyone will pay.

If this is new to you, start by understanding the mindset and the process. Codie’s Contrarian Thinking podcast hub gives you a feel for how business buyers think: cash flow, boring operations, and real numbers over hype.

Safe steps if you ever go down this route:

• Look at verifiable financials, not stories.
• Understand why the owner is selling.
• Learn what drives customers to return.
• Don’t rush, urgency is expensive.
• Get professional advice when money is real.

You don’t need to buy a business tomorrow. You just need to stop believing the only path is “start from scratch or stay employed forever”.

If you want to start, sell first to prove demand

If buying isn’t for you right now, keep the lesson: prove demand early.

Before you build a website or spend weeks polishing, get someone to pay. Even a small payment counts. It changes everything. It turns a hobby into a market test.

Easy examples:

• Sell a service: CV edits, tutoring, bookkeeping, basic website fixes.
• Pre-sell a course: run a paid workshop on a skill you already use at work.
• Paid newsletter: one useful email a week for a niche audience.

Selling first gives you feedback while it still matters. It also teaches the best skill in money: asking for the transaction.

If you prefer video breakdowns of money systems and investing basics, you can browse personal finance strategies on The Finance Blueprint and compare notes with your own plan.

Use small risks to build confidence, not chaos

Big leaps are romantic. Small risks are reliable.

Set a tiny budget for experiments, and treat it like training. A short course. A small investment amount. A low-cost side hustle. Something you can afford to lose without shaking your rent money.

Then set a stop rule. For example: “If I don’t get three paying customers in 30 days, I pause and change the offer.” Or: “If this side gig costs me sleep for two weeks, I stop.”

That’s how confidence grows. You prove you can act, learn, and adjust without blowing up your life.

Rule four: your crowd and your cash habits decide your future

It’s awkward to admit, but money is social. Your spending patterns often match the people you’re around.

If your circle treats every weekend like a paid event, you’ll feel pressured to keep up. If your friends talk about learning, earning, and building, you’ll start doing the same, even without trying. Codie’s themes often circle back to curiosity, crowd, and cash because they feed each other.

There’s also the daily system piece. You don’t need complex budgeting. You need a few clear buckets that protect you from surprises and stop you dipping into savings because “it’s there”.

Here’s a simple structure:

Bucket	What it’s for	What “good” looks like
Buffer	Life happens money	A small float so bills don’t scare you
Bills	Rent, travel, food, essentials	Predictable and boring
Savings	Near-term goals	Separate from spending money
Investing	Long-term wealth	Regular, automated if possible

The quiet win is consistency. When your cash has a home, you waste less energy deciding what to do with it.

Find mentors by giving first, not asking first

Mentors aren’t vending machines. Most people ignore messages that say, “Can I pick your brain?”

A better rule is 10x serve for every 1x ask. Give value first, then make a small, respectful request.

Simple ways to serve:

• Share their work with a thoughtful note.
• Offer a specific skill (edit a page, create a one-page summary, spot a typo).
• Make a helpful intro if you genuinely know two people who should meet.

Two scripts you can adapt:

• “I loved your piece on X. I wrote a 10-line summary for my team, happy to share it if useful.”
• “I’m building skill in Y. If you’ve got 10 minutes, what’s one mistake you made early that I can avoid?”

You’re not trying to “network”. You’re trying to become someone worth knowing.

Conclusion

That cramped-kitchen moment in your 20s doesn’t need to be your normal. Codie’s rules are simple, but they’re powerful: treat your 20s like a paid apprenticeship, keep spending humble as income grows, turn what you own into cash flow, and choose a crowd that lifts your standards.

Pick one rule and act on it in the next seven days. Apply for a role that teaches you more, cancel one money leak, run one cash flow experiment, or set up a basic bucket system.

Future freedom rarely arrives in one big moment. It shows up as options, more time, and a quieter mind when the rent notification pops up.