# If You're in 20s, This Video Might Hurt You

Channel: Ishan Sharma
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-LqoOWlN2w
Duration: 18 min
Language: English
Words: 3260
Transcript page: https://viewrankai.com/tools/youtube-transcript/5-LqoOWlN2w

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[0:00] Last week, my friend and I went to a very fancy restaurant in Gurgaon called Marieta. This restaurant was right in front of DLF Camellias, where every dish was between 1000 to 1500 rupees, and I’m not even talking about the drinks. And while eating noodles, my friend asked me, "Brother, what do the people who have come here do for a

[0:17] living?" Are they corporate employees? Or are they sons and daughters from wealthy families? Or are these entrepreneurs and creators just like us ? And then I noticed employees of a creator. I know people like that who might be earning 70,000 to 1 lakh per month. But in that room, everyone looked successful. They came, ate a lot of food, took photos, and paid the bill . But that photo couldn't explain who could actually afford a dinner at a luxury place like that. And that difference can become lakhs over the years. And I will prove it to you in this video. In this video, I will explain a very interesting habit of Gen

[0:58] Z. People in their 20s. How they are spending money to look rich on social media today, but they are hampering their future five to 10 years down the line. Let's take an example of two people and understand their current life and their life five to 10 years from now. The goal is to understand the life that your salary can actually afford and what is above your pay grade . And as always, I will tell you skills that can actually help you take your salary to another level. So that you can have a lunch like that without ever thinking about it. But first of all, let's talk about your social media feed

[1:36] . You open Instagram and you can see everything that your friends are doing. Here is one friend who is on a holiday. One friend has posted photos of a concert, and one friend has bought a new iPhone. And you combine the highest lifestyle points of these three people to create a life that is actually unrealistic. And this is backed by data . A 2024 report by BCG India says that 72%of Gen Z's purchases are inspired by the social media creators they follow every day. Now, inspiration doesn't always mean that people are overspending. But it is showing where this desire is coming from. And a 2026 Deloitte report states that 54%of Gen Z

[2:22] are actually delaying life decisions because of their finances, like buying a new house, getting married, or going for a Master's degree. Now, there could be many reasons for this, including expensive housing and family responsibilities. But for many people in their 20s, it is buying an appearance that your income cannot comfortably support. A pretense that you simply cannot afford. I am not saying that you should not go to expensive places. Or that you shouldn't eat expensive food. But you should do it when you want to, not because you are being pressured to do it and see everyone else doing it. Just ask yourself this. Would you still have

[3:02] this dinner if nobody on social media saw it? And that will give you the deeper answer. Now, looking rich can cost you money, but scattered ideas can cost you your time. The research for this video started with an unusual update call with my team, and let me show you what happened after. So I had this research discussion with my team and friends, and the Whisper Flow note-taker captured all of it. Even when they were speaking in Hindi or in English. It gave me a summary of who

[3:28] said what, decisions, and to-dos. Helping me focus on the conversation itself and not on taking notes or doing two things at once. Then Claude pulled those notes into a project with my writing style. And using Whisper Flow's dictation, I speak instead of typing. Use these notes to explain how buying things for approval affects your finances. Start with sneakers. Actually , use a phone bought on EMI. Walk through the real numbers: an ₹ 80,000 phone on a 12-month EMI at 15%interest on top. Point out that the people you are trying to impress forget about it in a week. But the EMI does not. Keep it conversational and end with one

[4:02] question viewers should ask before buying. It sounded too breezy, so I just said, "Make it sound like advice to a friend," and here is the revised section in front of me. And this whole thing took me like 10 minutes instead of a full evening. So try it out and use this code to get Whisper Flow's Pro subscription for 90 days for completely

[4:19] free. Grab it before the offer ends. The link is in the description, or just scan this QR code. And now, back to what looking rich actually costs you. Now let's understand this with the example of two people. One is Karan and the other is Vivek. Both are 25 years old. Both have a take-home salary of ₹ 1 lakh. And both spend ₹ 50,000 on essentials. Meaning your rent, your food expenses, and all those necessities. After that, ₹ 15,000 of Karan's money goes toward an EMI he has for something extra he bought last year . And every month ₹ 25,000 goes towards shopping and eating out. Going

[4:57] on trips, or spending it on entertainment. That over the 12 months. ₹ 5,000 is kept for emergency savings and the remaining ₹ 5,000 gets invested. And that is ₹ 1 lakh of his total money. Sounds scary, right? But take a look at his Instagram feed once. It looks absolutely great, man. He has great carousels and writes great quotes . He has photos posted. He is going on

[5:21] trips. He is eating at great places. But at the end of the day, ₹ 40,000 of his monthly income is going towards maintaining a lifestyle that he has to show people on social media. Number two is Vivek. Who also has ₹ 50,000 for essentials and necessities. Remaining are ₹ 50,000. Now, 10,000 goes towards enjoyment. 10,000 goes for emergency savings. 5,000 he invests in useful tools or learning new skills, and the remaining ₹ 25,000 goes into long-term investments. Vivek is fine with a two-to-three-year-old iPhone. He has no issues with that. Vivek attends

[5:58] two concerts a year. He skips the rest. And he only goes on trips when he has enough savings in his accounts to allow him to do so. Now imagine that Karan and Vivek are part of the same friend group. The whole group decided to go on a weekend trip where we are going to spend ₹ 30,000 per person. Karan said yes immediately and he set aside ₹ 30,000 from his monthly salary just for this one weekend. Vivek said that I can only spend ₹ 10,000 for this month. I will join you for dinner but I will skip the weekend trip. Now it's not like Vivek is living a life with no fun

[6:33] or enjoyment. But he is consciously choosing what deserves his money and what does not. It's not that Vivek has some advantage. Neither is his house free, nor are his parents very rich. They both have similar upbringings and lifestyles. But in real life, those small decisions matter a lot more than you can imagine. The biggest problem in Karan's situation is that he thinks a life run on EMIs is a life worth living , and here is the dark truth. An EMI can divide the price of anything you want to buy. But it will never reduce it. And using a credit card just to roll over your debt over months is the

[7:12] worst thing you can do for your personal finance. SBI cards list 3.75% interest per month, quoted as 45%per annum on unsecured cards. If you just pay that 5%credit and keep rolling over the rest, that doesn't mean you're getting an interest-free loan. If you have ₹ 50,000 on your credit card as debt, next month that will cost you 3.75%. Which is ₹ 1,800, and the actual number can be a lot more depending on the date, the interest rate, and how long you've been delaying that payment. So you are basically paying ₹ 1,800 rent to get that ₹

[7:54] 50,000 that you can use to look flashy. Now, credit cards can be amazing. I literally use one right now. This is my credit card. I know how to use it well, and it gives me free flights, free hotels, and it works incredibly well for me if you know how to use it effectively. Anything bought on a credit card looks very fancy, but that feeling lasts just for a moment. But the commitment of that loan follows you to your house and stays for months, if not years. Now, let's say Karan and Vivek both follow this same lifestyle for five to 10 years. They are doing

[8:28] the same things they were doing before. Karan saves ₹ 5,000 at the end and invests it. And Vivek is diligently and with discipline, investing ₹ 25,000 every month. And if we assume just an 8 %return, compounded monthly with deposits at the end of the month. 5 years later, when Karan has reached marriage age or is already 30, he is sitting at ₹ 3.7 lakhs. And Vivek, on the other hand, is sitting at a massive ₹ 18.4 lakhs. And after 10 years, this gap is unimaginable. Karan is sitting at just ₹ 9.1 lakhs, and Vivek, on the other hand, is sitting at ₹ 45.7 lakhs. And even if we forget

[9:08] the investments, you need to just look at how much they have invested. Karan invested about ₹ 6 lakhs in total in these 10 years, and Vivek contributed ₹ 30 lakhs over this 10-year period, and hence you see this massive difference. Now, returns can fluctuate, and there can be inflation too. But this was just a comparison to show you one very important point. By the age of 35, Vivek has built a much bigger financial cushion while still enjoying his life, and that opens up freedom and gives him options in his life. He can try to change his job; he can look for a better-paying role. He can even start

[9:44] a new business and not be worried about daily expenses. At 35, Karan is already under loans and EMIs and still doesn't know how to escape this, and he used to flaunt on Instagram, but now he is just worried about paying off all his loans. And that is the difference that you will not see in a photo on Instagram.

[10:05] Okay, Ishan, I understand all of that. But what do I do next? How should I take my salary and invest it in a way so that I become Vivek and not Karan? So, let's break that down. Let's say you earn X per month. 50%of that X needs to go towards necessities and essentials. It's a template. So, it's possible that for you, it's a little less or a little more. But this is where the range should be. So your home , your food, your travel, your insurance, family responsibilities, and any loan payments should all come within this 50%of X. Number two, you put 25%of X towards long-term

[10:40] investments. You will diversify this between high-risk, medium-risk, and low-risk investments and you will match it with the goals in your life. So the money you need for your master's degree , or for your wedding, or to buy an important car, should not be put in an investment that fluctuates every day. And then 10%should always go towards emergency savings. So if you earn 1 lakh and ₹ 50,000 is the cost of your essentials. You should keep three to six times of that ₹ 50,000 as emergency savings. If you are a freelancer, this number should technically be six to 12 months because your income can go up or down. You keep

[11:22] 10%of that X just for guilt-free enjoyment. If ₹ 7,000 are left after everything in that month. And if I see an Arijit Singh concert in Mumbai, I will go by paying ₹ 7,000 and I will not feel guilty about it. I will not need to see any video saying that if you invested this ₹ 7,000 for 40 years, it would become ₹ 1 crore. I don't need to worry about that because my money is already invested in long-term investments, in my essentials , in my emergency savings, and whatever is left, I am enjoying that to the best that I can, and the last 5%is what you

[12:00] invest in tools and skills. This is very important. This is what most people miss out on; tools are, let's say, a ChatGPT subscription. It could be a gym subscription. These are things that actually make you do things faster and stay healthier. This is the capital that we don't take into account. Often when we are looking at how rich you are . You could have 1 crore rupees. But if you have a slip disc in your body. That is a big problem. And then there is the upskilling part. Which is where you should try to get as many courses as possible. Learn new concepts, learn new skills, learn how skills can make you

[12:38] more employable and increase your pay scale. If you earn 1 lakh rupees, then 50,000 go into your necessities. 25,000 rupees go into your long-term investments, 10,000 rupees for emergency savings, 10,000 rupees for just guilt-free enjoyment, and the remaining 5,000 rupees for upskilling and subscribing to tools. Now, if your emergency fund has reached 6 months ' worth, that doesn't mean you need to keep investing in it more. After that, take that 10,000 and probably invest it somewhere that will be more valuable

[13:07] for the goal you want to achieve. Similarly, just because you have 2,000 rupees left to buy a new course. Don't just buy it. Because you have money left over. Also look at, is this really valuable to me? And will this really help me grow in my career and in my role? And if your salary is low, then it is possible that 70%of what you earn goes towards your essentials and necessities. So you need to adjust it according to your use case. This was just a template. At the end of the video, I just want to say that you must always focus on building earning power and not just have a collection of

[13:41] certificates. By saving money, you will build a surplus that you can use, but building skills is where you will really start to expand your income. You will need to learn three things. Number one, learn to solve a valuable problem. Number two, explain the value to your boss or to the client. And number three , learn to manage the money that you make. In operations, it could mean Excel and SQL databases, which can create reports much faster and much more accurately. In a creative role, it could be editing and storytelling, which can make the client's content

[14:13] much clearer and have higher retention. In a tech role, it could be creating a reliable automation or software that reduces repetitive work. Then practice communication, sales, and negotiation. For any project, you need clear communication. So that you can explain its value add to your manager or client and be able to sell it to them. And that is when you will truly earn incredibly well in your life. But always remember that buying access to a course is not the same as demonstrating

[14:43] the skill you learned from that course. So pick any one skill and commit 3 hours every week to it for the next 12 weeks. That is 36 hours. And build a project at the end. Get feedback on it and then show it to a potential employer or a client you want to work with. You absolutely need to learn to

[15:03] show your manager the before and after. What work did you do before? How much time did that work take you? And now, because you learned this new skill. How are you able to save time and do things better? And ultimately, learn the basics of investments. Diversification, fees, and the difference between short-term savings and long-term investments. A diversified investment portfolio is much different than just investing all of your money in just one stock. You can also build an asset by starting a small business. But that increases your risk and unpredictability. When you get a raise in your salary. Know exactly where to spend it and how much. How much will

[15:40] you save and how much will go toward new monthly commitments? Because this can very easily turn into lifestyle creep, where your salary is increasing and your expenses are also increasing. Ultimately, you are still a slave to that monthly salary and not using that raise to unlock your true freedom in life. In the end, I want to touch upon when an expensive experience still makes sense. Because this video is not about not enjoying life and making it boring. That is not what I am telling you. Go to that restaurant. Go on that holiday. Go to that concert as well. So buy that iPhone too. But just ask three

[16:14] very important questions. Number one, have I funded this myself? Number two, are all my responsibilities already covered? And lastly, am I protecting my future as well? For example, putting just ₹ 5,000 aside every month can give you ₹ 60,000 at the end of the year for a new vacation or a trip you can go on, and this is without even calculating interest and the returns you can get on it. Now that is a planned expense; on the other hand, borrowing ₹ 60,000 for a trip you want to take is coming out of peer pressure. Everyone is doing it, I will post great photos on social media. Life

[16:49] should look good. That is the biggest trap that you should never fall into. So, going back to that restaurant next to Camellias Marriott in Gurgaon. You can't tell who is wealthy by just looking around the room. A person just having an ordinary phone might still be better off financially. Versus someone who has all the signs of success, just wearing expensive clothes, expensive shoes, expensive belts, with logos all over, an iPhone in hand, and really fancy glasses. That doesn't mean that they are actually financially better off than someone who doesn't look flashy, doesn't look that fancy, and always remember your net worth is what you own minus what you owe to other

[17:26] people. And freedom always depends on how much your life really costs. If this video has been helpful, then open your bank account and download the last 3 months of statements and just observe where you are spending. And circle one purchase that you absolutely loved. Circle one more that you completely regret and then circle one commitment that you have every single month and check how you can let go of it. And ultimately experience true freedom in life. Let me know if you have any questions below. Thank you so much for watching and I will see you in the next

[17:59] video.

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