I spent my 20s being too intimidated to invest until a casual conversation over dinner changed my mind

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In my 20s, I was more worried about funding my travels and having a good time with friends than planning for the future.
But when I first started dating my now-husband, he was shocked to learn I had a ton of cash sitting in a checking account, and showed me his own investment strategy.
After seeing the impact of compound interest, I gathered my nerve to start investing, and now my husband and I are on a path to financial Independence together.
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No matter your age, the whole concept of investing can be intimidating.

After all, it seems like there’s a never-ending stream of jargon to learn, not to mention figuring out how to best maximize your return and understanding how best to allocate your money based on your goals.

And if you’re just graduating and more concerned about your student loan debt? It’s understandable that’s hardly a blip on the radar when it comes to getting your financial life together.

That’s what it was like for me for most of my 20s. I was more worried about working to fund my international travels and having a good time with friends than planning for the future. Sure, my mom tried to help me open an investment account — but I refused.

After discovering I was in credit card debt after a stint in Australia, I was scared. Or more accurately, I didn’t trust myself with making good financial decisions. All I was concerned about at that point was making as much money as I could, paying off the debt, and never being in that position again.

After becoming debt-free, I was so scared to build wealth through investing that I hoarded all my cash in a checking account, earning nearly zero interest.

It took a few more years, but I finally stopped being scared of investing and did something about it.

The conversation that changed my mindset

In my late 20s, when my now-husband and I were first dating, we started chatting about money. We spoke about anything and everything, from our student loans to budgeting. When he mentioned making recurring transfers to his IRA account, I admitted I hadn’t been interested in learning about investing.

He was shocked to learn that I had a ton of cash sitting in a checking account. He showed me what he was doing with his long-term savings and why it was riskier for me to leave my money sitting there, earning nothing.

It wasn’t until I saw charts showing the power of compound interest — where your money practically earns you money — that I was convinced.

The next week, I scheduled some time to look over different types of accounts and finally open one.

Doing my research

It was scary thinking about learning about investing, but I decided to take it one step at a time. Instead of looking at things like trading stocks, I looked at traditional retirement accounts as well as taxable accounts like ETFs.

I also discovered that it’s OK to have cash in a bank account for emergencies, but I should find one that earned me a bit of interest. This was before the myriad of options you see today with high-yield savings accounts, but I did manage to find one that did earn some interest.

I started by investing a few thousand dollars in a taxable account and the rest into a savings account that acted as my emergency fund. As my confidence and income grew, I invested more and more money.

Working towards early retirement

As my husband and I have fine-tuned our personal finances over the past ten years, we’ve set our sights on early retirement. To be clear, we’re not going to stop working. Rather, we plan on taking on part-time work that we love and volunteer for causes we be live in.

Having this goal in mind helps us when it comes to investing. We have a plan for where to allocate our savings — a mix of cash in our 401(k)s, IRAs, and taxable accounts. Throughout the years we’ve also learned more about how to better grow our wealth. For example, we took a careful look at all our investment accounts to check fees and eliminated the ones that charged the highest. We also try to maximize our pre-tax accounts to lower our taxable income (self-employment taxes are no joke!).

If it wasn’t for my husband showing me why investing in your future is important, I’m not sure I would have started at all. I completely understand that any form of investing seems scary — I’ve been there myself.

Even if your goal isn’t early retirement, taking care of your future self is important. Imagine being able to sit back and relax knowing that you can enjoy your golden years. Isn’t it worth it?

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