I Encourage Liquidity.
When I began my career two pieces of personal finance advice were shoved down my throat constantly: buy a house and pay off your debt.
This is loaded and presumptuous advice. Not because I disagree with the sentiment — I am fully aligned with wealth building as a core life purpose. But the timing and order of operations matter.
How much capital does a 22-year-old college graduate actually have? When someone tells a young adult to buy a house — are they accounting for the city they may want to leave, the lifestyle they haven’t yet defined, the furnishings a house requires, and the opportunity cost of tying up capital in an illiquid asset?
Why should a single, childless young adult still finding themselves purchase a home?
Personal finance decisions are subjective. The ultimate goal — always — is to maximize the quality of life. And the average young professional just beginning their career cannot afford a home comparable to what an amenity-filled apartment offers. If you want to make a space feel like home, it is far easier to do so in a studio or one-bedroom apartment than in a house you are not yet ready for.
The buy-a-house instinct is rooted in a genuine desire to encourage wealth building. I respect that. But I do not believe it is the best advice for most young professionals.
Here is what I encourage instead:
1. Build Liquidity
Liquidity maximizes flexibility. When you prioritize liquid assets over a sustained period of time it allows you to pay off debt, make a down payment, fund a business, or seize an opportunity.
I intentionally paid the minimum on my student loans and prioritized liquidity and equity investments instead. Today I could pay off my student loans in a single payment if I chose to. That optionality was not an accident. It was a strategy.
2. Buy Equities
The stock market is the most accessible wealth building vehicle available to the average person. Before you take on a mortgage, before you pay off low-interest debt aggressively — build a position in the market. Time in the market is the single most powerful financial advantage a young person has. Do not waste it.
3. Create Something
This is the one most people leave out of the personal finance conversation.
When you have the most discretionary time — before a mortgage, before children, before obligations compound — that time is best filled by creating something that either brings you joy or advances the human experience in some capacity.
You are reading this on a platform created by other humans. On a device created by other humans. Every tool, every system, every business you have ever benefited from was created by someone who chose to build rather than consume.
Understand the power of that.
Liquidity gives you options. Creativity gives you leverage. Together they position you to do anything — including buy a house when you are actually ready.
— Malc Peso