Advice to my 30-year-old self

By Mark Zweig

Reflecting on lessons learned and sharing life, career, and financial advice for younger professionals. 

With this issue of The Zweig Letter focused on the Rising Stars of the AEC industry, I thought it might be fun for my current 67-year-old self to look back and give some advice to my 30-year-old self. I’m not saying 30-year-old me would take it – but here it is nevertheless! 

1. Pick the right mate. If you haven’t already made a mistake and married the wrong person, be picky! You want to find someone who is smarter than you are and who can give you good advice. You also want to be sure you do not get together with someone who has alcohol and drug problems. Find someone who has the same socioeconomic background and the same religious and political orientation that you have. And if you ever want to own a business, find someone who comes from a family where one or more parents was a business owner. If you don’t, you will have problems in your relationship! 

2. Figure out where you want to live and go there. The sooner you go, the better. Yes, the housing may be expensive but you won’t care when you are young. You’ll figure it out. Get established and build relationships there versus having to start over later. 

3. Slow down a little. Life is more than work. Don’t overcommit too early. Don’t burn yourself out too fast. Don’t give yourself stress-related health problems when you are young. There will be plenty of time for that later! 

4. Dream BIG and have very high goals. Shoot for an “A” even if you think you would be happy with a “B,” or there will be no chance you will get an “A.” Swing for the fence versus aiming for a double. You may actually hit a home run every so often if you do. 

5. Max out your 401(k) contributions every year to get as much match as is possible and don’t touch it. I did a terrible job with this one because, as an entrepreneur, I sometimes needed big chunks of cash and had nowhere else to go. But it’s a mistake if you want to make your future life better and less stressful! 

6. Put 10 percent of what you make into the stock market and don’t touch it. The compounding of your investments over time is something to behold! See my comments on point No. 5 above! 

7. Don’t finance any vehicle and don’t buy new vehicles, either. I wasted so much money on this one that I could have used for income-producing assets versus depreciating assets. That “new car smell” can be really costly and it doesn’t last long. That said, ordering the first of new vehicles you know will be popular can pay off if you sell them quickly. Case in point – the new Bronco when it was announced, the new Beetle when it was announced, the new T-bird when it was announced, the new Tesla Cybertruck when it was announced, etc. Right now, we have a deposit on the new Scout. You can make money on vehicles like that if you sell them when they first come out and you first get them. But most new cars you will lose money on. I have had others that dropped like a stone. And don’t finance. Who needs a car payment? Buy what you can afford and pay cash for it. 

8. Buy apartments in growing college towns and don’t ever sell them. If you can afford investment properties, multi-family in college towns is as solid as you can get. They grow, your apartments stay leased up, and rents go up over time. The more doors you have, the more your risk is spread out. And apartments are almost always better than raw land. They generate rental income from day one and appreciate every time you raise the rent. Plus, they depreciate for tax purposes. Raw land generates no income and doesn’t depreciate. Three years of owning rented apartments that are generating income and appreciating versus land that is not generating income is hard to beat! 

9. Buy the worst house in the best neighborhood you can afford. Fix it up and sell it after two years, and then reinvest the profits in a more expensive home. And be ready to do this every two years. It’s a great wealth builder. The last three houses we have bought, fixed up, and moved into, each of which we lived in for two years, have made a significant mostly tax-free profit. Sure, it is a hassle to move that much, but it forces you to purge unnecessary stuff and you get to replace your cat clawed/dog bed sofas – a nice extra benefit! 

10. Pay your credit card bills in full every month. You don’t want to carry over your Chili’s dinners and Applebee’s lunches and unneeded Home Depot purchases from one month to the next. And then paying 18-22 percent interest on that is really crazy. Get the credit cards for emergency needs and use only one of them, and then pay it off every month. 

11. Exercise every day. Always a good idea to get into this habit! Then when you are older, you will not only be slimmer, but healthier overall. And it won’t be hard to do if you start young and make it part of your routine! 

I got a lot of this advice – some from my father and some from my mentors – and much of it I didn’t listen to. Truth be told, I’m pretty happy with my life. I don’t know if I would change a thing if I had a chance to do so. It all led up to a very fulfilling life in the end!