Happy Tuesday,

Angelo here! Welcome to New Money, where we go over weekly tips to help you build your wealth, one dollar at a time.

Today’s edition:

• The Investment Period

• The 5 highest-return investments you can make in your 20s

• U.S.-Iran deal, SpaceX's latest acquisition, and more…

🍎Wealth Tip of the Week

Nobody ever told me this when I was 20:

What surprised me most about building a $700,000+ portfolio was how little it had to do with what I learned in school. 

The things that made the biggest difference were skills, habits, relationships, and decisions that barely felt important at the time. 

That's what made me realize something.

Your 20s aren't a waiting room. They're an investment period.

Dr. Meg Jay, author of The Defining Decade, argues that many of the decisions we make between 20 and 30 shape the decades that follow.

You put something in today because you believe it will be worth more tomorrow.

Which raises an interesting question: If your 20s are an investment period, what should you invest in?

Here are five things that tend to pay the highest returns.

1. Stop Renting Yourself 

Think about how differently you treat a place you rent versus a place you own. 

When you rent a place, you do the basics. You keep it clean. Maybe hang a few pictures. But you're probably not knocking down walls and renovating the kitchen. Because you don't own it.

A lot of people treat their careers the same way. They do the job. Collect the paycheck. Repeat.

But they never invest in becoming more valuable than they were last year. Keep upgrading yourself with new skills, experiences and capabilities.

The market rewards value. And value rarely stays still.

This is especially important when you're working a job you don't love. As author Paul Angone says: Crappy jobs are a twenty something rite of passage.

Most people focus on what they're not getting from the job. A better question is: What is this job teaching me?

Every job has something to offer:

• Communication

• Sales

• Writing

• Problem solving

• Customer service

• Leadership

Even jobs you can't wait to leave. The trick is identifying the one skill you can take with you when you eventually do.

Get better at it. Grow it.

2. Keep Planting Seeds

A higher salary feels important when you're 22. And to be fair, it is.

The skills you build at 22 can pay you for the next 40 years. The salary you negotiate at 22 might only last until your next job. Those are very different investments.

The people who become financially successful aren't always the ones who earned the most at the beginning. They're often the ones who learned the fastest.

Particularly today, some of the most valuable skills in the world can be learned online for free.

The barrier isn't access anymore but consistency. 

Success in your 20s is usually built on consistency, humility, and a lot of unsexy decisions that don't feel important at the moment.

Think of it like a farmer. You plant a seed. You water it. You keep showing up.

You don't become valuable overnight. You build skills one day at a time until opportunities start appearing that weren't available before.

Keep planting seeds.

3. Stay Teachable 

Money isn't the only thing that compounds. Time does too.

And your 20s might be the most time-rich decade you'll ever have. More flexibility. More freedom to experiment. More room to make mistakes and recover from them.

The fastest way to stop growing is to think you've already figured everything out. The most successful people I know ask more questions than everyone else.

They read. They listen. They stay curious.

And they're willing to change their minds when they find better information. 

That's becoming even more important today. 

Technology is changing the way we work, learn, and earn money faster than ever. AI is already reshaping entire industries.

The people who thrive over the next decade probably won't be the people who know everything. They'll be the people who never stop learning.

Every time you learn from someone else's experience, you get the lesson without paying the full price yourself:

• One conversation can save you years of mistakes.

• One book can change the direction of your career.

• One mentor can shorten a learning curve that would've taken a decade on your own.

The people who grow the fastest aren't always the smartest. They're usually the most teachable.

4. Choose Your Environment Carefully

There is a popular saying that you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

The people around you quietly shape what feels normal. If everyone around you spends every raise, that starts to feel normal.

If everyone around you is investing, learning new skills, and talking about opportunities, that starts to feel normal too.

Humans adapt. That's what we do. The problem is that we rarely notice what we're adapting to.

Looking back, some of the biggest shifts in my life came from a single conversation, recommendation, or perspective I wouldn't have discovered on my own.

That's why one of the fastest ways to change your future is to change the people, ideas, and conversations you expose yourself to regularly.

Because what you hear repeatedly eventually starts to shape what you believe is possible.

5. Don't Be Tricked By Consumerism

The easiest way to look wealthy is to spend money. The hardest way is to keep it.

That's why one of the best financial habits you can build in your 20s is learning to save a portion of every paycheck.

The popular 50/30/20 rule is a simple place to start:

• 50% for needs.

• 30% for wants.

• 20% for savings and investments.

If you don't learn to save when your paycheck is small, it's unlikely you'll suddenly start when it's bigger.

That's why so many people end up living paycheck to paycheck no matter how much they earn.

The goal isn't to never spend money. The goal is to make sure your future gets paid too.

Saving protects your future. Investing helps build it.

If you're ready for that next step, I've put together a list of the brokerage accounts I personally use and recommend:

👉 View my favorite brokerage accounts

Your 20s are full of seeds.

Some won't grow. Some will change your life.

That's why you keep planting.

Because the only guarantee is that nothing grows if you stop.

💬Quote of the Week

📉 Market Recap

Check out some of the biggest stories shaking up money, markets, and momentum this week.

👉 U.S. and Iran reach a deal to end the war

The two countries reached a peace agreement, with a formal signing expected Friday in Switzerland. The Strait of Hormuz will reopen, easing fears of major oil disruptions. 

Wallet Impact: Oil prices dropped to three-month lows on the news. Relief at the pump is coming but shippers say full supply chain recovery could take weeks.

👉 SpaceX is acquiring Cursor for $60 billion days after going public

Days after going public, SpaceX announced a $60 billion deal to acquire Cursor, one of the fastest-growing AI coding platforms in the world. 

Wallet Impact: SpaceX is not just a rocket company anymore. This move signals it is building toward becoming a full AI and enterprise tech giant. If you bought SPCX shares at IPO this is the kind of aggressive expansion that either pays off massively or overextends fast. 

👉 U.S. and Mexico are renegotiating USMCA as Trump questions its future

Trump says he is not looking to renew the North American trade deal. July 1 starts a 10-year termination clock while talks continue. 

Wallet Impact: USMCA covers $1.6 trillion in annual trade. If it falls apart expect higher prices on cars, groceries, and everyday goods. This moves slowly but the impact on your wallet could be significant. 

👉 Oil drops to a three-month low as markets price in the Iran deal

Oil prices dropped to a three-month low after markets began pricing in a U.S.-Iran peace deal and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. 

Wallet Impact: Lower oil means cheaper gas and eventually lower prices on goods that rely on shipping. But analysts warn the full drop in prices at the pump could take weeks as the Strait still needs to be cleared and supply chains need time to normalize.  

👀 In Case You Missed It

Here's exactly how I'd approach reaching that milestone if I were starting from scratch today.

 🌱More ways I can help build your wealth

See y’all next week 🫡

Angelo Castillo

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