The 7 BEST Purchases To Make In Your 20s & 30s

Summary

Codie Sanchez argues that people in their 20s and 30s should spend strategically on things that can build earning power, opportunity, and long-term wealth—not simply follow conventional advice to save, avoid debt, and invest in index funds. Her seven recommended purchases are mostly investments in skills, networks, health, experiences, and property.

Seven purchases she recommends

1. Knowledge and experience over a paycheck

   • Seek work that teaches valuable skills, even if it pays little or nothing.
   • Sanchez favors practical experience over an MBA for most people. She says elite business-school tuition—about $200,000—may make sense for people targeting high finance, consulting, or Fortune 500 executive roles.

2. Fitness and health

   • She cites claims that fit people earn $25,000 more per year, gym-goers earn 9% more annually, and good-looking people earn 12% more over their lifetimes. The subtitles identify no studies or sources for these claims.
   • Suggested spending includes a gym membership, coaching, healthier food, and less alcohol.
   • She contrasts this with expensive dining, saying she had spent about $50,000 on dining year to date.

3. A community of ambitious people

   • Join groups that offer access to builders, mentors, and business connections.
   • Sanchez says she spends about $50,000 per year across groups. Examples mentioned include YPO ($4,000), EO ($4,000), Tiger 21 ($30,000 per year), and her own groups at about $3,000 or more. The pricing and units are stated as they appear in the subtitles.
   • She also suggests country clubs as a way to meet older, wealthier potential mentors.
   • Avoid spending money or time on high-school reunions as a status exercise.

4. A home or condo

   • Sanchez argues for buying property rather than renting when financially feasible. She recommends starting modestly—such as in a second-tier city—and prioritizing assets that can cash flow.
   • She says she owned eight homes she lived in and gives these purchase-price and current-value examples:
     • Dallas home: $579,000 → $940,000, bought around 2014.
     • Second Dallas home: $1.25 million → $2.85 million, bought around 2014–2015.
     • Home bought in 2018 for $759,000: the current value is unclear in the auto-captions (“8.95k”), possibly $895,000.
   • She says the combined difference between purchase prices and current values was $6.97 million. She also says she lived in the homes without paying rent and received tax write-offs.
   • These are personal examples, not a full return calculation: the video does not provide financing costs, taxes, maintenance, transaction costs, or comparable rental costs. Sanchez says renting may make sense when someone can earn more elsewhere than the cost of appreciation and rental income. Otherwise, she recommends keeping rent low while saving for a down payment.

5. Travel and experiences

   • Spend on longer, more locally immersive travel rather than luxury hotels or familiar chain experiences. Sanchez suggests staying in communal settings, using local coworking spaces, and making local connections.
   • She recommends reading Adventure Capitalists before traveling and also names a book transcribed as “Vagabond in,” likely Vagabonding.
   • Avoid spending heavily to recreate a familiar lifestyle abroad, such as staying only in major hotel chains.

6. A “skill stack”

   • Build complementary skills instead of relying on a single specialty. Sanchez uses Steve Jobs’s interests in calligraphy, design, and software as an example of skills combining into differentiated products.
   • Her proposed approach is to become good at several related areas and combine them into a distinctive offering, rather than trying to be world-class in just one.
   • She describes her own combination as investing, marketing, public speaking, social media, and writing.
   • Avoid paying to enter a field or pursue a degree you dislike simply because you expect it to pay well. Sanchez claims more than 50% of graduates choose a degree mainly for its perceived earning potential, without citing a source.

7. Become interesting by doing difficult or unusual things

   • Develop real capabilities—such as jiu-jitsu, photography, or building a business—rather than trying to appear impressive through cold outreach or paid PR.
   • Sanchez’s framing is to become highly capable in multiple areas (“a third-degree black belt” in several things), so genuine achievement attracts friends, opportunities, and income.

Finance-specific cautions and takeaways

• Sanchez’s central recommendation is to treat money as a way to buy earning capacity, access, and assets, rather than only consumer status.
• She favors practical learning and business networks, and recommends keeping housing costs low until ownership is affordable.
• Her property argument relies on personal home-value examples and does not establish that buying is always superior to renting.
• The video gives no portfolio allocation, securities analysis, or specific stock, ETF, bond, cryptocurrency, or commodity recommendations. No tickers are mentioned.
• No formal “not financial advice” disclaimer appears in the subtitles. Sanchez closes by advising viewers to think for themselves and be strategic about spending.

Presenters and sources mentioned

Presenter: Codie Sanchez.

People, groups, and sources referenced: Suze Orman; Ramit Sethi; James Altucher; Tai Lopez; Scott (surname not given); Steve Jobs; Michael Phelps; Tim Ferriss; YPO; EO; Tiger 21; and the books Adventure Capitalists and a title transcribed as “Vagabond in” (possibly Vagabonding).