Nova: What if I told you that a 25-year-old earning just $40,000 a year could retire with nearly a million dollars — simply by doing one thing differently than most Americans? No lottery tickets, no crypto gambles, no inheritance. Just one simple move. That's the promise at the heart of today's book: But First, Save 10, by Sarah-Catherine Gutierrez.

Nova: I promise we'll get there. But first, let me introduce our guest of honor. This book landed on TIME NextAdvisor's list of Top 11 Personal Finance Books of 2021, and its author, Sarah-Catherine Gutierrez — who goes by SC — is a certified financial planner, a Harvard-trained policy expert, and the founder of Aptus Financial. She was named InvestmentNews 40 Under 40, and she's on a crusade to demystify money, especially for women.

Nova: It's right there in the title. But First, Save 10. The entire philosophy boils down to this: before you pay anyone else — your landlord, your credit card company, even the government — you pay yourself 10% of your gross income. Into a retirement account. Automatically. Every single paycheck. And then, and this is the radical part, you spend whatever is left without guilt.

Nova: Exactly. She explicitly casts aside what she calls self-judgment budgeting. There's no spreadsheet of shame. The system does the work for you. Automate the saving, and then live your life. That's the revolution in a nutshell. Let's unpack it.

Nova: SC opens the book by introducing us to a character named Olivia. Olivia is 23, fresh out of college with $50,000 in student loan debt, and she just landed a job making $45,000 a year. She's feeling on top of the world. So what does she do? She books two graduation trips, goes on a shopping spree for work clothes, and — this is the kicker — buys a brand new Subaru with a $500 monthly payment at 12% interest.

Nova: Most of us have been. Here's the thing SC points out: Olivia isn't stupid and she isn't uniquely irresponsible. She was raised in a culture that taught her exactly one thing about money — consumption. No one ever sat her down to explain what that student loan would actually cost her future self. No one showed her how a car payment functions. She was never given the tools to be anything other than a spender. And then we judge her when she fails.

Nova: SC writes, and I'm paraphrasing here, can someone explain to me why we judge Olivia for doing the very things we taught her to do? The news loves to report this story so older generations can shake their heads. But Olivia isn't the problem. The system is.

Nova: Disaster. Her take-home pay is way less than she imagined. Between the car payment, the credit cards, and the looming student loan payments, she realizes she will never afford her own apartment. She tries to sell the car and discovers she's underwater — she'd have to pay $7,000 just to walk away. She's 23, ashamed, scared, and feels like she's sentenced to being broke forever.

Nova: This is where the Save 10 philosophy kicks in. SC would tell Olivia: sign up for your company's retirement plan immediately and contribute 10%. Even with the debt. Even with the car payment. Because what Olivia needs most isn't more spreadsheets — it's momentum. She needs to see money accumulating somewhere, to feel what it's like to be a saver. That changes her identity. And once you identify as a saver, you start making different decisions.

Nova: The heart of the book is a brilliantly simple four-step system. Let me walk you through it. Step one: Pay yourself first. That means automatically directing 10% of your gross income into a retirement account — a 401k, a 403b, whatever your employer offers. This happens before you see a dime.

Nova: That's the entire revolution in four words: pay yourself first. SC points out that we happily let the federal government deduct taxes from our paychecks. We auto-draft car payments and insurance premiums. We let so many entities take money from us automatically. Why can't we do the same for our future selves?

Nova: Step two is pay for future expenses. This is where SC introduces one of her most practical innovations: separate, named savings accounts. You might have an emergency fund account, a travel account, a car repair account, a gifts account, a technology replacement account. Each one gets a small automatic contribution every month.

Nova: Exactly. And SC says this is actually inspiring rather than depriving. When you name an account "Dream Trip to Italy" and watch it grow, you're building toward something joyful, not just restricting yourself. The psychology flips from deprivation to anticipation.

Nova: Step three is pay your bills. Notice what happened — bills come third, not first. After you've already saved for retirement and funded your future expense accounts. The order is everything. And step four: spend the rest. Guilt-free. Whatever lands in your checking account after steps one through three, that's yours to enjoy. No tracking, no judgment, no shame.

Nova: SC argues it's because the financial industry profits from making money seem complicated. If you think investing is mysterious and budgeting is painful, you'll either avoid it entirely or pay someone high fees to manage it. She wants to break that cycle.

Nova: Let's return to that million-dollar math I teased at the beginning. SC lays it out with stunning clarity. A 25-year-old earning $40,000 a year who saves 10% — that's about $4,000 per year — and invests it with a conservative 5% to 6% annual return will have just under a million dollars by age 65.

Nova: Now here's the gut punch. If that same person waits until age 35 to start — just ten years later — saving the exact same 10% at the same return, they'd end up with about $560,000. That's 40% less money, for the same savings rate, just because they waited a decade.

Nova: And SC has a great way of framing this that doesn't rely on people caring about some distant retirement. She says, tell yourself: I'm taking one for the team right now. Forty-year-old me is going to thank 25-year-old me. By front-loading your savings in your 20s, you buy your future self the freedom to upgrade your lifestyle later. You can have the Tesla in your 50s if you're frugal now.

Nova: And SC lives this. She was once a spender herself. She admits she did the credit card debt thing in her early 20s. She's not preaching from some tower of natural frugality. She's someone who figured out the system and is now obsessed with sharing it.

Nova: The math becomes even more dramatic at higher savings rates. SC shares that she knows a young man who tells all his friends to save 40% in their 20s. Forty percent. Live like a broke college student for a few more years, and then by your 30s, you have so much momentum that you can pursue almost anything.

Nova: SC dedicates a significant portion of the book to what she calls the tax-efficient waterfall. It's an eight-step investing roadmap designed to turn any novice into a confident DIY investor. The idea is that you fill up your most tax-advantaged buckets first before moving to less advantaged ones.

Nova: Step one: contribute enough to your workplace retirement plan to get the full employer match. That's free money you should never leave on the table. Then an HSA if you have access to one — those are triple tax-advantaged. Then back to maxing out the 401k or 403b. Then an IRA. The sequence moves through increasingly less advantageous accounts, but the key is always low-cost, passive index funds.

Nova: Absolutely. She says for most people, especially beginners, just pick the target date fund closest to the year you'll turn 65 and keep contributing. Done. You don't need to be a stock-picking genius. The simplicity is the point.

Nova: This is one of the most compelling parts of her philosophy. She founded Aptus Financial on a fixed-fee, advice-only model. No commissions. No percentage of assets under management. Clients pay a flat fee for a plan, and that's it. She argues that most advisors have conflicts of interest baked into their compensation. If an advisor earns a commission when you buy a product they recommend, they're not a fiduciary — they're a salesperson.

Nova: Exactly. She writes that selling and advising should not be confused. She pushes for fee-only or fixed-fee advisors exclusively. And she's a national speaker on eliminating conflicts of interest in the financial industry. She also advocates for what she calls just-in-time financial education — teaching people exactly what they need to know at the moment they need to know it, rather than overwhelming them with abstract concepts years in advance.

Nova: That's the heart of her SAVE10 campaign, which she co-founded to bring this message to college sororities and young women entering the workforce. She's physically going to campuses and giving talks to hundreds of women, telling them: when you're alone in front of that computer screen enrolling in your retirement plan, and it asks you how much to save, you type 10 percent.

Nova: There's a statistic SC cites that stopped me cold. A UBS study found that over 80% of single millennial women say they plan to be involved in long-term financial decisions after getting married. But among married millennial women, fewer than half actually are. Something happens between single life and married life where women hand over the financial reins.

Nova: She says it's not a conscious choice. It's inertia compounded by cultural conditioning. Boys are more likely to have dads who sit them down and explain stocks. Girls often absorb the message that money isn't their domain. So when couples divvy up duties, the man takes finances because he seems to know more, and the woman focuses on other things. Over time, she disengages entirely.

Nova: All of which means women need to save more, not less, and start earlier, not later. SC's SAVE10 campaign specifically targets this. She's trying to reach women at the exact moment they're entering the workforce and saying: you belong at this table. You can do this. And the system will work for you if you set it up right.

Nova: Not at all. While it's written in a warm, conversational tone that resonates especially with women, the principles are universal. SC works with physicians of all genders, runs retirement plans, and her advice applies to anyone with a paycheck. The book was praised by the White Coat Investor community and financial bloggers across the spectrum.

Nova: That's the beautiful thing about SC. She doesn't fit the stereotype of a money expert. She's a salsa-dancing, wine-and-chocolate-event-hosting, three-kid-raising entrepreneur who happens to be obsessed with getting people to save 10% of their income. She hosts financial education events for women at that dance venue. She makes money approachable and even fun. Her motto could be: take your future seriously, but don't take yourself too seriously.

Nova: And the core insight is so countercultural. In a society that constantly tells you to spend, to upgrade, to treat yourself, SC is saying: treat your future self first. That 10% isn't deprivation. It's the most profound act of self-care you can perform.

Nova: So let's bring it home. But First, Save 10 offers a system that is almost radically simple. Four steps: pay yourself first by automating 10% into retirement, fund your future expense accounts, pay your bills, and spend the rest without guilt. That's it.

Nova: The numbers are undeniable. Start at 25 with a $40,000 salary and save 10% — you're looking at nearly a million dollars by 65. Wait until 35? That drops to $560,000. The earliest dollars are the most powerful dollars. Your 20s are a financial superpower if you use them.

Nova: The book also does something rare in personal finance: it takes on the industry itself. SC argues that commissioned advisors, percentage-based fees, and conflicted advice have made millions of people poorer than they should be. Her fixed-fee, advice-only model is a stake in the ground for a better way.

Nova: So here's my challenge to anyone listening. Open your phone right now. Log into your retirement account. What percentage are you contributing? If it's not 10%, change it. Right now. Before the next paycheck. That's the one simple money move that could change your life.

Nova: This is Aibrary. Congratulations on your growth!