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Many young adults are clueless about the best way to manage their money, stay out of debt, and apply for credit due to a lack of basic financial education. However, it is never too late to start putting things in order to secure your financial future.
This article will give you some essential tips to help you get started on the right track.
Create a Budget
The best starting point is to identify where your money goes and the amount you incur on expenditures each month. Create a comparison between your expenses and monthly income. The two types of expenses to take note of are fixed and discretionary.
Fixed expenses include everything you must pay monthly, such as utility bills, mortgage/rent, insurance, and credit card payments. Discretionary expenses, on the other hand, are all the non-essential costs for everyday living. Examples include streaming TV subscriptions, gifts, eating out, and vacations. If you like trading currency pairs, like Solana to USD, have the cost in your budget as well. Add all the costs and compare them to your monthly income. You will know you are building a more robust financial foundation if you spend less than what you accumulate each month.
Pay Off Debt
Whether it’s a student loan or credit card loan, paying off debt can enable you to achieve your financial security. If left unmanaged, outstanding debts can get out of control, trapping you into bad debts. A few effective strategies for clearing debts include snowball, avalanche, debt consolidation, credit card balance transfer, and cash refinance.
Establish an Emergency Fund
Pay yourself first is a common mantra in personal finance, which means saving money for emergencies. No matter how tight your budget is, ensure you channel some money into an emergency fund each month. It will help you stay out of trouble financially, get peace of mind, and sleep better.
Treat savings as a monthly expense and not an optional one. You can benefit from the power of compound interest from accounts such as a certificate of deposit (CD), high-yield savings account, and money market account.
Monitor Your Taxes
Before accepting any job offer, determine if the salary after deducting taxes will meet your savings goals and financial needs. You can use an online calculator, like PaycheckCity.com, to chart your total earnings (gross pay) and earnings after deductions (net pay). Low-income earners in the U.S. have a lower tax rate than higher-income earners. Thus, you should know you will be expected to pay more taxes as your salary increases.
Avoid Lifestyle Inflation
In most cases, when your income rises with time, it tempts you to upgrade your lifestyle and increase your spending. Experts refer to the tendency as lifestyle creep. If not well managed, lifestyle inflation can hinder your long-term financial goals. Consider saving more money first rather than increasing your expenditure when your income rises. You can upgrade your lifestyle slowly when you have enough savings.
Save for Retirement
When you start to plan and save for your retirement early, you benefit more from compound interest as well as the principal amount. The best starting point is to contribute money to your employer-sponsored retirement plan (401(k). If an employer-sponsored plan can’t work for you, open an individual retirement account (IRA). The two IRA types are Roth and traditional. With a Traditional IRA, you make contributions on a pre-tax basis, while a Roth IRA requires you to make contributions with after-tax funds.
As a young adult, you should be in control of your financial future by implementing the best financial habits and practices. Emphasize savings and continually educate yourself about personal finance by reading relevant books and articles.