Finance Tips You Should Know in Your 20's

There are a few tips that I am going to offer in this post for someone in their 20’s when it comes to personal finances. A lot of times, this is when we make the most mistakes when it comes to money and credit. But, even if you're in your 30's it is never too late to start being wiser. So, we need some tips that will set us up for success throughout our 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, all the way up to our 100’s! Here are my five most important tips that you should follow:

1. Pay Your Bills on Time: I know, sometimes you have more expenses than you do income but as much as you can, this is my number one rule. Make sure your bills are paid by its due date. You can have one million dollars in credit card debt but guess what? You have been paying the credit card bill on time and have no past due bills on your credit report. It makes a big difference to creditors, which brings me to my second tip.

2. Monitor Your Credit: I mentioned in a previous post that a lot of sites offer free credit reports and allows you to monitor changes to your credit. Check with your banking institution as well because a lot of them are beginning to offer credit monitoring services. Experian is also another site that I like to use. They let me know when an inquiry has been made, my credit balances, what is helping my credit, and what is hurting my credit. Pay attention to all of it! It will help you recognize your current financial patterns and change how you operate in the future.

3. Go to the bank and open a Savings Account: Unless you have a shoe box with all of your cash in it, go open a savings account. Otherwise, how else will you save? You will assume what is in your checking account, you can spend. We need to be able to separate what we need to spend from what we can spend. Creating a financial cushion for the bad lucks in life is so helpful in the long run. Have you ever seen the post that says “When everything is going good in your life but then your car has something else in mind?” Uhhh, yeah, that’s real, trust me. So, we have to have a rainy-day fund or if you’re just the luckiest person in the world, you will have extra money to do whatever on everyone of your sunny days.

4. Create a Budget: I CANNOT stress this enough. Please refer to the previous blog. Create a plan that fits you and your lifestyle. We all have goals and this will help us get to that goal a little faster.

5. Avoid Unnecessary Spending: This may be the hardest tip to follow. You may think you need or want that but do you really? Nope. Then you look at your recent transactions and realize you spent $100 on something so unnecessary. Learn how to go to the market and cook as well. Because you really just spent $15 at Chick-fil-A for lunch over a course of five days (yes, if your math is correct, that is a total of $75 a week spent solely on lunch). That is money you could have used for a bill or to save or for gas (have you seen the price of gas lately?!). Try to cut some unnecessary spending out of your life.

There are a lot more I could give but these are my main tips to begin laying a foundation for financial freedom in your 20’s. Feel free to reach out to us for more tips or help with beginning the process of becoming more financially stable. Like, share, subscribe! That is all for today, folks! Write you next week!

Peace,

JW