Pretty much for your whole life, money is going to be on your mind. How to get it, save it, spend it. How much you need as opposed to how much you want. There’s always a little bit of a struggle with those decisions and processes. But, if you want to consistently expand your personal financial potential, there are some sets of good advice that you can always follow.
Get a few credit cards, make sure you understand how to budget your resources, learn how interest rates work, always have a savings account somewhere, and work backward from taxes. Those steps will always help you move toward your goal of financial independence.
Get a Few Credit Cards
Getting credit cards is a good idea. Spending more money than you have, or that you can earn in a reasonable amount of time, is a bad idea. Having credit cards that you pay off will make your credit score go up. Having credit cards that you use to accrue debt is not in your best interest. So the point with credit cards is to find a good balance between use and payment, so that your financial future flexes forward with you as more money because available in your later years.
Set a Solid Budget For Yourself
By setting a solid budget for yourself, and then using the convenience of automated budgeting software, you’ll rest at ease knowing that you can always check on your current financial status, and how it relates to any recurring bills that you may have. People who check their budgets daily or weekly have a much better overall picture of their spending habits than someone who only checks every month or two.
Learn About Interest Rates
Whenever you have credit card debt or other loans in your financial portfolio, it’s smart to keep interest rates in mind. Things like student loans will usually have low interest rates. Things like high-risk credit cards will have high interest rates. If you learn which places to put your debt, you’ll save money in the long run.
Use a Savings Account
No matter what your financial situation is, you should always try to maintain some sort of a savings account. This money can either be used in the case of an emergency, or as a safety net between jobs. But the point of setting it up is to make sure that you can’t touch it until it’s absolutely necessary.
Work Backward From Taxes
One mistake that people often make when trying to figure out their personal financial potential is that they don’t consider the impact of taxes as much as they should. Depending on your job and your income level, you have have to put as much as a third of your paycheck into taxes eventually. Be sure to account for that during the rest of the year.
