Money management skills for young adults1/14/2024 Consult a financial advisor about the types of retirement investment vehicles available to you – and get started today. If you’re self-employed, an IRA may be your best bet. If you’re ready to start saving, talk to your employer – many offer a 401k and are willing to match your contributions. My regret is that I wish we’d done it sooner – more years of compound interest would have given us a hefty sum. Automatic transfers from our bank accounts to our savings accounts means we’re less tempted to spend that money. We eventually set up IRAs for each of us. It wasn’t until we transitioned from those jobs to our actual careers that we realized we couldn’t keep living paycheck to paycheck. In our minds, saving for retirement was something that older, wealthier people did. Added to what my husband made working as an architectural draftsman while attending school, it didn’t seem like much, and we spent just about everything we earned. I spent the early part of my 20s working office jobs, which didn’t exactly make me rich. Looking beyond the conventional wisdom and managing your money in a way that works for you and your partner, if you have one, is essential. It allows me the freedom to spend, and gives my husband the peace of mind he needs to keep his nest egg safe from shoe sales. It led to constant arguments.Īfter that first year, we decided to maintain separate bank accounts, and it has worked beautifully for the last 10 years. When I spent money, my husband stressed out over our balances. Right after we got married, we opened a joint bank account – because that’s what our parents did. They say that opposites attract, but when a spender like me marries a saver like my husband, that theory can be put to the test. Here are the most important lessons I learned in the last decade that can be helpful to anyone of any age. Whether you are in your 20s or in your 60s, you can always improve your financial habits. While I’m definitely not perfect now, I like to think I’m in a much better place, having cultivated a healthier attitude toward money and learning to get my finances under control. I was a compulsive purchaser in my 20s, never saved anything, and often spent beyond my means. Whether it was poor money management skills or ups and downs in employment, I could have benefited from a better understanding of personal finance in my 20s. And while I feel great about all those successes, there were definitely a lot of mistakes along the way – especially when it came to finances. My 20s saw me get married, build a house with my husband, have two amazing kids, and start my career. As my 30th birthday approaches, I find myself thinking about what I accomplished in the last decade.
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