Your 20s is the most important stage of your life because it defines you and how the rest of your life is going to be. It is the transitioning from teenage life into adulthood.
In your 20s you start realizing and taking on responsibilities and become more money-minded with respect to your expenses and savings and start planning about your future.
This is the stage you hope to establish a career, clear up student loans and therefore quite a bit of financial planning is required to be done. Goals need to be set including financial goals you hope to achieve.
Here are some of the financial goals to accomplish in your 20s you need to be thinking about:
Opening a Checking Account
Opening and successfully managing a checking account is one of the very first steps towards achieving financial success. This financial step should be taken towards the end of college.
Opening a checking account basically acts as the imaginary line that you cross to go into the initial stages of becoming financially responsible for yourself. This account allows withdrawals and deposits and is fairly liquid making it easily accessible.
Creating an Emergency Fund
Once you have a stable source of income and are aware of your monthly expenditure, the next step that plays an important part in your financial stability is setting up an emergency fund.
An emergency fund can be set up as savings accounts or other such low-risk investment vehicles, and with the latest services that are being offered, it is quite simple to do so while also making these accounts easily accessible.
These funds are created with the core purpose of having a backup in the event of an emergency. Emergencies could be job loss, medical expenses or other such events that may require an additional amount of expenditure as compared to your usual monthly expense.
Based on your income you should be able to decide a certain percentage that goes into your emergency fund at the receival of your monthly work paycheque. This amount could be increased by one-two percent every 6 months.
Creating and regularly contributing towards this fund is what will help you stay away from debts and loans and will cover you during difficult times.
Paying off Debts
Constantly being in debt is a burden on your shoulders you do not want to have. Debts like student loans and credit card debts will keep pulling you down until you can pay them off.
However, student loan debts can take a long time to clear but at the least, you could set up a strategy and work towards the goal of clearing that debt and the same applies to credit card debts and other loans.
Paying off your debts will open up opportunities for you to use the extra money towards other goals of your life, like buying a car or a house. This would therefore pave the way towards financial stability as well.
There are various debt reduction software and student loan repayment plans that as well can help you manage these payments.
Initiating a retirement plan
Some youngsters in their 20s who have just started earning an income feel that they don’t have sufficient funding to start contributing towards their retirement. However, it is not necessary to start contributing with a huge amount. A small amount can go a long way. The main step towards this financial milestone is taking the initiative of at least starting.
Starting with a small contribution, will get you into the habit of putting away a certain amount towards your retirement and eventually the amount can keep increasing along the way. The sooner you have investments and insurance options like index universal life insurance explained and start saving for retirement the higher the chances are of it turning out to be successful.
The earlier you start putting away money for your retirement plan the more the amount will increase till the time you retire. Compound interest is a great technique to use when considering this step.
Look towards making investments.
Just like retirement funds, this step of dipping your leg into investing in investment programs is also a great option for many youngsters hoping to achieve financial success.
Making investments require adequate knowledge about the stock market. You can also opt for a financial adviser to guide you through certain investment schemes.
Investments can help you to achieve various other saving goals you have had in mind which you wish to achieve before retirement.
The key to investing successfully is the diversification of your portfolio and it is vital to contribute towards your investment accounts like a brokerage account, a mutual fund, or exchange-traded fund (ETF), regularly in order to spread out all the risks.
Establishing your career path
Youngsters today, find it way more difficult than it used to be to get a job right after graduation. In the earlier days, it was definitely easier to finish college and directly get a job. Now with all the various opportunities, a major amount of competition comes along with it and organizations have a particular requisite of either a specific degree or a certain amount of work experience. This has made landing a job a financial milestone for most people in their 20s.
In order to find a good job to kick off your career, it is imperative to keep an open mind. It is not necessary that the subject or stream you majored in is what you have to end up working in.
Times change and with time and experience you may find your calling. While starting your career, do not look at the salary but also consider every other opportunity the organization is offering you. For example, health benefits, Medicare, retirement options, and chances of growth through the organization.
Doing this will set you on the path to achieving your goals and financial success.
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