Welcome to the world of young adult finances, readers! After yesterday’s post on the need of retirement planning in early 20’s , this is an excellent followup post. Here I’ll do less talking and let the infographic speak about what I wanted to say.
Early 20’s or late 20’s whenever you join in to work force is the best time to start financial planning. The other day I was talking to an intern in our office. He’s just out of college. To him the life’s all about spending money, partying, seeing places. I tried convincing him and he seemed interested to know more. I didn’t tell him about my blog but we planed to meet again for next round of talk.
Perhaps I got my first mentee whom I can teach about best practices of personal finance. He’s one of the typical generation X population. Years ahead of them before retirement, they don’t care. perhaps we were like the same when we were in our 20’s.
Anyway, if you’re just out of college and want to know what you should do and shouldn’t do financially, then bookmark this page and refer frequently. If you thin spending money is the coolest thing to do, you’d son realize spending money without saving is the most foolish decision you could take, more foolish than parting away with someone you love!
Folks, having a good credit is absolutely necessary for a good financial future. A score may decide your future employment as well. Credit score is the only reliable and measurable scale of your character and dependability. I realized this within the first year I immigrated in to this country.
My only goal, back then, was to have a high credit score. Once I started monitoring I kept on taking better decision, to keep the score high. I always paid all my dues in full and on time. I never let even a single medical bill to go past due. I took auto loan at 0% APR to build my credit, even though I could have paid cash down.
My first credit card was a $500 secured card with Bank of America back in 2005. Slowly I built on my credit, I got my first real credit card after living for 2 years here. Now my credit score is 800+, within 9 years.
Make a high credit score your next goal. Once you do that, you’ll automatically keep on taking right decisions. Managing finances would become a healthy challenge for you to meet.
Take your financial decision wisely and keep on monitoring score. Every year you can order one credit report free of cost from Annual Credit Report as per federal law. You can get twice a year free score and report from Quizzle.
But you need to monitor this every month to be on track. How you can do it?
You can open a free account with Credit Sesame and monitor your score every month and see how your spending pattern and repayment pattern affect you. But , Credit Sesame score is not exactly the real FICO score it’s as close as you can get at no cost.
The best options are all paid options, I use Experian service and pay a nominal fee every month. You may not have to pay as Credit Sesame provides very close match to the actual score.
Once you start monitoring your score, I am telling you, your habits would all aligned to the best financial principles. A small monthly amount that I pay to keep on track is worth it as it motivates me to save thousands else where.