You are never too young to start saving money, investing and planning your financial future. Most parents nowadays advise their sons and daughters to start thinking financially as early as their teenage years. The art of saving and investing money is a learning process, but you will never learn anything until you experience it.
Below are five tips you need to know in order to change things around for the better. They’ll give you insights about investment that will help you establish a stable financial future.
1. Recognize the importance of inflation.
Do you know why investing, not saving, is the best path for you if you want to achieve your long-term financial goals? It has everything to do with inflation. Inflation means that the prices of goods and services went up by an average of 1.5% last year. How about your money in your bank savings account? It grew by an average of around 0.87%. So if you want your money to grow and not just sleep securely in the bank, don’t just save. Investing will provide better rates of return and more chances for your money to work for you.
2. Automate your money management system.
Automation takes out the emotional factor in your personal finance. Instead of you painstakingly forcing yourself to save or invest every month, it’s more convenient — and more effective — to set up an investing system, monitor it every month and just “forget” about withdrawing it prematurely.
3. Before investing, secure an emergency fund first.
Opening a bank account for your emergency fund is a necessity nowadays, whether you have job or not. Although the interest rate of bank accounts is negligible, the sole purpose of putting your money in a bank is the security it provides and the convenience of withdrawing money from ATMs. Having a bank account influences you to consistently deposit money in your account so that it will grow over time and provide a nice financial cushion.
Force yourself to monitor your daily balance. After all, no one wants to look at an empty bank account, right?
4. Start learning more about investing for beginners.
Learning the art of investing your money yields great monetary gain if done successfully.
For beginners, seek help or do research. Find someone trustworthy. This professional should have an extensive knowledge about monetary investments. You can also attend seminars done by company firms or you can pay someone to do it for you. A basic understanding of financial management is a major plus when venturing into investment opportunities.
5. Start saving for retirement now.
Thinking of the future gives you a better idea of what to do and how to act now. At some point in your life, you will need to retire from your job and rely on your retirement funds. Having a retirement plan during your career is one way to ensure a steady flow of income when you retire. But if you do not want to avail yourself of any kind of plan because of your limited income, you can always set aside a fixed portion of your monthly salary and enroll in a monthly investment program.
Discipline is the key here — you need to commit a specific amount monthly and consistently. Setting a target balance for your retirement fund monthly, not annually, ensures that you will be forced to invest a fixed amount of your salary every cut-off. The sooner you start this process, the larger your retirement fund can be in the future.
Pursuing a stable financial future is a life-long endeavor. Learning the hard things as young as possible gives you the experiences and knowledge to commit to whatever financial moves you will make in the future.
Start now and start early!
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