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Few moments have paralleled the sheer excitement I felt when I received my first paycheck in the mail.
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Below, their advice.
How can you get anywhere without knowing where youre going?
Do you want to buy a house?Travel?
Pay off your student loans?
Take a second to figure how much money you should probably do the things you want to do.
How much will it take topay down your student loans?
How much do you need in your rainy day fund?
How much do you anticipate spending on a future home,wedding, or dream vacation?
you’re free to probably answer some of these questions on your own.
Whats nice: Some places, likeFidelity, let you set up first-time meetings with financial analysts for free.
So you dont have to worry about shelling out cash while youre trying to save it.
after you grab your goals established and quantified, figure out which ones you care the most about.
Odds are, youll have competing priorities.
Sonumber your goalsbased on whats the most important to you.
Not sure where to begin?
Clarke tells SELF that getting your debt under control is a good place to start.
She recommends prioritizing your monthly bills, then simultaneously balancing debt payments, emergency savings, and retirement contributions.
Pretty much any financial planner you talk to will tell you totrack your cash flow.
), 15 percent toward your retirement account, and 5 percent toward your savings.
The other 30 percent is yours to spend or save as you see fit.
But thanks to technology, you have some options, Clarke says.
My question would then be: Are you going to change your behaviors or change your goals?
Remember, theres no wrong answer.
Whats easier: separating your money into different accountseach with its own distinct purpose, according to Clarke.
Heres a quick run-through of what that might look like:
Your goals probably wont look exactly like this.
Technologyis a beautiful thingtake advantage of it.
That means theyre willing to help you fund your retirementAKA give you money, practically for free.
Odds are, its alittlebit more complicated than that, but its still a no-brainer offer, Clarke says.
So talk with your HR department to get the low-down on retirement savings in your office.
Remember, Liebowitz recommends putting 15 percent of your monthly paycheck toward your retirement account.
you’re free to call your bank to find out what rewards your particular card offers.
Further educating yourself about finances, investments, and the like, according to both Liebowitz and Boneparth.
Search these topics online, andstudy up.
Congratulations are in orderyouve made it to the finish line, and that money is ready to be spent.
But according to Clarke, it might be hard to part ways with your nest egg.
You saved that money for the sake of eventually spending it.
Plus, once youre done reaping those benefits, you might always set a new goal to work toward.
