emergency fund<\/a> with at least three months\u2019 worth of expenses. \u00a0After that start saving for more personal financial goals like a down payment on a house or money for a vehicle.<\/p>\n# 4 – Avoiding Debt<\/h2>\n
Debt is a trap. I\u2019ve only had a little bit of consumer debt in my life and I felt horrible each and every month making those payments.<\/p>\n
If you get yourself in debt, especially credit card debt, and only make the minimum payment you\u2019ll spend years paying back that money and end up paying more in interest than the items you bought were worth.<\/p>\n
Avoid consumer debt like credit cards, pay-as-you-go furniture and electronics, and of course, payday loans. Save cash for your purchases instead. And if you do take out debt for a car or a house make sure that you\u2019re leaving plenty of room to pay those bills.<\/p>\n
# 5 \u2013 Learning About Investment Options<\/h2>\n
Just like with saving early the earlier you get started investing the more money you\u2019ll have in the future. Because of the way interest compounds investing just a few years earlier can leave you with tens of thousands of extra dollars in retirement.<\/p>\n
If your employer offers a retirement plan sign up! Invest as much as you can as early as you can.<\/p>\n
You should also learn about other investment opportunities so you can figure out what interests you the most.<\/p>\n
# 6 \u2013 Acquiring the Skills Necessary to Earn More Money<\/h2>\n
One of my bigger mistakes was not looking for ways to earn more money sooner. I\u2019ve finally hit a place where I\u2019m happy with my income and able to meet the goals I have set for myself, but this definitely wasn\u2019t always the case.<\/p>\n
There are tons of different ways to earn extra money. If you feel like you aren\u2019t earning enough to meet your goals, explore your options.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In three short months I\u2019ll be turning the big 3-0. Instead of fearing this number I\u2019ve been looking at it with the glass half full mentality. I learned some hard lessons in my twenties and because of that I feel like I\u2019m entering this new decade of my life with much more wisdom than I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2084,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,14],"tags":[347,582,581],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}