5 Money Decisions To Make In Your 20’s So You Can Chill In Your 30’s
Everybody wants to be rich, everyone wants to be successful, everyone wants to live a stress free life, but only few knows the rules and principles of living a successful life. People always say, your friends will make or mar you but I believes your decisions make or mar you, the decisions you make today determines where you will be tomorrow, just as what you decided yesterday has made you what you are today. Every decision you take either takes you closer to your goal or farther from it, so be careful when making your decisions. Your 20’s is the period between 20-29 years of your life. At this period, most individuals tend to live a carefree life, some make money at this stage but blow it without any second thought. The main purpose of this post is to highlight those decisions to be taken so as to live a good life in your 30’s.
These decisions are;
1. LEARN TO BUDGET
A budget is simply a summary of intended expenditures along with proposals for how to meet them. It is a sum of money allocated for a particular purpose. Every sensible individual should have a budget for each sum of money they have. Budget enables you to know what to spend on and when. Every country of the world has a budget which regulates its expenditures, this prevents it from spending on unnecessary items. This also applies to individuals. Budget prevents unnecessary expenditures which in turn promotes savings. So learn to budget, learn to draw a line between your wants and needs.
2. LIVE ACCORDING TO YOUR PACE
When we talk about living according to your pace here, we mean live according to your means in other words cut your coat according to the size of your cloth. Most individuals tend to live a flashy life even when they do not have the means. Some live above their income thereby borrowing to finance their fake lives. Do not let other people’s expectations influence your spending habits. Do not spend to impress unless you have the means. This decisions would definitely pay off in the long run and it would save you a lot of embarrassment, it also discourages savings.
“Don’t live a champagne life on a coke income. Buy your coke, shake it well it will still foam”
3. PLAN FOR EMERGENCIES
One of the reason people save is for unforeseen contingencies. Life is full of risks, infact living itself is risky. Anything can happen at any point in time. A song writer said “we hoping for the best but expecting the worst”. This is the life of every successful person, they know definitely at some point, something which will take a lot of money might come up, so they plan ahead. They prepare for whatever it would be, so when it comes they won’t be thrown off balance. Saving is a way of planning for emergencies. Insurance is also another way. Insuring your business, valuables and what have you. An emergency fund is generally 4-6 months of living expenses that would come in handy in case of any emergency. It is always said he who fails to plan, plan to fail.
4. DEFINE YOUR SHORT AND LONG TERM GOALS
A friend of mine came into my room one day, read a list of my long term goals on the wall and laughed out loud. I looked at him and smiled, I wasn’t smiling because anything was funny, I was only smiling at his ignorance. A long term goal is something you want to accomplish in the future. Long term goals require planning and time. Long term goals take several years. It is something which will take you long period of time to accomplish. A short term goal on the other hand is something you want to accomplish soon, something you want to accomplish in the near future {today, this week, this month or even this year}. Where do you want to be in the next one, three, ten, fifteen years. Make a plan for it and follow this plan. You can make plans on owning properties like cars, houses, lands etc.
5. INVEST
Your future as an individual or as an entrepreneur is more secured if you invest. As earlier stated, most individuals have at least some amount of money considered as free {nothing useful to spend it on}. This is the period to invest on something meaningful, may be a business or other profitable ventures. You can invest in the stock exchange, purchase shares of successful companies or join funds with your friends to start up a business.
Follow these piece of advice and live your 30’s care free.
