Top Personal Finance Goals for Folks Under 40 and How to Achieve Them on a Modest Income

In 2024, most personal finance advice from the era in which old people read blogs instead of physical newspapers sounds out of date.  An increasing number of high schools offer classes in personal finance, and the premise that you should keep track of your spending and spend less than you earn still holds true, but the same paycheck buys you considerably less than it did ten years ago.  Despite this, resourceful young adults are still setting financial goals.  Financial New Year’s resolutions are still the most popular category of resolution, just like they were a generation ago.  If, like so much of the workforce, you work all the time and have little disposable income to show for it, a Plantation debt lawyer may be able to help you make progress toward your financial goals this year.

Build a Budget That Includes Savings

The most commonly cited 2024 New Year’s resolution among people in their 20s and 30s is to accumulate savings, whether in the form of a cash emergency fund or an interest-bearing savings account which, ideally, the account holder will not withdraw any money from for many years.  A commonly cited rule is that you should deposit five to ten percent of every paycheck directly into savings; assuming you never withdraw it, you will have enough money in your savings account by age 65 to afford a comfortable retirement.  That is a pipe dream for most working adults, though.  Only people who have high paying jobs and who intentionally live below their means can afford to do that.

Saving a little bit of money is better than saving none at all, though.  No matter how tight your budget, you can put a few dollars per month into your savings account.  Enroll in a program that rounds up all of your debit card purchases to the next dollar and deposits the remaining change into savings.  The money you deposit will earn a few cents in compound interest each money; by the end of the year, your savings balance will be several hundred dollars.

Pay Down Debts

Debt repayment probably already takes up a substantial portion of your monthly budget.  A few moves you can make now can increase the amount by which you can pay down the principal balances on your debts throughout the year.  For example, you can use the debt avalanche method, where you pay the minimum monthly payments on all your debts except the one with the highest interest rate, so that it accrues less interest.  Another option is to do a credit card balance transfer or to consolidate your debt by taking out a personal loan with a low interest rate and using it to pay off your high interest debt.

Work With a Debt Lawyer About Keeping Your Financial New Year’s Resolutions

A South Florida debt lawyer can help you pay down your debts this year so that you can put more of your hard-earned money into savings.  Contact Nowack & Olson, PLLC in Plantation, Florida to discuss your case.

Source:

cnbc.com/2024/01/01/top-money-goals-for-gen-z-and-millennials-in-2024.html