1. Spend less than you earn
If you remember only one thing from this article, let it be this point: spend less than you earn. The bigger the gap between what you earn and what you spend, the better. This is the holy grail of accumulating wealth.
2. Know how your money flows
When I got my first job out of college, the best thing my mom made me do was to sit down and create a budget. I didn’t necessarily stick to every detail that I wrote out, but it was eye-opening to see that if I planned to spend $X on rent, I wouldn’t have enough for groceries.
3. Save for rainy days
Once you’ve gotten the hang of spending less than you earn, it’s time to put that extra money somewhere. Rather than leaving it in your checking account, where you’ll be tempted to spend it, transfer it to a high-interest savings account and start building your emergency fund.
4. Pay off high-interest debt
There’s really no way around this one: high-interest debt is terrible and expensive. If you have credit card debt, you could be paying interest rates over 20%, which can make it really difficult to pay off that debt.
5. Take advantage of employer retirement plans as soon as you can
If you work for a company that offers to match part of your contributions to a retirement plan, take advantage of that as soon as you can. Not only is it great to start saving for retirement early, but the employer match is basically free money.
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