Quick snippets from my morning read on Saturday, 14th November 2020
Today’s read is taken from an article on Medium highlighting three #DreamSpeakers’ advice for youth on navigating personal finance. Each of these incredible speakers shared their advice on personal finance, budgeting, and the importance of getting started on your finance journey early.
Personal Finance
For Ms. Ward, personal finance is all about taking care of your future self. As she puts it: “Savings are a way to tell your future self, I got you” Ms. Ward recommends remembering the distinction between living expenses and lifestyle expenses. Determining your needs versus your wants is key in developing a financial plan that takes care of your future self.
For Ms. Soong, personal finance is about creating generational wealth to take care of her future self and family. She recommended six tips on how to develop a personal finance plan;
- Build a budget.
- Prioritize your spending.
- Pay off your debt.
- Save for your emergency fund.
- Start investing.
- Plan for your future.
Budgeting
Ms. Ward suggested changing our mindset around budgeting. Instead of thinking about budgeting as a savings plan, she suggested approaching it as a spending plan; this helps eliminate the perspective that personal finance has to be restrictive, and you still get the desired effect of creating a saving habit.
Ms. Soong’s budgeting tip is to focus on two factors: how much money is coming in and how much money are you spending. She encourages asking yourself these questions to begin an honest conversation with yourself about personal finances.
The Earlier, The Better
The #DreamSpeakers were united in their perspective that the earlier you begin to think about personal finances, the better. Personal finance is a lifelong journey, so learning techniques and skills to manage finances at a young age is critical to taking care of your future self. As Ms. Mishra said, “Thinking about your personal finances in the same way you think of your physical health could be the key to maintaining helpful finance practices. Just as we have habits to keep our hygiene intact, think of different habits to form to keep our personal finances intact.”
Today’s reading heavily picks from the theme of our fourth issue of Notes & Thoughts
Read the full and insightful article by La’Treil Allen and Summer Nguyen on medium.
As you reflect on your personal finance journey and start practicing these principles, download the Eversend App
And as always, if you enjoyed this, check out the rest of our daily snippets, curated daily, right here on The Red Notebook.
