Hello! I am turning 19 this year and I see a lot of people around me my age talk about investing, checking bonuses, ect. I mostly depend on my parents for financial advice and I haven't gotten a credit card because my dad told me he doesn't suggest for me to get one at such a young age and he wants me to be free of any loans at all, avoid them if possible. I wanted to know if anyone has any good financial advice for me to grow my money? I feel like I always end up with $20 by the end of the week even though I make around $1000 biweekly. I don't have to pay for anything except gas, car insurance, and school. So I usually only keep ~$350 to myself to survive for two weeks and save the rest in cash. Is there any way for me to grow my money?? I want to afford the down payment for a home by at least the time I'm 23 or so when I finish school and have my career set 🙁
Financial Advice for growing money
byu/ramudasgf inpersonalfinance
Posted by ramudasgf
5 Comments
I had my sons apply for credit cards through our credit union, they offered student accounts with lower credit limits so they couldn’t get in too much trouble.
They were so afraid of using them but I encouraged them to use them at least once a month and set up their account for auto pay for the full amount so there’s never interest.
When my younger son was trying to get an apartment last year with a friend who had no credit history, they literally would not let his friend move in, would not rent him a 2 bedroom apartment. So he’s living by himself with his 2 cats.
You don’t want to be a credit ghost. Especially if you want to buy a house in the next decade or so. They look for a record of on-time payments, the longer the better.
Keep savings in a HYSA (ideally 3-6 months), open a credit card and treat it like a debit card and make all payments on it (better fraud protections), contribute to an employer sponsored retirement account, contribute to a Roth IRA, contribute extra money to a brokerage account.
Don’t bother with individual stocks/option/calls/puts. If you do, know that it is no better than gambling. Don’t bother with subscriptions, you can 🏴☠️ any digital content and have just as good of an experience. Making $24k a year won’t allow you to save very much, you’re gonna have to get a promotion or a better job.
Time to set a budget. Learn to save at least 15% of what you make, but you should be able to save even more since you don’t have many bills. Put your savings into a HYSA since you want to save for a home. Start investing into retirement accounts if able to as well.
Book an appointment with your banks financial advisor. Don’t be afraid if debt. You will struggle to get a mortgage with no credit history. Credit cards and loans are necessary evils to build your financial reputation with future lenders. Just use them as tools and pay off in full each time. Do some basic exploratory math – how long might it be until you want to buy your first house, what will prices be, how much do I need to save to make the down-payment. What options are there for me to shelter that savings from tax for the purpose of buying a home? Etc. These vary by country. Your local advisor will know.
It is ok to have a credit card. Use it responsibly and pay off each month. Use it to pay for regular expenses like school tuition, gas, etc.
Good way to build credit.