I am about to begin saving for the first time ever. I am 24, just now getting serious about my future after 6 years of straight survival mode. I have no debt, very little overhead. No job at the moment but I am applying and calling places every day, and am convinced I'll have a job this week. Spent my whole adult life renting, now I am back at home and I'm not leaving again until I am prepared to do it better and smarter. My parents, God bless them, don't know dick about finance. I am so sad at how much money I, like my parents, earned and didn't save a penny of. Never again. I am not failing again. My family will not fail financially anymore. So please explain like I am a child the best way to divide my impending income into savings. Step by step I need to know how to actually make the investments into index funds. Ideally I wish I could just watch someone actually go through the process because it's frankly daunting but I imagine I am overthinking it. Basically I just wanna know what website/app/etc to use (is that how you do it, idk)
Some other lifestyle considerations I could use advice on:
I need to buy a car, which is obviously a demoralizing hurdle when you're broke and out of work. I AM of course determined to work even knowing I'll have to walk a minimum 2 miles to get to the nearest employment opportunities.
Having worked incredibly hard in my life for very little pay, I accept I won't earn more money until I get a degree. But the idea of putting myself in debt to afford a degree just makes the chess player in me cringe. I wanna avoid any kind of debt at all, but again, I really am desperate to get a higher education, but I would need to be THOROUGHLY CONVINCED that is the move.
Any advice at all would help. Even just some encouragement would help. I wanna be a provider and I want to have all my financial ducks in a row before too much more life happens.
I have a PNC bank account for checking, but I'd like a separate medium-to-long-term savings account I can just set up and dump a fraction of my checks into. So what's your recommended account? And I wonder, should I instead invest in the 3 Vanguard funds mentioned at the beginning of every financial advisory material I have read????
Help a youngish fatherless dude be the best he can for the ones he loves !!!!!!!!!! No advice is too remedial for me. I come from a lot of recidivism and general poverty traps. I need to be told what to do, lmao. I grasp a lot of the general concepts of finance 101 and I just need some gaps filled. Hopefully the gaps in my understanding are wide enough for you to recognize and help me see them. Thanks in advance, my future spouse and children thank you too!!!!
Starting at zero, now what?
byu/nextgengonzo inpersonalfinance
Posted by nextgengonzo
4 Comments
Read “the Simple Path to Wealth” by Collins. And “Millionaire Mission” by Preston. You got this starting at 24.
Fidelity or Vanguard to buy index funds. I would search out a YouTube video on the process. First you open an account, then you transfer money to the account and then you buy VOO or VTI or SPY or whatever index funds you want. Those funds they recommend are excellent.
General advice is don’t finance anything that’s not a house or a car that is affordable and necessary for your life. I would recommend not financing a first car. People ruin their finances with cars and credit cards. If you start making a decent bit of cash and decide to start spending $1000+ a month on a newer car when you account for insurance and expenses, you out yourself at a lot of risk if you have a setback.
Credit cards can be useful for rewards and fraud protection. But if you fail to pay off the full statement balance even 1 time you should recognize that as a very bad sign. Once you rack up a few thousand in credit card debt you’ll likely be stuck in the mud for a few years.
If you want to take student loans that is okay too. But research how you can limit costs. Apply for every scholarship and grant you can find. Call the school and try to explain your situation to them and try to get them to point you to cost saving resources. Take school seriously and make sure to try and do something as employable as possible.
Biggest advice is take your time. Anyone trying to push you into quick decisions for big payments or expenses is probably trying to take advantage of you. They will still be there to sell it to you in a month if you decide it is a good decision.
You have no debt, low expenses, and the luxury to live at home. You are in a better situation than a lot of people, especially at your age.
I would recommend reading the Wiki, and then coming back with any questions you might have.
These periods in life of low recurring expenses are really rare — you should really reconsider buying a car if possible at all (can you bike? take public transportation? share your parents car? etc).
Set up a high yield savings account (like capital one 360 performance) to put your paycheck in + don’t worry about investing until you’re sure you won’t need that money for at least 5 years (you probably will need it soon if you decide to get a degree).
> I accept I won’t earn more money until I get a degree
This is probably true. If you want to get to a good financial state, the most optimal way is to just earn more money.
IMO the best investment in your early 20s is to invest in your own marketability.
While you save and live with low expenses, do your research and due diligence with figuring out a career path that will provide a good return on the degree investment (some combination of good market demand + you think you are capable of being good at this field).