Everyone lives a carefree life through their 20s, but as people approach their 30s, their priorities begin to shift and they start looking for ways to spend wisely and save more for their current and future needs. If you’ve just turned 30, you may have already started wondering how to build your wealth and which investments to choose for maximum return over the years.
Taking a serious and calculated approach to managing your finances will help you build a healthy portfolio of savings and investments, and the following tips will help you make a good head start.
Make Friends With Financial Planning
Not everyone likes to deal with numbers. Many people just prefer to do all the budgeting and planning in their heads and live from paycheck to paycheck believing they don’t necessarily need to have a detailed financial plan.
While this may have worked when you earned a limited income through your 20s, as you grow older and your income and expenses increase, you can greatly benefit by having a sound financial plan supported by a budget that maps your day-to-day expenditure as well as long-term expenses such as travel and loan repayments. This will give you the opportunity to see in black in white how much you spend to sustain your current lifestyle and the areas where you can curb your expenses to boost your savings.
This entire process would be even more fruitful if you set yourself an annual and five-year savings goal. With more control over your spending habits, you’ll have more disposable income that you can put to good use. Take the help of a financial advisor or use a budgeting app to make things easier.
Start Contributing More To Your Retirement Fund
Now is a good time to start thinking about your retirement, although it may seem a long way away. Savvy retirement planners start early and get to reap the benefits of compound interest and earnings on investments such as stocks, bonds and the like.
A great way to build wealth steadily is to increase contributions to your personal or professional retirement fund, that is your individual retirement account (IRA) or a 401k with your employer. If you can afford it, consider increasing your contributions by at least 5% of your income. If you don’t already have an IRA and your employer doesn’t offer a 401k plan, open retirement savings account at the earliest and automate your monthly contributions to enable compulsory saving.
Pay Off Your Current Debt And Avoid Borrowing More
While you may have diligently worked towards paying off your student loan during your 20s, sacrificing many indulgences and experiences on the way, now is the time to get aggressive about getting rid of all your debt as soon as possible. This could not only save you thousands of dollars in interest, but it would also give you the freedom to live the lifestyle you want and build a robust emergency fund.
To get to a debt-free life sooner, use any windfall or bonus to pay your debt and avoid taking more loans for at least the next five years. Also, keep a tab on your credit score and take steps to improve it.
Efforts to grow your wealth will fail if you cannot put a tab on your spending, which includes bringing your credit card spending to a minimum. Using the credit to buy essentials is not a problem, but letting your credit card balance roll over and spending more than you can pay off can put you in a vicious cycle that will rob you of hundreds of dollars of your hard-earned money in the form of interest and penalties. If you can’t do without a credit card at this point, choose cards with friendlier terms, make it a habit to pay off your balances every month and make use of the rewards program offered by your provider.
Make Smart Investments
When it comes to investments, most people are clueless about the numerous choices they have and generally tend to rely upon the advice of family, friends, and colleagues. While there is no harm in doing so, an astute investor prefers to make well-informed decisions when selecting investment assets. If your knowledge of stocks, bonds and funds are limited, take the help of a wealth management advisor who will help you pick the right assets in line with your fiscal goals, age, income, and risk-taking capacity.
When you’re young and retirement is many years away, you can afford to invest in high-risk assets as they yield greater returns over time. Mutual funds and index funds are both good options for young investors, but before making any kind of investment, take the time to learn how it is expected to perform in the future.
For instance, an expert can help you understand a yield curve and determine where to invest for maximum gain. According to Mink Wealth, a steep positive curve means that investors can expect substantial financial expansion in the future.
Review Your Insurance Cover
Once you start investing and your assets begin to grow, it would be a good idea to revisit your insurance coverage and increase your protection to safeguard yourself and your loved ones against unforeseen events. If you have dependents, purchase an adequate life insurance policy. If you’re planning to buy a house, you’ll need mortgage insurance and home insurance.
More and more people with dependents are choosing to buy life cover in their late 20s so that their family will have a financial cushion if anything untoward happens to them. Aside from buying the required insurance cover, you may want to revisit your existing insurance and see if you can negotiate a better rate with your provider or switch to a provider who offers better terms. If you've recently switched jobs, take the time to understand the benefits offered by your employer as well as any changes in your health insurance premium.