If you’re like most people, you’d like to have more money than you do now. You know where you want to be financially, but how do you get there? The first step is learning the foundations of financial success.
Mastering these key financial concepts won’t fix your existing money issues overnight. However, it can empower you to reach your financial goals. Here’s what you need to know.
Key Foundations of Financial Success
Trying to gain control of your finances can seem overwhelming, and that’s okay. Understanding the following concepts may make it easier to create and stick to a plan for financial growth.
Understanding Your Spending Habits
Without a baseline knowledge of your financial situation, it can be hard to track your progress — or make progress at all. When it comes to money management basics, many people suggest making a budget. However, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) suggests that you start by asking the following questions:
- Where does my money come from?
- Where does my money go?
- What bills do I have, and when are they due?
Tracking your income and expenses can help you determine where you can save more. It can be tricky, but the CFPB recommends using an online tracker to group your expenses by category. It can also be helpful to create a bill calendar to keep track of when each bill is due.
It’s also wise to write down your daily expenses. That way, you won’t miss anything. It’s easy to forget about little purchases (like buying a coffee on the way to work), but they can add up quickly.
Creating a Budget
Smart budgeting habits can help you move closer to your long-term financial goals. Maybe you’re looking to pay off all of your debt over the next five years. Or perhaps you want to buy a house soon. Whatever your goals are, making and sticking to a budget can help you get there.
There’s no one way to make a budget. The University of Pennsylvania suggests a few popular methods:
- Pay Yourself First: Contribute a specific amount to savings each month before paying anything else
- 50/20/30 Rule: 50% of your money goes to essentials, 20% goes to savings, and 30% goes to wants
- Envelope Budget: Give yourself a certain amount of money to spend in each category per month
You can also adjust these categories as needed. For example, if essentials take up most of your paycheck, you might change the 50/20/30 budget to a 60/20/20 budget.
Online budgeting apps and tools may make budgeting easier. Feel free to try out a few strategies and choose the one that works for you.
Practicing Smart Debt Management
Debt (especially the high-interest kind) can get in the way of your financial goals. While it shouldn’t be your sole focus, paying down debt should be a priority.
As with budgeting, there’s no single best strategy to manage your debt. Here are some methods to consider:
- Snowball Method: Pay the accounts with the lowest balances first
- Avalanche Method: Pay the highest-interest debt first
- Consolidation Loans: Refinance your debt at a lower interest rate
Paying down high-interest debt first will help you save money in the long run. However, the snowball method has become popular because it’s a good motivator. Paying off an account in full is progress you can see.
Prioritizing Saving
With housing, groceries, and just about everything else growing more expensive, it might be difficult to save money. However, even putting aside small amounts can make a big difference over time.
If you’re in a place where you can save 20% of your income, that’s great. But don’t feel discouraged if you can’t. Putting $10 into savings whenever you can might not seem like much, but it’s much better than nothing at all.
Saving is one of the most essential money skills. If you get into the habit of saving now, you’ll likely have an easier time saving even more if your income increases.
Setting Long-Term Goals
Long-term financial planning can help you view your budget in context. When you have a goal you’re working toward, you’ll likely find yourself even more motivated to build a strong financial foundation.
It can also help to set multiple smaller goals instead of a single large goal. For instance, you might want to build a $1,000 emergency fund, pay off your credit cards, and save enough to put a down payment on a house. Achieving each one is something to celebrate.
Remember to Be Patient and Remain Consistent
Learning the basics of money management doesn’t always feel exciting. But each choice you make, each habit you build, is a step toward something better. Whether you’re trimming your spending, building up savings, or just figuring out where your money goes, you’re putting a strong foundation in place.
It’s okay if progress feels slow. What matters most is that you’re moving forward. The work you put in now can open doors to the future you want—and that’s worth sticking with.
