Today’s economy is challenging by any stretch of the imagination. Unless you’re among the fortunate few with a trust fund, you need to hustle hard.
However, you can improve your financial picture considerably by making the right choices that grow your assets. Here are six spring money management tips for women in their 20s to set themselves up for a secure economic future.
Cover Your Loved Ones
What would happen to your children if you could no longer take care of them? Even if you have a loving spouse, your kids could end up penniless if you both die in the same accident. If you are a parent, please cover yourself with life insurance and update your beneficiaries every year — you don’t want your ex to profit from your demise.
Even if you haven’t yet started a family, you may want to secure life insurance now. You lock in your policy, meaning your insurer can’t deny your coverage if you later develop health issues — as long as you keep paying your premiums. Plus, the younger you are, the less you’ll pay, making it possible for you to investigate options like whole policies that provide additional security.
Insure Yourself
It’s a sad reality for anyone with a chronic condition — the United States remains the only industrialized nation that doesn’t guarantee health insurance coverage to all citizens. As a result, you could pay a small fortune in premiums to stay alive, but it beats the alternative of medical debt and bankruptcy.
Ensure you get sufficient coverage to keep one hospitalization from shattering your financial future. If you require ongoing care, research your options early and often, and accept that you might face tough choices your peers do not.
And if you are healthy, secure disability insurance for yourself now. If you wait until you get sick, no company will cover you minus a rider disallowing the very condition likely to rob you of your working ability. It can take years to navigate Social Security, and unfortunately, many people die while awaiting a determination.
Start a Side Hustle You Love
In more grim economic news, the average wage hasn’t kept up with inflation since way before you were born, despite ever-rising productivity. Even if you grind your hardest, you could find yourself falling further behind each year as the costs of everything keeps rising, but your paycheck doesn’t budge.
Answering to multiple bosses every day can quickly kill your soul. Even if they are empathetic and kind, you need to express your unique spirit in your work, not follow orders 24/7 like a robot.
The solution? Start a side hustle that you love. Don’t fall prey to get-rich-quick schemes. It can take years to build a successful blog or YouTube channel — especially if you also juggle a full-time career and family. However, once that residual income stream starts rolling in, you’ll make money in your sleep while spending your waking hours doing what you love.
Save Toward a Home
You might have bragging rights as the most economically challenged generation in recent memory if you are a woman in your 20s. In still more depressing news, the average rent keeps rising faster than inflation, making it challenging to find affordable housing.
The solution is to buy a house, but doing so requires a solid credit score and a decent downpayment. Even if you can’t afford your dream home at first, you still pay yourself in equity instead of making your landlord richer each month. When it’s time to sell, you can put the profits toward your future palace.
Get Over Your Fear of Investing
Historically, the stock market keeps pace with inflation far better than a traditional savings account, but investing doesn’t come risk-free. As a result, you might shy away out of fear of losing cash.
However, you don’t have to spend your mornings perusing the stock market pages. You can invest in a mutual fund that diversifies your portfolio for you, minimizing risk while maximizing your returns.
Embrace Minimalism
Take a look around your room. See all that stuff? It represents minutes and hours of your work time. You start looking at that designer handbag differently when you realize it costs you 30 hours of labor.
Start embracing minimalism. You don’t have to KonMari your abode necessarily, but you should become more mindful about your purchases. Before buying anything new, choose one item to sell or donate to keep that excess clutter from turning your closet into a disaster area — and your credit cards from hitting their max.
If You’re a Woman in Your 20s, Use These Spring Money Management Tips
If you are a woman in your 20s, please use these spring money management tips to get a handle on your finances. Making wise choices now sets you up for a secure economic future.