Saving and Investing

Saving and investing are crucial building blocks of your financial well-being. The earlier you get started, the more wealth you create due to the power of compound interest.

Before you get started, you should have a personal finance life plan created. This plan includes your age specific financial goals based on your dreams and aspirations. You can then mold your financial plans around the attainment of this plan.  Learn about creating a Life Plan by going to one of our Life Plan/financial goal setting Money Talks!

Here are some tips to get you on track with saving and investing:

  • Learn about investing basics and terminology in our Investing 101 for college students Money Talk or learn more details about long-term investing in our Preparing for your future: Long-term must know investment strategies Money Talk.
  • Deposit money into your bank accounts directly from your paycheck before you spend it. Have a portion go to savings and another portion go to checking and do not touch the savings. This is one of the most effective ways to save and a little can add up over time.
  • Get your money working for you now! Don’t wait until you are debt-free to start investing. If you start investing young and pay yourself first, you will not regret it due to the wonders of compounding interest!
  • Actualize your Life Plan. Determine how much you want/need to save, for how long, and when you will need it. Use investment and retirement funding calculators to determine what you need to do to accomplish these short- and long-term financial goals.
  • Use a budget or personal spending and saving plan to help ensure that you can cover your expenses and still be able to support your financial goals. Overestimating expenses and underestimating income helps. Please refer to the budgeting section of our site for more information.
  • Statistics show that consumers are likely to spend 15% more using credit cards than if they only used cash. Analyze your spending closely and always rethink the purchase before you use the card.
  • Start developing an emergency fund to ensure that emergencies do not affect your life plan goals. This is not an investment and credit cards are not for emergencies! It is just money that you keep in a liquid account so that you have quick access to it. College students can start small at first, but you need to work up to saving three months of whatever your expenses are. If you start a family and/or own a home you are going to need to increase that to closer to 6 months of expenses.

More resources on saving and investing:

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