Stitches
Whitby Hall Hero
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2012
- Messages
- 2,025
- Reaction score
- 568
- Points
- 113
I'm 31 currently, and wish I would have done more when I was younger. I was never in bad financial health really (thankfully in part to picking a field with good occupations IMO), as I never paid interest on any of my debt aside from student loans (and then my house when I bought that). But I never took the time to actually budget as I could have a lot more saved up (outside my 401k) or be completely out of my student loans (the ones left aren't bad, since they're consolidated, and mostly an annoyance at this point).YNAB is another good one, but the manual stuff isn't for me. Can definitely see how it makes you be more conscious of your spending though.
Don't misinterpret what has been said, paying off your student loans early is a GREAT thing. Gouri and Jigo's advice have been purely from a credit score standpoint. Saving thousands of dollars in interest heavily outweighs a few points on your credit score. I'm 24 and have a credit score of 750 and have never tried to get fancy with my score. Although there is a thing or two I would have done different (ex. keeping a card open), its nowhere near the extent that has been discussed. A good credit score is a by-product of good financial health.
My current strategy is to look at my budget, look for anywhere I can cut down (i've already done this pretty extensively). Yesterday my promotion ended for TWC extreme internet. I called and in 10 minutes dropped it to turbo internet and saved myself $10/month. Now I know it isn't jack shit really, but why pay it if I don't need it? If it affects my internet experience, I'll just go back to it. I take 25% of my leftover income and put it towards a "fun" account (works out to about 10% of my after tax income as well), 25% towards a savings account for house, and 50% towards paying down extra on my highest interest student loan.
I have a similar internet issue, in that I've been out of my promotion and could double my speed for $10 more than I currently pay, but do I really need the extra speed? Why not just save the $10. I could probably reduce my speed down too, but I really don't want to.