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Starting to manage your personal finances using a dedicated software application will help you adopt healthy financial habits.
I'd recommend this free and open-source personal finance application: MoneyManager Ex - https://moneymanagerex.org/
It works on Windows, MacOS, Linux, and Android.
Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated in any way. I've just been happy with the application for more than 7 years.
Watch videos from these three and you will learn a lot:
Ben Felix
Plain Bagle
Two Cents
Avoid any youtubers that give advice on specific stocks to buy. All mentioned above are professionals, with different specialities within finance and personal finance.
Also be very skeptical about cryptocurrencies. If you really want to invest in it, then consider a very low allocation. Maybe 1-2% of your net wealth. Most cryptocurrencies and projects are a scam. The youtubers I suggested do not promote crypto, or specific stocks.
I am not a professional, so keep that in mind :)
The book "I will teach you to be rich" has a great overview of how to best leverage credit cards, high yield savings accounts, setting up automatic investments, saving, and lots of other 'good to know' topics about money.
For investing specifically I use the Boglehead method.
Now I have to comment so I can find this again
What's wrong with the Save button?
I'm not sure i have a save button in kbin
Oh, my bad - hadn't noticed the 'kbin' part of your username.
Barefoot Investor was really good for my wife and I when we joined finances. Particularly having our own "splurge" accounts means we don't need to ask each other before buying our own personal or frivolous things.
As for personal finance, The Investment Answer is a little dated now, but still good for the basics. Itβs a short book. Iβve never looked at Bogleheads, but I suspect itβs along the same lines because folks there seemed to like it 13 years ago.
Honestly, everyone else has it spot on with the retirement advice. Even people that are north of $10M net worth follow that same advice.
For personal day-to-day stuff I would recommend You Need A Budget.
This is a fantastic way to keep a budget.
I've used YNAB forever. It's the partner sync that makes it work but the price has become prohibitive. Honestly if you can find an app that syncs work a second device and utilizes a flexible envelope style system, give it a shot.
If you're a student, you can get one year free.
Bogleheads, and the bogleheads guide to investing
https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Bogleheads%C2%AE_personal_finance_planning_start-up_kit
https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Bogleheads%27_Guide_To_Investing
I'm very glad that someone recommended me bogleheads, after reading, I was able to open up a roth and contribute yearly which may be one of the best personal finance decisions I've made.
OP, this is all you need right here.
The Bogleheads Guide to Investing was the thing that helped me the most. My family got me prepared for day to day finance, but nobody explained retirement savings to me.
This book broke everything down into easy to understand terms, and made me feel comfortable investing wisely.
The book used to be free online, but I don't see it anymore. You could search up a PDF, or they have a really good wiki that covers most of it, but more briefly. Here is the Getting Started page.
I found the book here for free: https://archive.org/details/null-1_202312/mode/1up
Perfect!
Give that a read, and then if you want to follow it, the wiki will give you the current lowest costs funds for all the major companies so you can do your IRA/401/HSA into the best funds available.
Thank you!
I've had a lot of success taking the rules that YNAB uses and applying to my own budgeting method. I recommend checking out Actual Budget if you're capable of self-hosting and want a fancier software instead of a spreadsheet. The rules are key, though; pick a methodology/mindset you agree with and stick with it.
I tried a few different things, and eventually settled on my own budgeting spreadsheet that I did in Apple numbers. I have tabs for each pay period, and I am working on having amounts automatically roll over to the next tab.
EDIT: I tried YNAB and was tearing out my non-existent hair. What a non-intuitive cluster fuck of twisted logic.