Financial mistakes I made in my early 20s

Young and Energetic, we are at our 20s, beginning of new era of our life, full of my expectations and a lot of emotions attached with that. Some want to buy a new car to impress, or some may just want to live a luxury life style, some of us try to approach a new iPhone and some are wishing to live free of their own.

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This is the present scenario of young India, yes we are earning a far more than our past generation yet the expenses are far more. And here comes when we start doing some silly initial financial mistakes in term of financial planning. Living a life of happiness and expectations is nothing wrong with but getting addicted and out of control will really going to cost a lot in future.

So here are the financial mistakes we do at 20s.

#1 NO WRITTEN BUDGET

When we start having solid money being credited in our account, we have too many things to do, like returning education loan, giving rent to landlord, buying some new clothes and many more to do. But at the end of the month we notice something very ridiculous, that after being paid high we have nothing last at the end of the month, so we wait for salary sanction of next month and this cycle continue.

What we exactly missing here is a well written budget, trust me it is really important to have a written one. It will give you a control and a well defined looks at all the expenses both important and unimportant ones, so that you can prioritize and save a bit more money than before.

So have a Written Budget (Will talk about ways to write a perfect budget in next article)

#2 BAD EXPENSES

You want to buy a new phone, well this is not a bad expense it is a need in tech world today, but buying a new cover every next month and oh no! you have to change the broken screen every next month, well it cost low, but it is not, at initial a 300 bucks expense is nothing, but if you see this for a whole year, you are expending 3600 on a single bad expenditure that can be controlled, and a lot more like this.

“So here the bad expenses are anything that can be control or not needed but still you are expending something on that every month. This is unseen fire in your hard earned money.”

It can be anything, a small 50 rupee note everyday you are expending on something that is not needed and at the end of the year , it seems to be around 18,250 rupees, now Isn’t it a BIG AMOUNT??!

So have a watch at all bad expense. This is a big financial mistake we always ignore. I am not asking you to be penny-pincher , but be a saver.

#3 NO SAVINGS

Salary credited every month and end before the month end, some of my friends ask me that what to save and what to eat, we are not earning that much?!

Well this is simply ignorance and sometimes it’s something we are under looking. Saving money is no more an Indian concept; globally it is accepted in financial planning around every developed economy, financial advisors suggests plans to liquidate money and save for many terms.

But what we are doing, just making excuses that we will save when we have enough, this make us mediocre at the end of the film.

Saving is a crucial part of any income holder, and to learn and discipline this concept in early or mid 20s will give a powerful backup and unbreakable strength to prepare for future with a lot of fortune.

Saving is done to grab some special purposes, someday if you realize that you can opt an investment plan but having no enough money, may be you have a dream to start your own business, but where is the seed money. You want to buy a new car, but where is the down-payment, you need a emergency cash but where is the money? Well these all come from one term; Savings!

So start saving now.

#4 NO PROPER INVESTMENT PLANS

Investment is for big guys! No time, No money to invest!

These are the starting statements when asked for Investment plans, but the harsh reality is we all want to be rich without having a proper plan. But dear, It can’t happen.

This is also a crucial financial mistake that we do at our 20s, we have energy, we have high risk quotient, we are earning, we have less liabilities, but we overlook these all and play in comfort. We do not make any proper investment plan, just some LICs suggested by some relative who intentionally working as an agent or some unknown life insurance plans just in the name of TAX SAVINGS!

But what you do of these much life insurance at your 20s!? These all are only increasing your premium and decreasing the value of your money. This is the period when one doesn’t have any major liability and can create a lavishing fortune if invested well.

You can take high risk and invest in equity and debts.

Make a written and proper Investment Plan soon. (Must Read next articles about the financial planning and Investment)

# 5 EMERGENCY FUNDS! WHAT IS THAT?

Everybody needs it, either you started earning or at the peak of your career, you need a Emergency fund for every unexpected situation.

And this is an Emergency fund, not any Investment Fund, Keep it safe, Keep it away and only use for Emergency.

One must have at least Six months of expense as in there Emergency Fund.

#6 MORE LOANS! MORE DEBT!

Going for shopping, ah! Swap credit card.

Need a new Car; I have creditability, let’s take a loan.

Loan, Credit Cards, shopping and a lot more of amazing offers for us, swap and enjoy.

These all are some facts that destroy our financial status to be wealthy.

Enjoying a rich status under debt of loan and credit card is no mean to be wealthy. These all are trap for the young breed. And we continue to fix our head in these traps.

More EMIs means more struck to day-to-day job and no financial freedom. We are bond to work according to others and soon you see there is no control of you over your life, because you have no control over your expenses, the way you took credit and the way we make these financial mistakes.

#7 NOT LEARNING ABOUT FINANCE

I have done engineering and earning very well, why do I need to learn about finance and financial planning.

This is true brother; you don’t need to learn until this finance will take control over you. You going to be humiliated by him, no way he is going to leave you from his power of debt. And your life will go to strike in this.

So it is the final financial mistake we do at our 20s.

So keep educating and share the vision, because if money is really important and we all do something to make our living lifestyle worthy, so we have to put a lesson of finance in our learning book.

Your precious comments are really worthy for me to write more.