Designing Your Financial Roadmap

Being at the point in my life where I can turn "old" any minute now (ha ha), I jumped on a webinar by Fidelity titled "Designing Your Financial Roadmap." I mean, it's never too late to think about retirement, right? ;-)

The presenter went over a ton of useful tips that I hope to utilize (most of them, if not all, are not new but always worth sharing):

Budget (yes, the word that many people dread doing)

• Start or maintain a habit of listing expenses, from the large purchases to small ones (i.e., daily coffee). Write down every penny!
• Categorize each purchase into ESSENTIAL and NON-ESSENTIAL
• Create a budget. Where can I cut back?

Retirement FIRST!

• START EARLY! It's a simple concept: the earlier you start saving for retirement, the more you'll have later.
• Save 10-15% of annual income towards retirement. Take advantage of your employer's 401k matching options.

Pay down debt

• Pay off credit card bills in full.
• Stop charging to credit card, which means paying up front.
• All that interest could be used for other things - saving for retirement, for a down payment on house, etc.

Emergency fund

• Short-term funds should be used for emergencies like car breaking down, washer/dryer malfunction/replacement, necessary house repairs.
• Long-term funds should be used in case of unemployment. 
• Fidelity recommends saving these funds somewhat liquid accounts, i.e., checking, savings, CDs, or money market accounts.

There were also other suggestions during the webinar like investing in 401k, Roth and Traditional IRAs, etc. A lot of good information, in my opinion. The details could be tweaked for each individual, but the general concept should still apply. Yeah, sounds like general knowledge, but taking action is the challenge.

And I thought life was going to get easier after college and finding a job, haha :-) It has only begun!