My 24 BEST Financial Tips for Millennials (quick action!)

If you want to take quick action with your finances, then stick around. I'm sharing my 24 best financial tips with you. I have budgeted for more than a decade and I paid off a $35,000 in student loan debt in just two years, five months. So, you know, these tips have got to be good. Stick around. Hey guys, welcome back to the Debt Free Millennials channel. I'm your host, Justine. And here we talk about all the ways to achieve financial confidence, crush that debt so that you can lead a fun life with fewer payments. If that sounds good to you, then go ahead and click that red subscribe button and I'm going to rapid fire. Go through all of my best financial tips with you. If you hear something, just do a mental check mark in your mind of, yes, I got that, yes, I got that, or if you hear something that you're like, I don't know about that, scroll to the description box of this video, and I will leave a link to relevant content and videos that I've created all about this subject. So let's go ahead and get started with tip number one. Number one, write down income and expenses every month. You know, I was going to do that as number one, but truly the budget was the number one tool that helped me pay off that $35,000 in student loan debt very, very quickly on a very small income of just $37,000 per year. Writing down your income and expenses is the best way to actually look at the transactions. Take a look at your spending and see exactly whether or not you're going in the negative or you're coming out positive at the end of the month. It's the best planning tool to hit your financial goals and to become debt free. Number two is to create a debt free plan using vertex42.com debt reduction calculator. This calculator is an online spreadsheet where you can input all of your debt amounts, your interest rates, your minimum payments, and then realistically put in different numbers for extra payments on top of your minimums in order to get that debt free plan in order in place and hit it as fast as possible. I love this tool. It's so amazing. It's free. You can download it as a Google sheet or an Excel spreadsheet so that you can see exactly how much money you should be putting towards each debt as you go. It also gives you different scenarios to take a look at if you wanted to do debt avalanche, where you're paying off debt according to the highest interest rate, or you're paying off debt snowball, where it's the lowest outstanding balance or a combination called the stair stepper method or a custom approach of your choosing. It's really, really simple to do. And I highly recommend this tool. Number three, if you have multiple student loans that pay off one student loan debt at a time with that extra payment, rather than putting that extra payment across all of your student loans. This was a tip that I wished I would have done in the beginning. I actually didn't know about this until later on in my debt free journey. When I saw that you could actually allocate your extra payment towards a specific loan. When you do that, you actually get motivated to pay off that one student loan the fastest, and it actually increases the likelihood of you paying it off even faster. So you're going to go ahead and put minimum payments towards all of your student loan debt, like normal. And then that extra payment, you're going to go back in and put that extra payment towards a specific loan of your choosing. It could be the highest interest rate. It could be the smallest outstanding balance, whatever it is. That way you're zeroed in on that one student loan debt, and it gets you paying off that debt much faster. Number four, index funds are a low cost and easy way to invest. Hands down. This is the number one way that I am investing in my retirement by investing in low cost index funds. And I'm primarily doing this with Vanguard. If you don't know what index funds are, I will leave a link to a video below for you to check out. Number five, utilize a high yield savings account for your emergency fund. Best way you get the interest. It's parked there. That money is just constantly earning interest every day. If you're using something like Ally Bank, then this is a no brainer for you. Any time that you're putting an emergency fund into a savings account, that's literally paying you peanuts. I'm talking like half a percent, which I know that there are banks out there, Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo. Those are awful banks and you should be running to a high yield savings account for your emergency fund all time. Six, utilize fetch rewards to get free gift cards. You simply scan your receipt, you get points, you earn up those points, and then you can redeem them for gift cards of your choosing, including Starbucks, Target, or Amazon. This is a great way for you to still feel like you're spending money without spending money from your allotted budget. Seven, do not get a retail credit card ever. I'm talking Victoria's Secret, Old Navy, Marshalls, whatever it may be. If Nordstrom, those retail credit cards get you hooked to continue to spend with that specific retailer and you're not really getting rewarded for any outside spending that you're doing other than building up points and rewards to continue to spend on material items. I do not enjoy retail credit cards. I think they are the worst thing ever because it just keeps you in the spending cycle. Rather you can use a credit card that has a really great cash back system or a travel reward system where you can redeem those points for hotels and flights. I personally use Chase Sapphire to build up those points so that I can use it to travel to places like Europe. Most recently I cashed in points to stay two nights at Caesars Palace and I upgraded for free so I got to stay on the strip, a really nice hotel. Amazing. These are the types of credit cards that you should be looking for. Number eight, pay cash for cars. Oh my gosh. It's like nails on a chalkboard whenever I see a really high car payment when I am reviewing people's budgets. In fact, LendingTree had found that the new car average car payment was $725 per month and a used car payment was averaging $516 per month. This is absolutely insane because it is something that you can easily save up for had you planned ahead of time. We all know that cars eventually crap out and that you're going to have to buy a replacement car. Whether or not you're the type of person that likes to drive a new car every five years or you can really hold off and push it every 10 or 15 years, you need to have a plan in place where you're saving for that car every single month. In fact, Nerd Wallet found that the average car loan interest rate is now more than 11% this is so bonkers. When I used to hear about car loans being around two to 3% so a lot of people were okay taking out a car loan because the interest rates are so low. The economy is different. Today is different because the interest rates are just so much more plan ahead for that car purchase and pay cash for cars. Number nine, add your child as an authorized user for your credit card. Big warning here, big warning here. I want like I want fire sirens and everything going off on this video because you have to make sure that you have taught your child financial literacy and responsibility. I'm thinking specifically about those who are in middle school or in high school and if they're, they're figuring out they're an authorized user on your credit card and then they're going out and spending money and then it becomes a mess. I'm talking about adding them as an authorized user when they are babies. I literally just did this for my two and a half year old daughter. I've added her, she's two years old. This is insane. You're like, why are you doing this? She has so much runway until she is an adult and until she gets her own credit card to really build up her credit score because she is added as an authorized user. She gets to start creating a credit score without her having to do anything. I'm setting her up for financial success and plus I'm teaching her financial literacy though so that she understands and knows exactly how to handle her money and do it in a very responsible way. And I know the credit score is a big factor and indicator of how well she is doing with her finances in hopes that she takes that and uses that power to be able to get a really great credit card on her own. I get an apartment on her own without needing a co-signer. I'm purchasing a house one day. These are some financial milestones that I want her to be able to achieve and I don't want the credit score to be holding her back, which is why I added her as an authorized user for a credit card. It's very easy to do. Number 10 contribute up to your employer match in your employer sponsored retirement plan. Ideally you would want to max this out to the max contribution limits for your 401k or four three B or TSP, but at minimum be sure you are contributing up to the employer match because it's free money that goes towards your retirement. And if you are vested 100% meaning you get to take all those contributions when you leave, it's an even no brainer choice. So make sure that you're contributing up to the employer match. 11 utilize taxable brokerage accounts to save for short, mid and longterm savings goals. Number 12 save monthly for short, mid and longterm savings goals. When I delineate between short, mid and long, I'm thinking, is it less than a year? Is it two to three years? Is it more than five years? And really you can kind of take a look at whenever you want to hit those goals. Typically down payments are longer savings goals, whereas maybe a trip to New York city is a short term goal or a mid year goal is really thinking about purchasing a new car. Number 13 no more than 35% of your take home pay should be going towards rent or a monthly mortgage. If it's more than 35% you are really, really on the high end and you need to really consider and move into a rental or a house that has a mortgage payment or a rent to monthly rent number that is 35% or less. Typically when you're looking at high cost of living areas such as LA, New York, the Bay area, you're going to see rent pushing that 35% marker. If you're living in the Midwest, Kansas city, St. Louis, Minneapolis, you're going to see it more towards that 30 25% marker. You're looking for a range between 25 and 35% so that you're not house poor and the house is not eating up your budget alive that you can really focus on other financial goals. Number 14 sell things on Facebook marketplace. I've had such success with this, not only when I was paying off debt, but since I've become debt free in 2014 I still utilize this as a great way to make extra money and get rid of things inside of your home. Number 15 look at missing money.com for unclaimed property in your name. I saw this spot on good morning America recently and I thought this is such a great idea. So many businesses such as let's call it Applebee's, you left Applebee's and you forgot to pick up your last paycheck. It's unclaimed property. You need to go in and claim that property by simply adding your name, adding your information and going and collecting that you never know. There could be $25 sitting under your name that hasn't been claimed in years. Check it out. It could be really spread. In fact, if you do this, if you go on a missing money.com and you find unclaimed property, let me know in the comments and see how much money I want to know how much money you've claimed from that and what you're going to use it for. Number 16 make extra interviews by going into paid focus groups using user interviews.com. This is something that one of my clients told me about and she said it's super easy because you can do it all from the comfort of your home. The only caveat is that they typically pay out in gift cards. However, I still love gift cards because you can utilize those things to pay for groceries, which keeps you out of spending from your budget. I love this idea. Let me know if you end up using user interviews as a way to make extra cash. I've seen different studies where you could be making up to $125 for one hour of your time. Number 17 combine finances with your partner. If you are married, if you are in a longterm relationship, you're in it for the long haul, combining your finances, especially for those shared expenses, the rent mortgage utilities, the subscriptions, everything needs to go into one account. We're not roommates anymore. We're working on our financial goals together. I absolutely don't mind if you have separate spending accounts. If you're like, I want my fun money in one account and their fun money in one account, but combined we're putting everything into this joint checking account. This is going to simplify things for you. I promise. I actually had a coaching client, a couple where things were just all over the place. One person was paying for daycare. One person was paying for rent. One person was paying for groceries and nobody had oversight over the other. When they combine things into a checking account. Oh my goodness. Things became much more simplified. The spending habits changed because they were now working towards shared goals. Number 18, switch to six month premiums and max out your deductibles on your car insurance to save on your premiums. And what I typically like to do is I like to set aside monthly amounts, savings amounts towards my car insurance. And then when it's due in six months, I just go ahead and pull that money out of savings and then I pay it. If you have deductibles for your collision and comprehensive that are like $250 or a hundred dollars, take a look and see if you can max that out to a thousand dollars or more. See how that impacts your premium. It is going to lower it because you're taking on and shouldering more responsibility. If you were to get in an accident where a comprehensive and collision coverage is involved, it's really easy to do. You can actually go into your car insurance providers portal, take a look at how you can change things and then get an estimate of comparing the cost. If you have more than a thousand dollars in your emergency fund, then yes, this is what the emergency fund is for to cover things like if you were in an accident, it would be to cover things like in a deductible. It's super simple. Let me know if this works for you to lower your car insurance premiums. Number 19, get a cheap unlimited data plan that is no more than $35 a month. And I am currently doing this with mint mobile that is attached in accesses, the big cell towers from team mobile. I have been with mint mobile for over a year, over two years now and it has been so simple for me to do. And I still have my data plan. I still connect to wifi. I don't have any connection problems. If mint mobile services your area, this is one I highly recommend. My referral link is linked below for you to check out. Number 20, eat at home or bring lunches from home Monday through Friday, Monday through Friday. This is the deal. This is what we're doing, which means number 21 is to meal prep on Sunday afternoons. Kyle and I have been doing this for about a month now and it has been such a time saver for me when we pick up our daughter after school and I'm getting ready to make dinner. I don't have to try to figure out what I'm defrosting from the freezer or figuring out what I'm going to be making for dinner that night. In fact, when we meal prep on Sundays, we're typically just meal prepping protein. We're meal prepping all of the meats. So ground Turkey, ground beef, chicken. Last weekend I did a pork tenderloin that I got from Costco. It was seven and a half pounds from Costco for $20. I cut it in half. I put half in the crock pot and then we've been able to eat on that all week long. Meal prepping on Sundays is going to help you quickly grab things to make for lunch and have that on hand for lunches and dinners, Monday through Friday. And side note, I say Monday through Friday because I'm also a big fan of eating out and taking advantage of happy hours and restaurants. So typically Kyle and I are doing happy hours on Friday and then we feel okay and give ourselves permission to spend on a nice restaurant or a nice dinner on Saturday and then we have leftovers to eat on Sunday and then we meal prep again on Sunday afternoon. It makes it a really great balance in between the two of eating at home versus eating out. If you can dedicate those specific times where you know you're going to be making lunches and dinners at home. 22 Costco diapers and wipes are the best buy ever. Check Sam's club. I'm not a Sam's club member. Costco is just the closest thing to me, but here's the deal. $45 for 198 diapers. This is, this is like the best thing ever and the diapers are really good. They're really absorbent, they're soft, they fit, they're great. The up and up brand from target is a disaster. They don't absorb the moisture like the Kirkland brand diapers do and they're 22 cents per diaper. Now I price checked this against what I saw at target. So at target they were selling a box of Pampers for $45 for 120 diapers. That's about 37 and a half cents per diaper. So really you're getting 78 more diapers from Costco for the same price. It is the best deal. I love the Costco diapers and wipes. You save a ton of money. In fact, with the Costco wipes, they're so large you can literally tear them in half and continue to use them. It's the best thing. 23 two to three months in your starter emergency fund should be built up of basic living expenses before you start your debt free plan. A lot of personal finance experts, Dave Ramsey are going to tell you $1,000 and then stop and then move on to your debt free payoff. $1,000 is simply not enough to sustain and to pay for today's emergencies and unexpected expenses. Think about if you were to lose your job or you got sick and you needed to go to the hospital or your child got sick. $1,000 is not going to be enough. In fact, a cell phone, the new Apple iPhone 15 is $1,000 and if you were to drop your phone in the toilet and then there goes your entire emergency fund, which is why two to three months of living expenses is just so much more comfortable and easy for you to have in place and then move on into your debt free journey. In fact, that leads me into my next tip. 24 is six months of living expenses. Basic living expenses should be set aside for a fully funded emergency fund and you're typically building that up after you pay off all of your debt and which leads me into tip 25 this is an extra tip for you because it was on my mind. I was thinking about it. If you're working with a financial advisor, ask them how much you are paying them in fees. Have them give you a dollar amount. If it's 1% or more, you are overpaying in advisory fees. Ask them what exactly they're doing. Most of the times they're not doing anything. If you have an interest in self managing, great. I am not a financial advisor or a CFP, but I have found that self managing my investments has been the best thing for me because nobody cares about my money more than me and I'm saving the most amount of money because I'm not paying any advisory fees in order to do this. Check that. Please check that and make sure you understand exactly how much you're paying in advisory fees, specifically a dollar amount and see how that's impacting the long run. Those are my best financial tips for you. I hope you walked away with something that you're like, yes, I need to look into that or I got this again. I have all the relevant videos related to all of my tips located in the description box below. Give this one a big thumbs up. If you're not part of the family, come and join us. We are committed to growing this channel to more than a hundred thousand subscribers strong and millennials who are committed to achieving that financial confidence and crushing debt very fast and very quickly with a lot of fun. And I'll catch you in the next video.