Maturity Date: Why Your 30s Are The Time To Shine Financially

When you’re in your 20s, money might not mean all that much. You might be fresh out of college and sharing an apartment with some friends or have your own modest living accommodations, very little debt and maybe even your parents' car, the one they gave you when you turned 16. So money isn’t exactly a driving factor. Then, you turn 30, and things begin to change as far as how much emphasis you put on money as you may be thinking marriage, kids and advancing in your career to the point that you’ve caught on with a reputable company and the future, once distant, seems much more important and closer than once thought. What exactly should you be doing in your 30s as far as money and planning your finances? Even though retiring isn’t on your immediate to-do list, you should start thinking about that, more specifically how to start saving and if your company can help you through this process. If you have a 401K available, that should be your first stop on the way to planning for retirement, and if you’re not paying attention to that option, you’re throwing free money, and that company match, away. Once your 20s are long gone, you should consider budgeting. And that isn’t to suggest that you didn’t have a clue where your money was going when you were 20, but that age doesn’t exactly lend itself to the kind of pinpoint budgeting you’d expect from someone a little older and thinking more about life events and having money on hand. If you’re in your 30s, for example, and you want to buy your first house, you can do so without worrying if something should go wrong and you don’t have any money saved to handle the what if’s of the world. Having a budget means you take stock of your expenses and your income and look at that number after the fact to know what you should be saving. And if you’re talking about doing some real budgeting in your 30s, that includes every dollar spent relative to what you make, not just the big things like car payments, credit card debt and mortgages. As you get older, money tends to take more of a hold on your life. Whether that is in a good or bad way depends on your acumen to start thinking more like an adult when it comes to money and lose the 20 something approach to saving and spending.

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