The Rules of Thumb blog and the MoneyThumb team love finding helpful resources for our readers. Many of our blog readers define themselves as millennials. Wikipedia defines millennials as Generation Y or Gen Y, the demographic cohort following Generation X and preceding Generation Z. Most millennials are the children of baby boomers and early Gen Xers.
The resource we are referring to is all about personal finance help for millennials. It is the website of Rick Orford, The Financially Independent Millennial. In addition to a wealth of personal finance advice, Rick has several valuable freebies for millennials to download, such as a fill-in-the-blank budget spreadsheet and personal finance balance sheet, along with a free net worth calculator.
Mr. Orford has a ton of great blog content with personal finance advice for millennials. One post in particle you might want to bookmark, and Rick even suggests doing so to his readers because it is long and you'd want to read it over time. The blog post is titled Personal Finance Tips: The Ultimate Guide.
There is also a section with a list of the Top 100 Financial Blogs of 2021. This list can be very helpful for anyone, not just millennials.
As for our own contribution to financial advice for millennials, the Rules of Thumb blog offers the following 4 Financial Tips for Millennials:
- Always try to keep a good credit score--You'll need a good credit score to do the things needed to grow your wealth, like buy a home, get a good deal on credit cards and loans, and get a great job (yes, employers do check credit scores.) Get a free credit report once a year from sites like Experian or Equifax. Get Report via Annualcreditscore.com. You can also usually get your FICO credit score from your bank or credit card company.
- Build a Household Budget--Every millennial household needs a budget. A budget is your ledger of financial checks and balances -- how much money is coming into the house and where it should be disbursed, pay for things like bills, groceries, college, travel and entertainment, and other household issues like surprise medical bills and unanticipated costs of big vehicle repair, among other costs. To build your budget, estimate your regular income and expenses, ideally monthly, as that's how most bills are paid. Take a special look at your household spending and look for ways you can rein that spending in.
- Build an Emergency Fund--Yes, you're young and healthy, but a job loss, an illness or injury, a major household vehicle repair, or even a small business venture that goes under can place you in financial peril. That's where an emergency fund can help. Having the equivalent of three months of salary and income on hand (six months would be better and a year's worth is ideal) should help you survive a short-term financial hardship.
- Invest for the Long Haul--Study after study shows that the sooner you begin saving for retirement the more money you'll accumulate for retirement. That's due to the miracle of compound interest, which takes regular investment contributions and uses them to fuel retirement account growth (as long as you don't take money out of your retirement fund.) Basically, compound interest is when you earn interest not only on your original investment but also on the interest that money has already earned. Through compounding, your investment assets grow, slowly at first, then faster as the years accumulate.
We hope that the above resources and information will help you as a millennial handle your finances better and smarter. For even more assistance in taking care of personal finances, MoneyThumb offers our PDF financial file converters for personal use. Take a test drive of this best-selling product by following this link.
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