"Like most 22-year-olds at the time, I wasn't thinking about retirement."
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I graduated from undergrad in 2018 and immediately stepped into the world of adulting, which meant I had to start getting serious about money management. I had student loan debt and a little saved up from working part-time on campus, and I was set to begin a full-time paid internship two weeks after graduating.
I'm 25 now, and looking back, I did have a decent enough handle on my money. I made monthly loan and credit card payments, and I saved money — very irregularly, but I saved. But now that I have a much, much deeper understanding of personal finance, I've realized that I was just doing the bare minimum.
I've been changing my money habits, which has put me in a much stronger financial position compared with just a year ago. Of course, I can't help but wish I had started taking these steps as soon as I had graduated. Here are some things I would've done differently sooner:
1. I should've avoided lifestyle inflation — it was too easy to think I had more to spend when I earned more.
2. And instead of saving a fixed portion of every paycheck, I only saved money if I had enough leftover after spending for the month. I wish I had put saving first.
3. I didn't pay much attention to saving for retirement — I thought I still had a while before I needed to think about that! But I *really* wish I had opened up a Roth IRA.
4. I should've started making student loan payments during the grace period.
5. While I had a regular savings account, it didn't offer me much in the way of interest. Too bad I didn't know about high-yield savings accounts sooner.
6. I was interested in investing but didn't think I had enough money to do it impactfully. Slowly building a market opportunity fund early on could've given me a way to take advantage of market dips with a decent chunk of money.
7. I wish I had started earning cash back *years* ago.
8. It would've helped to think about what long-term goals were really important to me so that I could figure out how to use money as a tool to achieve them.
9. Lastly, credit cards can be a great tool for building your credit when used responsibly, but I was using mine as an extension of my income. I should've avoided buying things I couldn't actually pay for in full.
Now it's your turn! What's something you wish you had done with your money immediately after graduating? Share 'em in the comments below!
And while you're at it, check out some of our other personal finance posts.