Achieving Your Financial Goals
College is a good time to at least start thinking about how the educational choices you’re making are situating you financially for the future. While you are a student, it is also important to live like a student while you are one instead of getting into debt by living beyond your means too early. Any extra money you can save is also going to go further if you can start saving it at a younger age.
In your thirties, try not to succumb to the pressures of keeping up with the Joneses. Instead of putting your money into a new couch, or a new pair of shoes, it might be best to invest it in an account where you will get financial dividends. In this period of your life, you should also strive to be living below your means.
In your forties, the biggest piece of advice is to make smart trade-offs for the future. Get rid of your debt, downsize your home if you need to, and take this time to get back into the workforce if you have taken time off to raise kids.
See Jacoba Urist, How Financially Fertile Are You?, Huffington Post, Mar. 2, 2012.