The Ultimate Guide: 30 Money Moves to Make Before You Turn 30

Table of Contents

“I’m 30 years old. What’s next?” That phrase is something I just said to myself recently. Because I turned 30 and thought everything was going to change. I mean, It was weird to say but things really didn’t change that much.

In all reality, 30 is just a number. But 30 years old is a big milestone in your life. It’s an age where you start to put your crazier, immature 20s behind you and start getting your act together (especially with your finances).

So if you’ve just turned 30, have 30 years old right around the corner, or are looking for ways to bulletproof your finances in the next couple of years before you get there, this post is for you.

Today, we’re going to look at the 30 most important money moves you need to make before 30 years old. Everything from financial goals to finding a side hustle and so much more. I won’t keep you any longer. Let’s get to that list!

30 money moves to make before you turn 30

1. Learn about your personal finances

Learning about your own unique personal finance situation is one of the most important concepts in all of finance. Most people today don’t care about their finances and some don’t ever pay attention until it’s too late. So if you’re closing in on 30 years old, you might want to start looking at your finances.

That means you need to start getting your financial act together. You got to learn about your income and your expenses, why debt is bad, budgeting, setting financial goals, living below your means, financial discipline, and how to start crushing it with a solid financial plan.

It sounds like a daunting task but it’s really not. And I’ll show the specific things you need to learn as you read through this post. It won’t take much because just a little bit of effort goes a long way. You also won’t learn it all at once, so it’s okay to have made some mistakes. Just take responsibility and own those mistakes.

It’s taken me years to master my own personal finances. But you don’t have to completely nerd out and be an expert like me. You just have to start and pay attention. If you do that, your personal finances will improve significantly.

2. Have a BIG reason WHY

Having a BIG reason WHY you’re doing anything with your personal finances is EXTREMELY important. I mean why are you doing all of this? It needs to be a HUGE reason WHY.

This concept is especially important for getting out of debt and fixing your finances. Your BIG reason WHY will drive you forward and continue to give you motivation while you’re working your financial plan. And if it’s not big enough, you’ll surely go back to bad habits like I did. If that happens, your WHY needs to be bigger.

For example: if you get out of debt just to get out of debt, that’s not good enough. That was me. I destroyed my student loans because I didn’t want them around my neck anymore. I got out of debt just because I wanted to get out of debt. That was my reason WHY and it wasn’t BIG enough. So I borrowed money again a few years later. My WHY wasn’t BIG enough and I realized that it needed to be BIGGER.

So when I started again, I found my BIG reason WHY: I’m sick of debt, tired of being broke and having nothing, sick of not being able to afford anything, sick of a negative net worth, my wife and I want to travel one day, I want to help my son go to college without loans, and my wife and I want to be a millionaires.

So what do you want? Are you just fed up with debt or living paycheck to paycheck? Are you done with being broke? Do you want to give your kids a better life? Do you and your spouse just want to be able to breathe? Find your BIG reason WHY and go from there.

3. Have a financial plan

Even if you’re paying attention now, not having a financial plan for your current or future finances can be a huge mistake. You need to plan out your path so that you can continue making progress and setting financial goals. So I want you to find a plan that works for you.

My wife and I are personally following Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover financial plan. It’s incredibly simple and walks you through a series of 7 baby steps to debt freedom and wealth building. My wife and I love Dave, his crew, and his content. And the progress we’ve made to date is courtesy of his awesome plan and our discipline in following it correctly. Check that out here.

But I’ve also made up a simple 10-step plan that adds onto that plan and dives just a little bit deeper into a couple of concepts that can really help you out along the way. You can check out my easy 10-step plan here in this post: “How to Stop Borrowing Money: 10 Step Guide to a Debt Free Life”

But whatever path you follow, make sure you have a plan in place. And don’t wait to start. Are you ready? 3…2…1…GO!

4. Financial goals

Setting financial goals in your life is INCREDIBLY important, especially now that you’re almost 30. Because if you don’t have any financial goals, what are you doing any of this for? You have to have some kind of financial goal to shoot for for the next 30-50 years or more of your life!

Why just work, pay bills, work some more, and then die? That sucks and I’m not about that life. I’d rather live with some financial goals to challenge me just a little bit. Because goals can be a fun challenge, they can help you build wealth, and they’re usually part of a healthy financial plan.

So spend some time right now making the following financial goals: short-term, medium-term, long-term, and legacy goals.

Short-term goals

These goals are usually achieved in a day, a week, a month, a year, and up to about 36 months (3 years).

“I want to complete a 30-day no-spend challenge.”
“I want to pay off all of my consumer debt in the next 12-18 months.”

Medium-term goals

These goals are harder to achieve and range from 36 months (3 years) up to about 10 years.

“I want to go to my 4-year college completely debt-free without loans.”
“I want to pay off my house in 5 years.”

Long-term goals

These goals are usually some of the most difficult to achieve because they take a lot of time and patience to achieve. These goals are from 10 years on up to multiple decades or your lifetime if you choose.

“I want to pay off my 30-year mortgage in 15 years.”
“I want to become a millionaire by the time I retire in 25 years.”

Legacy goals

Legacy goals are those in which you wish to achieve upon changing your family tree or leaving a legacy behind after you pass away.

“I want to leave my child an inheritance of at least a million dollars.”
“I want to create a perpetual debt-free college scholarship that pays out one single $2,000 dollar scholarship every year for the next 50-100 years.”

Also, don’t be afraid of the BHAG: If you don’t know what that is, a BHAG is a Big Hairy Audacious Goal. It’s a HUGE goal that you’re trying to achieve. For example, my wife and I are trying to get our house paid off in 5 years. Find your BHAG and go after it!

Lastly, the beautiful thing about goals is that even if you don’t hit your goal or hit it in time, you’ll be that much closer and have made a decent amount of progress along the way. Goals are a must if you want to achieve financial success. They can be fun and challenging, adding some excitement into your life along the way.

As the great motivational speaker Zig Ziglar once said, “If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.” So make sure you’re striving for something.

If you’re looking for more info on financial goals, check out this post: “How to Make More Realistic Financial Goals in 2022”

5. Get on a budget

If you’re almost 30, and you haven’t used a budget yet, it’s time to get serious. You HAVE TO have a budget. Why? Because a budget allows you to control your money, not let it control you. Here’s what you need to do:

Write down all expenses in last 30 days. You need to know exactly how much you’re spending every single month. That’s super important. Write it down or check your bank statement.

Next, you need to know your income – exactly how much you make per month AND per year. If you don’t know how much you make, and you’re almost 30 years old, that’s a serious problem. Check your latest paystub and add that up for the year. That’s your net income. You can also check your last end of the year paystub to see what you gross income was (total income before taxes). You’ll use your net income in your budget.

Now take your net income and minus your monthly expenses. Your expenses need to be less than your income. If they’re not, that’s a problem and you need to cut your expenses down.

For an awesome post on how to do this, check out this one: “37 Ways to Give Yourself a Raise in Your Budget (#27 is Crazy!).”

So next up, let’s create your budget. Do that now!

When making a budget, there are many different types of budgets that you can use. But the best budget to use is the zero-dollar budget. The main reasons I use it are: Besides being the overall best budget for your money, the zero-based budget allows you to track every single dollar and expense, doesn’t allow for any wasted money, and in my opinion, can help you reach your financial goals the fastest. Check out my post on the zero-dollar budget here.

That post can really help. But you still might ask: “what can I use to create this budget?” Don’t worry, I gotchu. When creating a zero-based budget, you can use Mint.com, EveryDollar.com, or an Excel spreadsheet to keep up with your money. I’ve tried all three and I personally like the Excel spreadsheet the best. But all of the other two options are fantastic for budgeting as well. I would try all three and see which one you like the best.

Use whatever budget is going to help you win. Don’t be afraid of it or against it. Budgeting is awesome and is only there to help you. Also, remember that the budget is permission to spend your money. It’s YOUR money. So use the budget to control your hard-earned income so that it doesn’t control you.

Lastly, even if you’re still hesitant on the budget, just give it a try and stick with it for a couple of months. You’re not going to be perfect at first. And you don’t have to be perfect. You just need to do it and put a little bit of effort in. If you can do that, you’ll start to see your finances get better in no time at all.

6. Make sure you have an emergency fund

If you’re closing in on the big 3-0, you’ve got to make sure you have your emergency fund together. You need this rainy day fund because it’s going to rain. That’s a certainty. So make sure you’re prepared for when the storm hits. But before we go any further, let’s figure out what kind of emergency fund you need to have right now.

The starter emergency fund

If you’re still in debt, you’ll need a $1,000 dollar starter emergency fund in place while you work on becoming debt free. This $1,000 dollars is absolutely essential and will help you combat small emergencies during your debt-free journey.

When creating this $1,000 dollar starter emergency fund, you need to do this in 1 month. Get it done as fast as you possibly can so that you can move on to getting your debt paid off. Once your debt is paid, you’ll move on to fully funding your emergency fund. Until then, knock this out first. You won’t keep it this way forever. Just for a short time while getting out of debt. The starter emergency fund is not meant to be a fully funded emergency fund, just a buffer while paying off your debt.

And I know that you might be uncomfortable with only $1,000 bucks. So can you increase it? No. The $1,000 dollars is meant to be uncomfortable. Use that as extra motivation to get out of debt quicker so that you can build up your 3-6 month fully funded emergency fund.

For more on how to build your starter emergency fund, check out this post: “How to Create a $1,000 Dollar Starter Emergency Fund in 1 month!”

The 3-6 month fully funded emergency find

Once you’ve gotten out of debt, you’ll need to build up your emergency fund. For this, you’ll you need to have an emergency fund of 3-6 months of all required and necessary expenses (how much it costs for bills, groceries, and other expenses times 3 months, 4 months, 5 months, or 6 months). How much you save is up to you.

But you do need to decide how much is in your emergency fund. Here’s how you decide:

Stable job: if your job is stable, you may only need a 3 month emergency fund.
Less stable or self employed: if your job is less stable or you’re self employed, you need a 6 month emergency fund.

Here how number family has decided: we have 2 stable, state employment incomes, plus income coming in from my blogs, so we have a 3 month emergency fund ($3,000/mo expenses times 3 months = $9,000 dollars). Because of that, we made our emergency fund $10,000 dollars.

However, if I ever decide to go full-time with my blogs, we would increase that up to 6 months.

Quick note: get this done as fast as possible. You want the same intensity level as when you got your starter emergency fund built and when getting out of debt. Having this in order will help you stay out of debt and not have to live with payments.

For more on how to build your 3-6 month emergency fund, check out this post: “How to Create an Epic Emergency Fund With Any Income”

7. Get out of debt

One of the most important money moves that you can make before you turn 30 is to start getting out of debt. It’s important because debt is robbing you of your hard-earned income and keeping you from building true wealth. So how do we get out of debt?

Stop borrowing

First things first – Before you get out of debt, you have to stop borrowing money. If you don’t stop borrowing, you’ll never get out of the vicious debt cycle. You know what I’m talking about. You borrow money, pay it back, get a better credit score, borrow more money, pay it back, and on and on for your whole life. That sucks.

So in order to get out of debt, you simply stop borrowing money first. Stop any borrowing, financing, or credit card use immediately. If all you did was just stop borrowing money, you’d eventually get out of debt. That’s pretty simple.

But going forward, you have to start making different decisions with your money. Cash only (or your debit card). No more credit cards, student loans, cell phone financing, car payments, or any other loans.

Get out of debt

So now that you’ve gotten your starter emergency fund and stopped borrowing money, it’s time to destroy your debt. You want to do this as fast and as intensely as possible. I’m talking gazelle intensity.

If you don’t know what gazelle intensity is, here you go: “Gazelle Intense is the term Dave Ramsey came up with to describe the speed and intensity you should have when paying off debt,” according to his website. Check out their article here.

Next, list out all of your debts smallest to largest. ANYTHING you owe money on is debt. Now total all of that up. You have to know EXACTLY how much debt you have.

Next up, I want you to set a realistic goal for your debt payoff. Take your total debt and divide it by how much you can actually put towards it every month. Example – $30,000 in debt divided by $2,000 per month to put toward it. That equals 15, or 15 months. ($30,000 divided by $2,000 = 15). Your new goal is to pay off your debt in 15 months.

While paying off debt, you need to pause your investments TEMPORARILY. We do this to get access to as much money as possible to put toward debt. Do this even if you get a match. I know this may seem counterintuitive to you, especially because you may be closing in on 30 years old, but you’ve got time. Pause your investing and get your debt paid off as quickly as possible. If you’re going to lose your match permanently, only invest enough to keep your company match in good standing. The rest goes toward debt.

If you’re wondering why we say pay off the smallest debt first instead of highest interest rate, check out this post: “Highest Interest Rate vs. Smallest Balance: Which Debt to Pay First?”

Once you’ve listed out your debts smallest to largest, pay minimum payments on all of the rest, and attack the smallest debt with a vengeance. You’ll hit that smallest debt hard and quickly get through it. Then hit the next biggest and then the next. Each time you pay off a debt, add that money into your debt snowball (your total money you have to pay off debt – it should keep growing as you pay stuff off).

If you’d like to read more about the debt snowball, check out this post here on Ramseysolutions.com.

As you’re paying off debt, you want to do anything and everything you can to pay it all off as quickly as possible. That’s means increasing income and decreasing expenses. Here are some ways to do that:

Work overtime: overtime is one of the easiest ways to make extra money to put toward your debt. Just ask your workplace. Most places, like mine, will usually give 5-10 hours per month or more. Some places offer unlimited OT. So take what you can get.
Take extra jobs: finding an extra part-time job is easy and can make you decent money. But you won’t make as much per hour with these jobs as the next thing on this list.
Side hustle: side hustles can be a lot of work, but you can easily make $30-40 dollars per hour with some of these examples – lawn care, house cleaning, dog walking, and pressure washing.
Increase income: find any other way that you can to increase your income. If you’d like some good ideas, check out this post – “27 Ways to Make Money While in Debt: #8 is Super Easy!”
Decrease expenses: on the flip side, you should also do anything and everything you can to decrease your expenses. For that, check out this post – “101 Ways of Creatively Cutting Expenses to Save a Ton of Money”
Check out one more post: “47 Creative Ways to Pay Off Debt”

Work your way up the debts list until you get to final biggest debt and pay that off. In the end, you’re left with a large pile of money that you can save, invest, give, and spend how you want to.

After you become debt free

After you get your debt paid off, you’ve got to do things differently. You have to take debt off the table (we’ll talk about this later in the post). That means no more borrowing money.

Then, between extra money in your snowball and your budget, you can continue cash flowing everything (paying cash for what you buy – we’ll talk about this later as well). I’m telling you…a debt free life is worth it.

8. Ditch the credit cards

The next smart money move you need to make before 30 is to ditch the credit cards. Now I know this might be controversial and against everything you believe in, but you don’t need them! Credit cards are the financial cigarettes of the finance industry. They suck and they’re ripping you off everyday.

Here are a couple of reasons why:

The interest costs you more money.
Credit card reward points are a scam and take a LONG time to cash in on.
They make you undisciplined.
They make you impatient and…
You don’t need them when you can pay cash or save up for stuff. Debit cards are perfectly fine.

And these are just a few of the reasons. For more, check out the “37 Reasons Why Credit Cards are Bad (and Ruining Your Life!)”

9. Stop the car payments

You’ve also gotta’ stop with the car payments. Most people in our age group don’t think that you can live without a car payment. They also believe that you deserve to drive a fancy car around. Well guess what? If you can’t pay cash for that car, you can’t afford it. Also, that car payment could be costing you a million dollars!

I mean seriously, you don’t have to have a car payment. Just pay it off or start saving up for your next car. My wife and I are both debt free with no car payments. People who are building wealth pay cash for cars. That means you, too.

What’s even worse is the average new car payment as of 2022: according to Bankrate.com here, that average new car payment is $648 dollars! That’s absolutely insane. So let me show you how crazy that is in this million dollar example.

The million dollar example: instead of having that car payment, invest your $648 every month for 30 years and with a 10% rate of return. Do you know how much money you would have? You could have $1.4 million dollars. Crazy. Get rid of that car payment and start building wealth.

10. Stop living paycheck to paycheck

If you’re closing in on 30 or you’ve already gotten there, you have to stop living paycheck to paycheck. Why? Because living paycheck to paycheck sucks and you’ll never get anywhere with your finances if you don’t break this cycle.

So how do you stop living paycheck to paycheck? You develop financial discipline by not spending everything you make, not keeping up with the Joneses, living below your means, developing financial discipline, paying cash for stuff, avoiding lifestyle inflation, and always trying to save money.

You also have to find money to get out of debt, fully fund your emergency fun, hit your financial goals, and have some fun as well. So along with the first few sections, continue reading the next sections to continue improving your finances.

For more on how to stop living paycheck to paycheck, check out this post: “Living Paycheck to Paycheck? 10 Steps to Break the Cycle!”

11. Stop spending everything you make

The next smart money move to make before 30 is to stop spending everything that you make. Most people today are over-spenders, meaning they make a certain amount of money and they spend all of it (and sometimes more). But if you’re almost 30, you have to get this under control. Because if you always spend everything, you’ll end up with nothing.

There are two ways to get this spending under control.

Here they are:

The budget: see section 5 on this list to learn about budgeting. That can help you track expenses and cut back on your overspending.
The no-spend challenge: I love the no-spend challenge. This challenge is simple and is just what it sounds like – no-spending (except your normal bills and groceries). You simply pick a time period to do it in, such as a week, a month, or a year and go. You can also set rules on what you can and cannot buy through your no-spend challenge. Great way to save money, build your frugal spending muscle, and teach yourself what you actually need and don’t need.

If you’d like to learn more on the no-spend challenge, check out this post: “Quick Guide: What is a No-Spend Challenge and Why Should I Do it?”

You can also check out my post, “How to Stop Spending Money: 17 Tips for Financial Success” here!

12. Live below your means

Now that you’re almost 30, you have to make sure that you’re doing the right things to get your finances on track. And one of the best ways to do that is to always live on less than you make.

So instead of always spending everything, you want to practice a concept of frugality called “living below your means.” Living below your means is simple – if you make a certain amount of money per month, your expenses need to be less than that amount. So if you make $3,000 dollars per month, you need to make sure your expenses are less than that (say $2,500 dollars or less).

However, if you’re living above your means, that means your expenses are more than your income. That’s very dangerous and usually leads people into an outrageous amount of debt. So if this is you, you have to fix this immediately.

Do the following things to lower your expenses so that you can live below your means:

Get out of debt: a simple way to lower expenses. Once you’re able to get debt paid off, your expenses could be very low (see section 7 for this)!
Get on a budget: another simple way to start cutting expenses. Know where your money is going (see section 5 for this).
Drastically cut expenses: for an awesome post on how to do this, check out this one again – “101 Ways of Creatively Cutting Expenses to Save a Ton of Money.”

If you do just those few things, you can easily start living below your means.

13. Don’t keep up with the Joneses

If you’re almost 30, it’s time to stop keeping up with the Joneses. And it’s easy to do when you’re young. Believe me, I can understand. Because we all want nice stuff, nice cars, and a big house.

You know the Joneses. They’re the family that has all of that – a huge house, nice cars, maybe a boat, expensive tech gadgets, luxury furniture, and a gigantic TV. They want you to think they have money when they really don’t. Instead they’re broke and seriously in debt.

Don’t aspire to be like them. They borrow money and have no discipline. They buy everything they want and sacrifice their retirement to do so. Too many people are doing this and absolutely ruining their financial future. Instead, focus on laying a firm foundation in your finances and then saving up and paying cash for nice stuff. All of that hard work will make you appreciate anything you buy much more. Now that’s a smart money move.

14. learning how to tell yourself “NO!”

Next up, learning how to tell yourself, “NO!” This is one of the most important parts of discipline that you could teach yourself, especially in your finances. Why? Well, because most people won’t tell themselves no. It’s hard to do and requires A LOT of self-control and self-discipline. Those that don’t know how to tell themselves, “NO!” are usually insanely broke and in debt.

But what about those that can be disciplined? In my opinion, you can do great things in your life and in your finances if you can be this disciplined. Delayed gratification is a sign of maturity and is crucial for building wealth. And it’s really not that hard to do once you actually become disciplined.

I personally find this kind of discipline fun because I know that I’m telling myself, “NO!” and others aren’t. I know that I’m winning and other people aren’t because of their financial discipline. But don’t get me wrong, I want YOU to WIN! So be a winner and learn how to be disciplined! You’ll be amazed at what you can do from 30 years old.

15. Pay cash (or don’t buy it)

The next smart money move on this list is to always pay cash for stuff or don’t buy it. This is how you can seriously take your personal finances to a whole ‘nother level.

So with that being said, something that I’ve done in my life is take debt off the table. Do that and say, “debt is not an option for me.” Use cash only when buying stuff (debit cards are fine – just make sure you have the money). And if you want something expensive or super nice, just save up for it. Like I’ve already said, you usually enjoy that purchase more and you appreciate it a lot more than if you were to just borrow for it.

But if you can’t pay cash, just don’t buy it. It’s that simple. If you have to make payments, you can’t afford it. There’s almost nothing these days that you can’t pay with a debit card or cash for.

16. Avoid lifestyle inflation

Now that you’re closing in on 30 years old, you have to understand this next smart money move – avoiding lifestyle inflation. This can be an absolute financial killer and can start happening around this age if your income starts increasing.

Lifestyle inflation is simply allowing your expenses to continue going up as your income goes up. Most people don’t care about this or don’t see it as their expenses continue going up. As they make more money, as long as they can afford to keep making payments, this isn’t usually a problem.

But a lot of people start turning to credit cards, personal loans, and other financing to continue inflating their lifestyle even further. Even if they can’t afford it, it still happens. Eventually, the house of cards falls through and this lifestyle inflation starts causing serious problems. You’re only one disaster or job loss away from losing it all.

So how do you avoid all of that? You can combat lifestyle inflation by paying attention to your finances and making sure your expenses don’t go up if your income goes up. Keep living the same way even if you get a raise. And make sure you’re getting out of debt and living below your means.

17. Always try to save money

One smart money move that I’ve learned in my life is to always try to save money (no matter what you’re doing). It doesn’t matter what you make or what stage of life you’re in, it’s always good to save money on stuff. But it’s especially important to practice frugality and saving while you’re getting out of debt and while you’re working on building wealth. So I challenge you to always try to save on every purchase.

Here’s a list of 57 things you’re wasting money on.

18. Start taking advantage of free stuff

The next smart money move on this list is to make sure you’re always taking advantage of free and cheap stuff or things to do in your area. It’s simple and can be an easy way to turn your finances around.

Here are some free stuff ideas:

find free things to do in your area
free ways to exercise
free dates or things to do with your significant other
free things to do for kids
free stuff in your community through Facebook marketplace

If you can’t get it or do it for free, try to make it as cheap as possible. You can also try everything I listed above but instead look for “cheap” to keep the cost down. And when looking for this stuff, if you can’t find it in any of the posts that I’ve got here on the site, simply hit up Google and try the following:

“Free or cheap things to do in (your city)”
“Free or cheap ways to exercise”
“Free or cheap dates/things to do with your significant other”
“Free things to do with kids in (your area/your city).”
“Free stuff (list item you’re looking for) in (your city)”

I mean, there are unlimited ways to get free stuff and find free things to do in whatever situation you’re in. You just have to look.

19. Make sure you’re covered with insurance

Now that you’re getting a little bit older, you need to make sure you’ve got the right insurance coverage in place for your specific life situation. Because not having the right coverages in place could be detrimental to your financial plan and your family if something happens to you.

If you’re single

If you’re single, you really don’t need much else other than car and health insurance. You can have a small term life policy for burial expenses if you want, but you really don’t need disability or any other expensive insurances when it’s just you.

Check here at Zander Insurance for what you need.

If you’re married

If it’s just you and your wife, there’s still not a whole lot that you need because there are no kids to support. But if you all have a house with a mortgage, I’d recommend both parties getting a 20-year term life insurance policy with 10-12X each spouse’s income. Also, make sure you have proper health insurance, car insurance, homeowner’s insurance, and disability insurance if you so choose.

Check here at Zander Insurance for what you need.

If you’re married with kids or have kids to support

But if you have a family, you need to make sure you have all of the proper insurances: term life insurance, disability insurance, health, and car insurance.

The most important of those is the term life. You need a 20-year term life insurance policy with 10-12X each spouse’s income. That will make sure each spouse could continue to take care of the children if one of you dies. Morbid, I know. But you have to be prepared.

Lastly, you need to make sure you aren’t paying an arm and a leg for them. Check here at Zander Insurance for everything you need.

20. Know your net worth

So up to this point, you should be starting to do all of the right things with money. Before you get into the next investing section, you should know what your net worth is. This is essentially a wealth score. Your net worth is all of your assets minus all of your liabilities, or what you own minus what you owe. It’s important to know this and how to add up all of your assets so that you can track this over time and continue building wealth. So here’s a quick example of how to do this.

Assets:

Paid for home: $300,000
Employer 401(k): $600,000
Paid for cars: $50,000
Emergency fund: $30,000
Other miscellaneous assets: $20,000

Liabilities:

None. No debt or anything owed.

Total net worth:

$1,000,000 million dollars.

How did I get that? 600,000 + 300,000 + 50,000 + 30,000 + 20,000 = $1,000,000. If this person had any debt you would take $1,000,000 minus the debt = total net worth. But he or she doesn’t owe anything, so this person is a net worth millionaire.

Add up everything you own and minus anything you owe to find your net worth.

21. Start investing early

So as you get closer and closer to being 30, the pressure to start investing is going to go up. I want you start investing as soon as you get out of debt. Hopefully, you’ve already gotten out of debt and have built your fully-funded emergency fund. If you haven’t, do that first. Then you can move on to investing.

When investing there are a few rules for maximizing your experience and learning the ropes. Here’s what you need to know:

Compound interest

It’s important to understand compound interest because this is going to be the driver for your wealth-building inside of your investments. Compound interest is incredible and has been called, “the 8th wonder of the world”, by the great genius Albert Einstein.

But this financial concept is simple – compound interest is when your money earns interest and then you interest earns interest. So for example, if you have $1.00 dollar invested and it makes 10% percent interest, you’ll have $1.10 and have earned .10 cents in interest. The next year, if you make 10% percent again, you will earn .11 cents, .10 cents from the original dollar and .1 cent from the interest.

And this keeps going up and up over time. The more time you have to invest, the bigger your money can grow for you. So start investing as soon as possible, because compound interest can make you very wealthy!

Only invest in things you understand

Next up is a really good piece of advice that I’ve learned recently. That is to only invest in things that you understand. So if you’ve recently gotten out of debt and still don’t quite understand the stock market or retirement accounts, you should meet up with a professional that can teach you all about 401(k)s, Roth IRAs, mutual funds, the stock market, returns, and everything else that has to do with investing.

If you don’t understand this, I recommend that you take a couple of months to learn all of it. If you really have no idea about any of it, take this short period of time and meet with a few financial advisors and learn the investing process and everything within it. You can find a great local advisor here on Ramseysolutions.com

We found ours here. Just make sure you like the advisor and that he or she has the heart of a teacher.

Always take the match

Here’s a simple concept in investing – the employer match. Employers will often match you, or give you a certain amount of money as a match, when you invest a percentage of your income into the employee-sponsored retirement plan. If a company says they will give a “5% percent match,” that just means if you invest 5% percent, they will match you and invest 5% as well. Very simple. Always take this match. It’s basically FREE money.

Invest 15% percent

Now once you’re completely out of debt with your emergency fund, you’re going to start investing 15% percent of your gross income. You gross income is you income before taxes are taken out. So if you make $100,000 dollars per year gross, and have taxes that take out about 20% percent, you’ll have about $80,000 dollars in take home pay. But you should invest 15% percent of the $100,000 dollar gross income. So you need to be investing $15,000 dollars.

This might not seem like much, but anyone can become wealthy on 15% percent. If all you did was invest $15,000 dollars for 30 years, at a 10% percent return, you would have $2.7 million dollars at retirement. That doesn’t include your spouse’s retirement or your paid for house! Wow.

But where do I put it? I recommend an employer sponsored 401(k) with a match, Roth 401(k), or Roth IRA with good growth stock mutual funds that have long track record of success.

A quick way to remember:“Match beats Roth beats Traditional.”

Think long term

Lastly, I want you to think about long-term wealth building. This game is played over the course of decades, but if you simply stay diligent and continue investing, you’ll easily win the game and become very rich.

22. Put everything on autopilot

After you’ve got your investments and everything else set, I highly encourage you to make sure everything in your financial life is put on autopilot. This is very important to do so that you can put your focus on other things like making more money and keeping your expenses down.

Put bills on autopilot so that you never miss a payment. Done. Make sure to check them every month to make sure they’re right. All good? Keep going.

Put investing and saving on autopilot so that you do it every month without fail. If you trust yourself to invest every month, you won’t. Something will come up and you’ll “need” that money. But if you automate the process, your money will automatically be invested or saved so that you can’t use it for those other, unimportant things.

Again, don’t forget to always make sure your bills and investments come out and are correct.

You can do this by:

Checking your budget every month
Adding up your net worth every month

If you do those simple things, you can essentially automate yourself to wealth. If that interests you, I highly encourage you to read the book, “The Automatic Millionaire,” by David Bach (link to Amazon).

23. Work toward owning a home

Once you’re out of debt, with a fully-funded emergency fund, investing 15% percent, and being incredibly intentional with your money, I want you to start working toward owning a home or a piece of real estate (like a townhome, apartment, or condo). Again, no real estate unless you’re COMPLETELY out of debt with a fully funded emergency fund.

Once you’re financially stable, you also need to purchase your home the right way. Put together a strong down payment of 10-20% percent of what you’re looking to buy. Try to get 20% percent so that you can avoid having to pay extra for Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI). After your down payment, your house payment needs to be no more than 25% of your take-home pay on a 15-year fixed rate mortgage. If you can get a home under all of those terms, you’re going to be financially bulletproof in only a few short years.

Owning a home is incredibly expensive. So do it the right way. You’ll have money money for your home and you can work toward getting it paid off early!

24. Find a mentor

In today’s day and age, it’s incredibly important to have a mentor. And if you’re approaching 30 years old, you need to have a financial mentor to help you navigate all aspects of your personal finances. They can also give you advice on financial decisions and can help you reach your financial goals.

A real life mentor is the best, but if you can’t find one in person, an online mentor is fine as well. For example, I follow Dave Ramsey and I consider him a mentor. Now I can’t just call him up any time I want, but I can listen to his financial advice any time I want online 24/7.

So find yourself a mentor to help you out with your finances from here on out.

25. Love what you do

One smart money move to make is to make sure that you love what you do in your full-time job. This is simple because people that love what they do often stay at their job and almost always make enough money to build wealth over time. It’s much easier to build wealth when you’re happy with what you do.

If you hate your job, find a new one. Don’t get stuck in a job you hate for your whole career. A new job might help you with the next section.

If you’re struggling in your career, check out this book here to find your life’s purpose: “From Paycheck to Purpose” by Ken Coleman (not an affiliate link – just a great book).

26. Continue increasing your income

One of the last things on this list that you need to do in your finances is continue to increase your income over time. Normally, with just regular raises that are provided to keep up with inflation, a person’s income will go up over time.

So on top of the raises at your job, do anything else that you can to keep increasing your income. The more you work, the more you make.

And the more you can continue making, the better off your finances will be over the long-term. You might even make it to millionaire status if you’re diligent enough. That’s what we’re shooting for at my house.

Here are all of the ways that you can continue increasing your income:

Raises at main job
Promotions at main job
Overtime at main job
New job (if yours isn’t allowing growth or raises)
Part-time job
Side hustle

If you do all of those and work full-time, you will always be able to increase your income.

27. Make sure you’re having a little bit of fun

After everything we’ve gone over so far, you obviously want to make sure that you’ve fixed your finances, gotten out of debt, and are being intentional with your money.

But once you’re doing all of that, don’t be afraid to give yourself some room to spend a little bit of that hard-earned money you’ve been bringing in. Because it’s okay to spend some.

Again, make sure you’re still intentional with your money, make sure your spending fits the budget, and it’s all paid for with cash (or your debit card).

The go have some fun!

28. Make sure you’re giving

If you haven’t started giving, and you’re closing in on 30, it’s time to make a change. I’m currently working on this myself. Because I’ve been so frugal for so long, it’s often tough for me to part with what I’ve got to give. But since we’ve been debt free, we’ve tried to up our giving just a little bit at a time so that it doesn’t feel overwhelming.

However, whether you’re in debt or a millionaire, giving should be something you do all the time. Why? Because it’s just the right thing to do. I know how hard it is when you don’t have much, though. But you should still try to give even if you don’t have much money. And if you don’t have any money to give, don’t forget that you can always give your time.

29. Take care of your health

One huge money move you need to make when you’re getting close to 30 years old is to make sure you’re taking care of your health. Even though this may not seem like a smart money move, I can promise you that it is. Because if you neglect your health, you’ll be paying for it soon enough (both literally and figuratively).

So now is the time to start optimizing every part of your life to take care of your health. You need to eat right, sleep enough, take vitamins, exercise, and avoid stress as much as possible. To do this, you might need to spend a little bit of money. That’s okay, because if you don’t take care of yourself, you’ll be spending thousands of dollars in medical expenses down the road.

This is something that I’ve really taken for granted up to 30. But luckily, it hasn’t affected me too much. So even if you feel good, really try to take care of yourself. As you hit 30, your body is going to eventually slow down and if you don’t take care of yourself, your body just won’t keep up

Before 30, I ate poorly, didn’t sleep enough, didn’t recover from the gym, drank too much, and had bad habits all over the place. So now my body is telling me that I have to take care of myself and it’s costing me a little bit more these days. So take care of your health early and your body will thank you down the line.

30. Understand that you still have time left

The last smart money move on this list concerns the time that you have left. If you’re closing in on 30, it might seem like you’re getting older, but realistically you have A LOT of time left. It’s only 30. You’ve got your 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and maybe more!

So there’s no rush to any of this. Too many people want to get rich immediately or overnight. Well, for the majority of us, that’s not going to happen. There are others that think it’s get rich quick or never get rich.

Here’s the thing: all of those are wrong.

Here’s the truth: ANYONE can get rich slowly over time, no matter what your income is.

No matter how old you are, you still have time left. If you’re about to be 30, you’ve got plenty of time left. You might be a little behind but you still have decades left to get your finances together and invest. But don’t wait. Start working on your finances TODAY!

Extra: start saving for kids college (if applicable)

The last thing on this list is to start saving for your kids college (if applicable). I know that most people around my age (30 years old) are either knee deep in dirty diapers or will be having kids very soon. So if you’re closing in on 30, and you already have kids, it’s time to start up a college savings plan for them. Because this is insanely important and can give them an awesome head start in life if they do pursue higher education.

When starting a college fund, you’re going to want to use a 529 College Savings Plan using mutual funds. This tends to be the best option for most people and is super easy to start up. You can also start an ESA, or Education Savings Account as well. Both options are fine.

Now the amount of money you put in depends on your specific situation. If your child is young like mine, you don’t have to put as much in. Over time, you can contribute more like we plan to do. If your kid is older or close to going to college, you may have to add more and start thinking about college choice (public only), community college, your kid getting a job while in school, and your kid working hard to get scholarships. Obviously, there’s a lot that goes into each specific situation.

But whatever your college situation looks like, try to do something (after you get your debt paid off). Set an amount and stick to it every month. We do $100 dollars per month and plan to increase that over time.

Lastly, if you’re struggling to invest and do kids college, just get your investing on track first. That’s the most important for you. Because you’re going to retire. But your kid may or may not go to college. I encourage you to do both, but if you can only do one, make sure that you’re investing your 15% percent. Then you can get to kids college later.

But if this doesn’t apply to you, move on. Only open a 529 if you currently have a kid.

Finally

Hopefully you’ve been able to get something out of this post. Because the 30 smart money moves above are some of the best things that you can do for your overall financial picture. So if you want to seriously change your life from 30, make sure that you implement some of the moves above to fix any past mistakes and bulletproof your finances.