Ask the Bitches: How Can I Make Myself Financially Secure Before Age 30?

Our beloved darlings of Tumblr ask the best questions. And we love answering them because the Tumblr kids are simply inspiring in their determination to get good at adulting. Some of our answers spin out into novel-length screeds on finance, feminism, and figuring shit out. And sometimes they ask us for help with the most quintessential financial problems. Like, how does one become financially secure before age 30?

Loyal follower of the Bitches pallid-etoiles asked: 

Hey BGR! (Sue me I acronymed it.) (Please don’t.)

What are your wise ways of making yourself financially secure before you hit 30? What’s the best way to start financially with limited experience as a 17-year-old who hasn’t any of the knowledge of what to do on her own?

– A Tumblr follower on the Bitches Get Riches Tumblr

How indeed?

The fact that you’re even thinking about this at age 17 means you win ALL THE AWARDS! Seriously, this is a great time to start prepping for your future. You’re way ahead of the game by even reading finance blogs. Let alone trying to get your shit together and become financially secure!

Here’s our step-by-step advice for a teenager to get financially secure by age 30.

While you’re still in high school

1. Get a job 

Right now. You can wait tables or work retail or do manual labor. Or you can start your own money-making venture. Try babysitting, doing yard work for your neighbors, tutoring, walking dogs, running errands for the elderly, or selling crafts. Whatever. Just get an income stream that’s all your own and start adding to it aggressively.

If you can’t get a job, for whatever reason, consider volunteering or focusing on developing practical skills instead.

• How to Frame Volunteering on Your Resume When You’ve Never Had a Job
• Our Best Secrets for a Successful, Strategic, and SHORT Job Search
• How to Write a Resume so You Actually Have a Prayer of Getting Hired 
• How to Write a Cover Letter like You Actually Want the Job

2. Get banked

If you don’t yet have your own bank accounts, get them. You’ll want a checking account (where you can withdraw money regularly to pay for your expenses) and a high yield savings account (which will earn literally 1000% more interest than a standard savings account at your regional bank).

These accounts must be all your own. If you have a joint account with your parents, or if they have access to your accounts in any way, you need to either cut them out or start new accounts when you turn 18. I’m sure your parents are lovely and wonderful. But don’t risk ending up like my friend whose mother regularly stole money from his account to pay her bills after he got his first job.

• Not Every Savings Account Is Created Equal
• What’s the Difference Between Savings and Checking Accounts, and How Should I Be Using Them?
• From HYSAs to CDs, Here’s How to Level Up Your Financial Savings

3. Start building credit 

It’s harder than ever to get approved for a credit card, so at your age you might need to start with a secured credit card. That’s ok, as it’ll be a really safe way to build credit without living outside your means. Use it to buy gas or your bus ticket or another regular expense you have to pay for anyway.

• A Hand-Holding Guide to Getting Your First Credit Card
• Let’s End This Damaging Misconception About Credit Cards
• How to Build Good Credit Without Going Into Debt

4. Consider a budget 

The easiest way to do this is to track your expenses and income for a few months. From there, you can see about how much you need to live on from month to month. Assuming you’re still living with your parents, your expenses should be very low. Put the rest of your income into your savings account.

• Budgets Don’t Work for Everyone—Try the Spending Tracker System Instead
• Season 1, Episode 7: “I’m Terrible at Budgeting. Do I Suck It Up—Or Is There Another Way?”

5. Identify a career focus

You should determine the return on investment (ROI) of various college degrees, trade schools, and such before you decide where you head next. Research not just what the job entails, but how much money you can expect to make. If you’re between multiple options, pick the one that gives you the most future flexibility. Which usually means the more lucrative one.

If financial security by thirty is your goal, minimize your college expenses. Meanwhile, you should maximize your potential earnings by choosing a field of study and school with a high ROI. I… didn’t do this. And I regret it!

• High School Students Have No Way of Knowing What Career to Choose. Why Do We Make Them Do It Anyway?
• The Actually Helpful, Nuanced, Non-Bullshit Way to Choose a Future Career 
• How to Pay for College without Selling Your Soul to the Devil

6. Decide on college

Think carefully about whether or not you’ll go to college immediately after graduating high school. You could take a year off to continue earning money and real world experience. Or you could skip higher education altogether.

There’s no right answer here—but I do think getting an education eventually will be incredibly valuable to you. And yes, I mean that literally, financially. Look into all your options before settling on a school and program, including community college, a trade school, a state university, an apprenticeship, and going to school abroad.

• Your College Major May Not Prepare You for Your Job—but It Can Prepare You for Life
• High School Students Have No Way of Knowing What Career to Choose. Why Do We Make Them Do It Anyway?

After high school

1. Continue working

After high school, you should keep earning an income if at all possible. Keep putting money away in your savings account even if you need to adjust your budget when you leave home. (I’m assuming you live with your parents now, and won’t after you graduate high school.) 

I worked as a nanny making $20 an hour all during college. As a result, I graduated with enough of a nest egg to afford to move across the country and cover my expenses for a few months while I got my career going. I did this job while maintaining a near perfect GPA and graduating with high honors (as Kitty would attest, I had no life in college). Balancing school and a job is hard, so be realistic with yourself and adjust accordingly.

2. Avoid buying a car

If you can avoid it, don’t buy a fucking car. They’re money pits. If you absolutely need one, buy used. Otherwise, public transit is your friend. Look at those long bus and train rides as the perfect time for uninterrupted studying. You don’t want to make eye contact with your fellow public transit commuters anyway. That way lies madness.

• The Joys of Getting Around Without a Damn Car
• Understand the Hidden Costs of Travel and Avoid Them Like the Plague 
• Buying a Car with the Bitches, Part 1: How to Choose Your Car 
• Buying a Car with the Bitches, Part 2: How to Pay for Your Car 

3. Live with roommates

Embrace the roommate lifestyle. You’ll save more of your money and be able to afford a better lifestyle if you join forces with other young people during and after college.

I lived with six people and two dogs in a four-bedroom house my first two years after college. My rent and utilities were a fraction of what they would’ve been if I lived in a studio or one bedroom apartment by myself. Sure, I was constantly asking “Who moved my milk/shoes/travel mug/backpack/mail/library books?” but that was half the fun!

4. Start an IRA

Start a Roth IRA. This is basically the independent retirement account of choice for lower income people. You can start one regardless of your employment status (though it must be funded with earned income). You’ll usually need $1,000 to begin investing, so save that up in your savings account, then transfer it over. And remember: you can’t touch this money until you retire, so factor that into your budget.

And don’t forget to allocate the funds and set up an automatic deposit!

5. Minimize your food bill

Join your grocery store’s loyalty program. It’ll give you access to sales and coupons non-members don’t have, and it costs you nothing. So without it you’re literally leaving free money on the table. Buy store brand and generic instead of the fancy name brand stuff and follow our other tips to hack that grocery bill!

• How to Shop for Groceries Like a Boss
• Why Name Brand Products Are Beneath You: The Honor and Glory of Buying Generic

6. Live frugally 

This means buying generic instead of name brand products, shopping at thrift stores, and being intentional about your entertainment costs. The hardest part will be saying no to your friends when they want to spend a lot of money to hang out. Be strong. Don’t give in.

• 7 Totally Reasonable Ways To Save Money on Cheap Entertainment
• Almost Everything Can Be Purchased Secondhand
• Slay Your Financial Vampires

7. Stay healthy 

Things like cancer, chronic disease, and accidents are beyond your control. But outside of these factors, if you treat your body well it will be much cheaper to maintain. So eat lots of plants, drink lots of water, and establish a reasonable exercise regimen that doesn’t involve a gym membership. Barring the unavoidable, this will keep you healthy and out of the hospital… where they’ll bleed you dry of your savings.

Be sure to peep our recommendations for staying healthy on the cheap:

• Ask the Bitches: Ugh, How Do I Build the Habit of Taking Meds? 
• Our Master List of 100% Free Mental Health Self-Care Tactics
• { MASTERPOST } Everything You Need to Know about Self-Care 

8. Learn to cook

You should absolutely learn to cook. Sweet fucking crispy jibbers who art in the ocean, you will save SO MUCH MONEY by making the majority of your food at home. Eating out is unnecessarily expensive. The cost of takeout is ludicrous. Just buy yourself some staples, bookmark some frugal recipe blogs like Budget Bytes and the Budget Epicurean, and make yourself a meal.

When the rest of the world considers you an adult

1. Get a grown up job 

Life isn’t fair, and the plain and simple truth of the matter is that some jobs pay more than others. If you made a wise choice on the ROI of your education, you could be making a lot of money by the time you’re thirty.

Push yourself to apply for high-paying jobs, even if you’re not 100% qualified. Get your foot in the door at companies in high-paying industries. You’ll start at an entry level job, but you shouldn’t stay there for longer than two years. And on that note…

• Job Hopping vs. Career Loyalty by the Numbers
• The Fascinating Results of Our Job Hopping vs. Career Loyalty Poll
• Santa Isn’t Coming and Neither Is Your Promotion: How To Get Promoted

2. Ask for a raise

Ask for a raise every six months. Studies show that people who ask for raises get them more often than people who don’t. So you have nothing to lose and so much to gain by asking, even if it’s terrifying and nerve-wracking. Think of it this way: they can’t say no unless you give them the chance to say yes.

• Salary Range: Are You Asking for Enough?
• A Millennial’s Guide to Growing Your Salary
• The First Time I Asked for a Raise
• You Need Really Need To Ask for a Raise. Here’s How.

3. Keep moving and stay hungry

Keep applying for a better job. If you’re going to be financially flush by thirty, you need to move up the ladder as quickly as possible. And this means job hopping your way to prosperity. Even if you’re employed, apply for at least one job a month that could increase your salary or put you on a direct path to a higher salary. Nothing will stagnate your salary and career like staying in one place too long.

4. Invest for retirement

Use your company’s 401(k) and/or 403(b) program. If you don’t, you’re losing money in three different ways. So just fucking sign up for it as soon as you’re hired. You won’t miss the little bit of money that’s not going to your paycheck if you never got it in the first place.

• Do NOT Make This Disastrous Beginner Mistake With Your Retirement Funds
• Dafuq Is a Retirement Plan and Why Do You Need One?
• Procrastinating on Opening a Retirement Account? Here’s 3 Ways That’ll Fuck You Over.

5. Don’t rush into marriage or children

If you want to get married or have kids, that’s totally fine. But there’s absolutely no need to rush, as both of these things come with all kinds of expenses. It will be monumentally harder to be financially secure by thirty if you have to do it with dependents or another person affecting your personal finances.

• You Don’t Have To Have Kids 
• The Most Impactful Financial Decision I’ve Ever Made… and Why I Don’t Recommend It 
• How To Get Married: Bureaucracy, Finances, and Legal Paperwork To Do Before “I Do”
• The Only Advice You’ll Ever Need for a Cheap-Ass Wedding

6. Stay out of debt

Debt is unavoidable for some people. Especially if you need student loans to get an education. You certainly won’t get judgment from me! But it doesn’t have to be a permanent way of life. At the very least, you should stay out of credit card debt. 

Once you’re in your twenties and you have a solid track record of paying bills, you’ll be in a much better position to apply for a regular credit card. I recommend you get a rewards card that offers you cash back or travel reimbursement (I have the Capital One Venture card and I love it). BUT… you have to be responsible with it. Pay it off in full and on time every month and you’ll easily build credit without going into debt.

• The Financial Order of Operations: 10 Great Money Choices for Every Stage of Life
• How To Save for Retirement When You Make Less Than $30,000 a Year

It won’t be easy

The road to being financially secure is just lousy with potholes. You’re going to fuck up. You’re going to have accidents and completely unforeseen bad things are going to happen to you. You’ll get sick, or your family will need you, or you won’t get that job you were counting on, or you’ll lose a bunch of money.

Here’s the thing though…

You will not give up.

At no point are you allowed to roll over and content yourself with mediocrity because succeeding is too difficult. You’re going to get creative. You’ll find new and innovative ways around the roadblocks in your way. You’re going to look around you at those assholes who have it easier than you and who don’t understand a fraction of what you have to deal with. And you’re going to know that you are stronger.

You have been forged in the fires of adversity and that experience has made you nigh unstoppable. Making it to thirty with a fat bank account and a well-ordered life makes you a certifiable badass. But doing it in the face of hardship and heartache and numerous setbacks? That makes you mighty.

Open your arms wide to the coming hardships. Look the steaming pile of garbage that is life in the face and say, “You will not break me.”

We believe in you. You’re going to be great.

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A version of this article was originally published on December 11, 2017.