Important tips to use from now on….
Congratulations! You’ve been hired and are now in the workforce earning your own money for a job well done.
The following tips are each very important on their own and can, and should, be continued to be followed all throughout your working years….right up to retirement. And as a whole is good solid advice which will over the years save you time and money.
Whether you’re paid directly in cash, or a check where you cash it at your bank, or have it direct deposited, the advice is the same.
First and most important…… Pay. Yourself. First.
That means, however you are paid, and whatever you are paid, save something, hopefully at least 10%, for yourself…… not to spend, but to put away in a savings account and kept and added to each and every time you get paid.
The next is to save your W2 slips from each year you work, and from each job you work….. if you work one job, save one slip (each year), if you work 2 or 3 jobs, save 2 or 3 slips etc. Just keep them in a folder or some filing system you may have. They are proof you worked and contributed to your future Social Security and Medicare taxes. If they, for some reason, don’t have a record you worked a particular job, you can, using your W2, show proof you did… and raise your Social Security income for that working that job.
If you have a charge card, use it diligently. That means….. do not purchase anything you can’t pay for when the bill comes due. The idea is to pay your charges in full and on time each month. If you don’t, you will quickly, very quickly, fall into the financial debt hole which can and does take years and wasted money paid by you to climb out. Don’t do that to yourself.
Again, congratulations!