Hey everyone! As a little background, I'm 20 years old about to be a senior in the fall at my local east-coast University studying computer science. After my undergrad, I plan on going an extra year to do an accelerated master's degree program due to my high GPA (3.8+)
I have a fully paid off car, currently am living with my father so no rent, the only monthly payment I have is 1/3 of my car insurance. The only debt I have is my student loans that my scholarships didn't pay for (I made sure they're subsidized loans so I'm not accruing interest until after school) I've also built a credit score of about 850 and my credit cards are paid off.
While being a full-time student, I also have a part-time job that I do Friday-Sunday while I go to school the rest of the week. My job is in the IT field working entry-level with software developers, I make about $16/hour working about 25-30 hours a week.
That's my background ... I have no investment accounts or retirement (my work doesn't match or provide benefits for part-time employees). I've been doing a little research from people like David Ramsey and Ramit, listening to some personal finance podcasts, from my understanding I should first start by budgeting and making sure I'm smart with my money, then have an emergency fund, then since my work doesn't match I see no point in a 401k, so I should probably start a Roth IRA and start working towards a retirement fund, and then after I should start on an investment portfolio? Is having a financial advisor necessary?
Do any of you have any tips for me? Maybe some steps I'm missing? Recommended websites or books or anything to research? I don't want to be like most people living paycheck to paycheck and not have a secure and smart financial future. Unfortunately my dad is one of those people that lives paycheck to paycheck and doesn't know much about finance. I want to be able to learn and teach him in the process.
Submitted August 02, 2017 at 08:44AM by anonymouspsy http://ift.tt/2wlvHbJ
