I'm a financial planner — here are the best 7 pieces of advice I can give you about money in your 30s (2024)

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1. Live well below your means

You've probably heard the advice to live below your means. This is a good place to start, but it's not enough if you want to grow real wealth.

If you earn $5,000 per month and spend $4,999 of it, technically, you are living below your means. You're not overspending in the sense that you're not spending more than you earn. As a result, you're probably not racking up debt and you're doing okay.

But "doing okay" and "being wealthy" are two very, very different things. If you're after the latter, then you need to live as far below your means as possible.

The bigger you can make the gap between what you earn and what you spend — meaning, your actual spending is far below the amount of money you take home each month — the faster you'll reach your financial goals (if you save and invest the surplus from your cash flow).

Which leads me to my next piece of advice that you should act on if you want to reach financial success.

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2. Focus on percentage of income saved, not the dollar amount

Let's say you earn $5,000 per month and you save and invest $1,500 of that money. That's a big chunk of your earnings and an impressive amount to put away every month.

But what happens when you start earning more money? What if you started earning $6,500 per month — but you didn't change how much you saved?

If you spent the extra instead, you became a victim of lifestyle creep, or lifestyle inflation. Lifestyle creep will kill your dreams of financial success faster than almost anything else.

Over the long term, it's not as much about the dollar amount you save, but the percentage of your income that you dedicate to saving and investing.

By focusing on percentages, you can ensure you're always saving more as you earn more. It’s also great way to compare your savings habits to people at different income levels.

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3. Spend time tracking and reviewing your money

The biggest mistake I see people make with their money? Being reactive instead of proactive.

Most people spend their lives reacting to their finances. It's easy to just ignore your money as long as nothing is going seriously wrong. If you have enough to buy what you want, why worry?

The problem with that approach is that you rely on chance to have enough money in the bank when you actually need it — like when you want to travel, or buy a home, or quit your job, or retire.

Money tends to leave when we fail to pay attention to it.

Be intentional about your money and spend time reviewing and evaluating it. If you don't, you'll never know if you're moving in the right direction or not. It's like going on a hike without a compass.

Book time in your calendar every month to review your finances. When you take the time to look over all your spending, your accounts, and your net worth, it forces you to think about your actions. You can then become more mindful of your habits and behaviors.

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4. Don't just diversify your portfolio —diversify where you invest

You already get plenty of advice to save for retirement by funding your 401(k), IRA, or other employer-sponsored retirement plan. Do take advantage of these opportunities to save and invest for your future.

These are some of the easiest ways to make sure you'll have enough money to retire. But they're not the only way you should invest.

Retirement accounts weren't built for people to grow their wealth. Retirement accounts were built as forced savings vehicles so people could insure they'd have income down the road.

The government created tax-advantaged retirement accounts to incentivize people to save more money because not everyone gets enough from Social Security and pensions are pretty much dead.

Retirement accounts are a good thing — for retirement. Remember, you'll be penalized if you touch that money before a certain age. That could be decades away if you're in your 20s, 30s, or 40s.

I believe you should be able to live well today while still planning responsibly for that far-off future. That means using lots of other avenues for growing wealth. Diversify not just your portfolio within your 401(k), but also where you invest.

The right places to invest outside your retirement accounts will depend on your goals, but some options include taxable brokerage accounts, real estate (as in investment properties, not a single-family home that you live in), or creating additional types of income streams.

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5. Don’t spend more, spend better

People often believe that with more money coming in, they can spend more. You're technically right about that — but where you may be going wrong is thinking that spending more provides more satisfaction and/or happiness.

The truth? Money doesn't provide those things… unless you focus on buying what you value.

Everyone has their own unique values. What works for me may not work for you (and vice versa). You run into financial trouble when decide that you should spend money just like everyone else.

When you see someone else get enjoyment out of an expensive trip to a tropical island, you spend on the same thing thinking it will provide you with the same level of happiness. It might.

But when we spend on what we think we "should" or on things just to impress or please others, more money and more spending usually just makes us miserable.

Stop and think about what you value. We're talking core values here; things like Community or Family or Growth or Learning.

The more you think through spending before it happens, the more intentional you can be with money. And the more you align your spending with what you value, the happier you'll be with what you purchase.

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6. Know when you need a financial planner (and when you don’t)

If you're like most people, you might struggle to commit to going to the gym 4 or 5 times a week.

Even if you get there, you face the challenge of knowing exactly what exercises to do — and you may not push yourself as hard as you can truly go because it's really uncomfortable to make yourself work that hard!

You know how hard it can be to get up and get yourself to the gym for a good, hard, effective workout for just one day.

That doesn't even account for all the extra stuff you need to do before you can claim those six-pack abs, like getting your diet just right and making sure you balance your workouts with proper rest and recovery.

All of this can be said of your finances, too. It's tough to commit to doing the right thing over and over and over again. It's hard to know all the right moves to make all the time. It's exhausting to dedicate yourself to doing this consistently over time without fail.

A personal trainer can make the difference between success and failure with your fitness goals. A financial planner can make the difference between reaching or falling short with your financial goals.

A good financial planner and a good personal trainer will both:

• Take the time to listen so they can answer questions, address concerns, and understand your goals.

• Develop a customized plan to help you get from where you are to where you want to be.

• Give you peace of mind that you're doing the right thing to reach your goals once you start taking action.

• Provide guidance, education, and coaching as you need it.

• Hold you accountable to the actions you need to take to reach the goals you want to achieve.

A financial planner can add a lot of value and can help you build a greater amount of wealth than you could if you tried to do everything on your own.

That being said, not everyone needs a planner. Just as there are some people who are fully dedicated to their gym routine, you might be passionate about your finances and managing your money yourself.

If you're willing to put in the work and commit to the process of growing wealth on your own, go for it.

But if you think you could benefit from having someone provide guidance and act as a coach, sounding board, and confidant along the way, look for a fee-only financial planner willing to work as your fiduciary 100 percent of the time.

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7. The way to financial success is simple (so don't complicate it)

At the end of the day, my best advice comes down to this: keep it simple. There are a lot of professionals and companies out there who make personal finance and financial success sound really difficult and complex, but that's probably because they have a product they want to sell you to solve all your problems.

Financial success comes down to very small, simple actions that you take consistently over time. You don't build wealth overnight. It's a long-term process that requires some patience and discipline, which isn't always easy to find.

But the good news is that anyone can build wealth if they're willing to stick to some core best practices for money management:

1. Focus on your habits. Be intentional with your spending and saving.

2. Avoid get-rich-quick schemes. Building wealth happens over time, not in days or even months.

3. Seek guidance from experts or people who have successfully grown wealth — not the guy by the water cooler at work who always has a hot stock pick you should buy.

Take these steps. Then rinse and repeat. If you can stick with the process over time, you'll put yourself in a better position to meet your financial goals and successfully grow your wealth.

Eric Roberge is a certified financial planner and the founder of Beyond Your Hammock.