At our age, getting your financial life in order is one of the smartest decisions you will ever make. Let’s face it: many Americans have poor financial habits. How can you avoid making the same mistakes your parents made? As a young American, it might seem impossible to reach financial goals like early retirement, buying a boat and sailing around the world, or owning a home.

Don’t despair! You are perfectly poised to take the world by storm.

First off, you have the means to take control now. Unless you have kids, your expenses are dictated by you and you alone. You have marketable skills that employers are more and more willing to pay for. You are entering a shrinking workforce, as our parents reach retirement age. And you have flexibility: if you decide to pick up and move from Boston to LA, what’s stopping you?

Furthermore, if you make smart decisions now, you have many years to reap the benefits. For example, you are probably going to want to retire someday, and that is going to take dollars. Treated properly, every dollar that you invest today may reap twenty to fifty dollars by the time you are ready to retire.  Conversely, every dollar wasted on bank fees, servicing credit card debt, or high insurance premiums represents a lost opportunity of the same magnitude.

Simply put, reaching long-term financial goals is easier for quarterlifers - only by making the right decisions now!

Despite all this, the prospect of building your financial future can still be daunting. It doesn’t need to be. Over the next few weeks, we will go through some simple steps that will help you get your financial life in order and build good habits that will serve you well for the rest of your life. Briefly, those steps are:

1. Take stock and get organized.
2. Start saving to reach your goals.
2. Audit your expenses.
3. Manage your debt.
5. Buy a house.
6. Reap the rewards!

Once we’ve covered these basics, we will take a closer look at the details - but that can wait for another day. Along the way, I’ll share money-saving deals, tax tips, and other interesting tidbits that I’ve found useful, and answer any questions you may have.

Of course, everything presented here represents my opinion, and may or may not be applicable to your unique situation. Take everything I say with a grain of salt, compare it against what you are currently doing, and question me if you feel otherwise. Be aware that investments I recommend may plummet, tax strategies may not apply to you….in short, you are responsible for the decisions you make.

Thank you for your interest, and I am looking forward to helping you lay a financial groundwork for your future!