Thinking about your financial future isn’t something only “older” adults do. In fact, the younger you are when you think about your finances, the better shape you’ll be in for your present and future. Managing and preparing your finances will look different at different ages/times in your life, especially if your martial status changes, you have children, own property, or want to go back to school. In short, it’s always a smart idea to think about your finances at any age! Different times in your life require different plans and moves with your money to set yourself up for success in reaching specific financial goals.

Our financial experts at Montoya Financial Strategies help people at different stages in their life with the planning of finances – we work with all kinds of financial goals whether it’s for saving for retirement or a saving for a college fund. Our clients work with a financial planning advisor who can help them get in control of their financial future whether they’re 25 or 55. We help these individuals establish clear, realistic goals for success while staying on track with these goals.

With that said, we wanted to share with you financial advice, tips, and moves you can make depending on your age decade.

Finances in Your 20’s

In your 20’s, you have your whole life ahead of you, so it’s the perfect time to start planning to get a head start. During your 20’s, you’re learning to live on your own, who you are, and how to be “real adult.” Financially bad decisions may occur, but you can recover from them! This is your time to change bad spending habits. At this time, start to make saving money a priority so credit card debt won’t become an issue. You’ll want to create a budget that allows you to enjoy going out while also saving, especially in case an emergency occurs.

Finances in Your 30’s

During this decade, you can do your primary investing and it’s the right time to be focused. Some say that in your 30’s saving 15% of your income could put you in a much better position for retirement. You’re still young in your 30’s, so you have plenty of time to save, invest, and grow your money. During this decade, you’ll still budget and work toward many goals. You’ll also learn what to focus on and what’s more important. For example, if you are looking to buy a home, you may have to take less vacations or at least less-expensive vacations until you reach your goal.

Finances in Your 40’s

By the time you reach your 40’s, you could have a lot of money if you prioritized saving the decade or two before. Your 40’s is an ideal time to think about a retirement plan. A financial advisor can help show you where your savings progress is and whether you can continue to cruise along or need to ramp up what you’re saving. If you focused on putting 15% of your income to retirement, this could be a good time to shift extra money to other goals like a college fund, wedding fund, or vacations.

If you have multiple retirement accounts, try to bring them all together (especially if they are from previous jobs), so you don’t forget about them. You could transfer old balances into a rollover IRA or into your company sponsored plan.

Finances in Your 50’s

In your 50’s, you can contribute more to 401(k)s and IRAs than in your younger years – this is known as a catch-up contribution. You can put an extra $6,000 into a 401(k) and an extra $1,000 into an IRA each year, which makes the contribution limits to $25,000 for a 401(k) and $7,000 for an IRA in 2019. This is extremely helpful if you weren’t as good about saving in your younger years.

Finances in Your 60’s

In your 60’s, there’s a good chance you’re retiring. When you approach or get into this decade, you need to decide when you will stop working and if you will work part-time. You need to figure out how much money you will receive from Social Security and how much you need to take out of retirement accounts to live off. During retirement, we believe that it may not be a good idea to immediately shift your investments into cash or fixed-income – you may still want your money to grow through your retirement, so we think it’s a good idea to keep half of your money in equity investments.

Looking for a Financial Planning Help?

Saving can be hard at any age, especially if you’re not used to doing it. It’s critical to know what you should be doing financially at ever stage of your life to set yourself up for financial success. Let a professional financial planner help guide you in the process to successfully save for the future. Our team at Montoya Financial will help you organize all your financial information into an easy-to-understand format. We take the big picture into consideration and help you understand all aspects that may affect your financial goals. At Montoya Financial Strategies, we have more than 30 years of experience helping our clients plan for their futures! We want to help you get a hold of your finances. Click our financial planning page to learn more or call us at 800-965-5554.