If you are just starting off with organizing your personal finance, or restarting from scratch, here is a step by step way to get started.
Most of the times, we get started haphazardly, the first account in the local bank or the ad-hoc insurance policy or even the next stock tip forces us to open a brokerage account.
However there is a need to get started in a more planned way.
When I moved to the US couple of years back, the below is how I setup my money system. I had a similar one running in India for a long time and it has given me very good results.
Here is the starter kit that you need to get organized and get started.
Since it is built in a systematic manner, it will help you automatically organize and keep your finances in order.
A checking account
This is the first step as you need a place to deposit your income, be it direct deposit from your employer or you get checks at the end of the month.
Get a simple checking account at a Credit Union which provides you with a basic ATM and Debit card. Try to find a credit union or bank which has very low fees. Obviously they will have some like overdraft fees that we will anyway avoid, but others like ATM access are something unavoidable, so shop around a little.
This is where all your income will come in and get deposited.
A credit card
We are going to be responsible spenders, right? If not, do not get this and use your debit card from your checking account.
The key to being a responsible spender is to make a budget, stick to it and pay off the credit card bill in full every month. Lets just assume you agree to all of this.
There are many credit cards in the market with various features like cash back, travel rewards etc.
As a starter kit, you will just get one from the same bank or credit union where you hold your checking account. The reason is ease of payments and setting up automatic transfers from your checking account to pay it off at end of month.
The bonus will be of course if the card also has generous cash back benefits or other similar perks. But get a free one and not one with annual fee loaded just for extra perks.
The credit card will be your main expense vehicle. It gives you automatic fraud protection, insurance and easier account tracking.
Budgeting
If you do not do any further, you have setup the very basic system. You earn money which get deposited into the checking account, you spend with your credit card (on a budget!!) and your checking account pays it off every month.
But this sounds like living paycheck to paycheck or Living on the Edge, right?
We are going to do better – save and invest.
First what we need is a planner. As the above system of checking account and credit card gets working in a flow, you will start getting an idea of how much you are spending every month.
For the next 2-3 months, track your spending to categorize your money into only 4 parts.
- Food and Dining
- Utilities and Transportation
- Clothing and miscellaneous
- Surplus
You will automatically get motivated to squeeze the first 3 categories and increase your surplus every month.
Check out this post on how to budget: Budget – Grow the tree upside-down
The above technique will help you generate surplus for both savings and investment, make it your goal to only increase it and not fall back to paycheck to paycheck cycle.
Savings Account
There are unexpected events or expenses that will always come up. You need to be prepared for it and the only way is to build up a cash cushion.
This is similar to Dave Ramsey’s first 3 baby steps, where you start with saving $1000, then get out of debt (hopefully you have none if you started with this) and finally build a cushion of 3-6 months of expenses.
I use an online savings account like CapitalOne 360, Ally Bank or Synchrony. There are many others, and online banks provide little more interest on your deposits than brick-and-mortar banks, or the one where you have your checking account.
Setup an automatic transfer of your Surplus from your checking account to this Savings account. Set this up for beginning of the month, so that your budget works with just the right amount needed (to pay off the credit card at end of month).
Investment Account
Get to this step only when you have a running budget, able to generate surplus consistently and stacked up 3-6 months of expenses in your savings account.
From here on, you become a pro in personal finance as you are about to invest and grow your net worth.
There are two main investment accounts, a retirement account and brokerage account.
Contact your employer for a 401k (Pretax or Roth) account and contribute to it, if there is a match. If this exhausts your projected surplus, no worries you have got started.
If there is still surplus, good news. Open a brokerage account in one of Schwab, Vanguard or Fidelity. Preferably open a Roth IRA account if your income is within eligible limits.
Then invest in one or two broad index funds with very low expense ratio (< 0.05).
Here is a classic 3-fund portfolio from Vanguard index funds.
- Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTSAX)
- Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund (VTIAX)
- Vanguard Total Bond Market Fund (VBTLX)
Similar portfolio can be constructed from Schwab Funds too.
https://www.wallstreetphysician.com/three-fund-portfolio-using-schwab-index-funds-etfs
Managing and growing the investments
You have done a great job in the above steps and at par with average disciplined investors.
In investment world, “average” is what wins. If you get average returns of 8-9% over a very long time (decades), there is nothing more you need to do.
To know how to structure and maintain your investment accounts, read this blog post
Investing in the High Five portfolio
Conclusion
The above is a simple 5-step process to take you from a personal finance newbie to a disciplined investor and saver. Taking action in a systematic way is the key to financial bliss.
If you need motivation to get started, read this:
The Log House 