Money is something that most people can't handle and that included me as well but thankfully I started to follow some rules that helped me to get a grip and start to get a handle on my Finances so that I could be Financially Stable in Life. Even though I am not at all Financially Stable as of right now I can proudly say that I am on my way towards that destination.
First of all, if you have just got your first paycheck then I would suggest you go ahead and buy something nice for your parents as they deserve it and after that, you can also enjoy a couple more months' worth of salary on yourself as you deserve it. But after that three months, you should get ready for your Financial Planning as that will lead you towards Future Stability.
GET HEALTH AND LIFE INSURANCE
The first thing you should do is to get yourself Health Insurance and a Life Insurance Policy as that will be a safety net for any Accidents that come down the road and at that point in time you definitely don't want to dip into your Investments for help. As for the type of Policy get Term Insurance as it is always better than Endowment Policies 95% of the time. I have previously told you how term plans are more beneficial than endowment plans so I am not elaborating that here.
MAKE SAVING YOUR HABIT
This is going to be quite tough but I would really recommend you to save money as it's your second nature and make it your habit so that whenever you see some X amount in your Bank Account which is sitting idle you just Invest that Money into whatever you feel comfortable in. Ideally saving 30% of your Salary should be awesome but I also know that 30% is not possible every single month but take 30% as your Savings Target and try to achieve that every single month.
START AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE
Start your Journey towards savings as soon as possible as Time is only your Ally when it comes to saving money as the longer time you have the longer your money will compound and grow. So starting from the very first year you get a job is ideal. You can start as low as 100 INR for the first year and then slowly start to increase that amount according to your comfort level. In my case, I started with 1000 INR for the first 6 months, and then I added some more Money to my Monthly Savings.
DONT GET SCARED DUE TO LOW SALARY
Everyone in the world doesn't get the same salary and variance of salary is widely common but that doesn't mean that if you have a low salary you are not supposed to save anything. If your salary is 5000 INR then try to save at least 500 INR per month or even 100 INR as in the long run this small amount will give you quite the return.
NO DEBT RULE
I know that in life taking on some debt is pretty much normal whether it is House Loan or an Educational Loan. But I would really suggest not take any debt in your life but if you have to take debt then make sure that you repay that debt as quickly as possible even if it means pausing your Investments for some period of time. As debt eats away your Investment in many ways so it's better to quickly pay off debt so that you can focus on your investments later on.
BUILD YOUR EMERGENCY FUND
Even though I preach the logic of an Emergency Fund I still don't have one but even then I will say that having an Emergency Fund that covers at least 6 months of your Expenses is an absolute must if you want to keep your Investment safe and sound.
MAKE YOUR OWN RETIREMENT CORPUS
The amount you need for Retirement varies from person to person. For example, 1 Crore may be enough retirement corpus for most of us but there are still people in this world who will not be satisfied with just a 1 Crore Corpus for Retirement. So you need to calculate how much amount you need as your Retirremnet Corpus and plan your Investments accordingly.
