Hi anon,
I'm going to give some general pointers here.
1) Don't worry about where you are now. Seek to grow your human capital. The fastest way to accelerate your financial standing is to rapidly grow your income, especially in the first 5-10 years where you can really scale your salary. With more salary, you will have more firepower to invest for your needs
2) Grow your knowledge. You still have time on your side. With knowledge comes the ability to understand what asset classes/investments may or may not suit you. Speak with an independent financial advisor who can provide you with the means to access the asset classes to understand more.
3) Tidy up your personal finance. Review your coverage now that you have started working, plug any gaps you may have, and start to build your emergency fund. Again, an independent advisor will be able to help you in this area.
4) Work on finding the job/role that you really love. You will be the average of the 5 people you hang around with, and that's very true from my experience, so find a mentor at work if you can. It doesn't have to be your manager.
5) Trust in the power of time and compounding. This is with respect to your goal to buy a property. CPF OA can compound rapidly when given enough time, and you may be surprised to see how it grows once a decent amount of time has passed. This ties in to 1) whereby the more you earn, the more you contribute to CPF, the faster you compound.
6) Spend your time wisely. We all have 24 hours. Spending just 30 minutes lesser on social media a day will translate to an extra week worth of time each year. You can use that time to do plenty of things. Pick up skills early (e.g. driving). Learn a third language. Travel and open your mind. Attend courses and upgrade yourself. The possibilities are endless.
7) Lay out your overall plan. Although it may not seem like much now, defining short/mid/long term plan will ensure you hold yourself accountable and can help you maintain focus to be on track. These plans can be in areas like retiring, buying property, etc.
There's plenty of stuff that I might have done differently, such as not undertaking certain investment decisions. But I take it as a form of 'school fee'.
Good luck!
Hi anon,
I'm going to give some general pointers here.
1) Don't worry about where you are now. Seek to grow your human capital. The fastest way to accelerate your financial standing is to rapidly grow your income, especially in the first 5-10 years where you can really scale your salary. With more salary, you will have more firepower to invest for your needs
2) Grow your knowledge. You still have time on your side. With knowledge comes the ability to understand what asset classes/investments may or may not suit you. Speak with an independent financial advisor who can provide you with the means to access the asset classes to understand more.
3) Tidy up your personal finance. Review your coverage now that you have started working, plug any gaps you may have, and start to build your emergency fund. Again, an independent advisor will be able to help you in this area.
4) Work on finding the job/role that you really love. You will be the average of the 5 people you hang around with, and that's very true from my experience, so find a mentor at work if you can. It doesn't have to be your manager.
5) Trust in the power of time and compounding. This is with respect to your goal to buy a property. CPF OA can compound rapidly when given enough time, and you may be surprised to see how it grows once a decent amount of time has passed. This ties in to 1) whereby the more you earn, the more you contribute to CPF, the faster you compound.
6) Spend your time wisely. We all have 24 hours. Spending just 30 minutes lesser on social media a day will translate to an extra week worth of time each year. You can use that time to do plenty of things. Pick up skills early (e.g. driving). Learn a third language. Travel and open your mind. Attend courses and upgrade yourself. The possibilities are endless.
7) Lay out your overall plan. Although it may not seem like much now, defining short/mid/long term plan will ensure you hold yourself accountable and can help you maintain focus to be on track. These plans can be in areas like retiring, buying property, etc.
There's plenty of stuff that I might have done differently, such as not undertaking certain investment decisions. But I take it as a form of 'school fee'.
Good luck!