I'm a student looking to start my personal finance journey. With the current economic outlook being so bleak, what should I be doing first?

Hi there!
This is an awesome question!
Chris and Jia Min has covered a bit on saving and spending, so I would like to talk about mindset.
This is my to-do list, in terms of money management mindset:

1) money is a tool
Learn to be detached from money: it will help you to focus on growth instead of lack.

2) money is abundant
There are many ways to earn and grow money.
You will be starting out with exchanging time for money now, and there are 101 ways to do that as a student.
Leverage on your strengths and passion, and be creative about how you earn an income
Once you start earning an income, budget wisely, and reinvest some of these resources to upgrade your knowledge and Skillsets.
Also, make it a habit to give to charitable causes, even if it is a small amount that you can start with.
If you can master this mindset alone, you are going to be very wealthy (not just in terms of being rich on the outside, but being rich in your heart)

3) you are a steward of money
We never keep the money that we earn, but we watch over it and make sure that it is used wisely.
How we can manage money wisely is dependent on what we believe and what we know about it.
Wise stewards will be given more, while foolish ones will have every cent taken away from him or her.

Wish you all the best in your money management journey, and jiayou for the rest of your educational journey!

Hi Anon! Like yourself, I am also just beginning my personal finance journey. It can be thrilling and nerve-wracking at the same time especially in current times.

As there are so many factors to consider for a personal finance journey, I will be sharing 3 important points that I feel are relatively more important to focus on.

Firstly, the first point of focus should be on spending habits. If you overspend then there won't be savings left to carry out your finance journey. As such, always keep track of your savings (and find ways to reduce areas of wants).

Secondly, focus on allocating your savings. Depending on your risk appetite, you may want to have more in high-interest accounts (such as singlife/jumpstart) if you are risk-adverse. Also, look at your debt levels to gauge how much you should be saving.

Lastly, the amount left should be your free cash flows which can be invested. However, before you invest, you should read up on investment basics to identify the best investing strategy for yourself. Do not rush into this step because if done wrongly, it would be detrimental.

If you are interested, I am documenting my personal finance journey here. I am also a beginner in this area that's why I am documenting my processes and perspectives in this space in order to receive feedbacks/ on best practices. (:​​​