Be sure to check out more financial resources in A Beginner’s Guide To Personal Finance!
Money is an important tool in all of our lives and it’s truly worth improving your financial literacy and building better money habits at any age and stage.
Here are some resources I love that can guide you through the basics and beyond. I’ve picked a few topics to whet your appetite. Pick whatever medium suits you best – podcasts, blogs, youtube, books. Put in an hour or two every weekend and start exploring!
1. For the Basics
- Bank Accounts: NerdWallet will teach you how to open a bank account, the basics of a credit score, and tips to budget and pay off your loans.
- You Need A Budget Blog: The YNAB blog is an absolutely fantastic resource as it presents solutions to a number of finance-related issues we encounter on a day to day basis.
- Thrifting Tips Blog: Learn to shop pre-loved clothes. Buying clothes, just like other items in your budget, needs planning.
- Debt-crusher e-course (free!): Step-by-step advice to pay off debt.
- Budget Template: A structured and simple way to create a budget for yourself. The goal is to stretch the money you have for a very long time. While it’s extremely important to save and invest for the long-term, you need to have an estimate of your expenditures in the short term- that’s where budgeting comes into play.
2. For Emergencies
- Emergency Fund with Learnvest, or Investor: How to start an emergency fund and how much to allocate to it.
3. For Building Your Finances
- The Importance of Grit Blog: Bridget Casey, a Canadian blogger, owns the Money After Graduation blog that has been a great favorite of mine
- Credit Cards: The Balance will teach you how to get your first credit card
4. For Everything Else
- Libraries! Find a local library, get a library card made and start putting books on hold.
- Investopedia: This website is a one-stop-shop for financial definitions.
- Podcasts: Money podcasts like Planet Money and Brown Ambition.
- Youtube Videos: Youtube channels like The Financial Diet, Broke Millennial and Money After Graduation.
Getting started with personal finance can seem daunting, but luckily there are so many resources out there that can help! Hopefully this list will be just what you need to get started on your journey towards financial freedom!
Mallika Sen is an engineer in the Bay area. She loves to read, watch Netflix and plan things – but not simultaneously. She has a lot of “micro-hobbies”, which is a term she’s made up to describe her habit of intensely researching or practicing a new topic or activity for a few months or more at a time before moving on to the next. She believes this adds perspective and excitement to life and would love to share what she learns along the way here at LiveYourDream.org.
You may also be interested in resources at jumpstartclearinghouse.org – there you can search for tools by type, and if you’re working with kids, by age.