16 Money Rules everyone should learn

1. Pay yourself first.

As soon as you get paid, put money into savings. Automating this is even better.

2. Keep a 6-month emergency fund.

If you have multiple streams of income, you can go as low as 3 months.
If starting out on your own, you could need as many as 12 months.

3. Budget using the 50/30/20 rule.

50% for needs
30% for wants
20% towards saving/investing This is the bare minimum!

4. Divide your bonus into thirds:

1/3 for fun
1/3 for retirement
1/3 for debt paydown (add to retirement if only low-interest debt)

5. Put all, or a large percentage, of your raises into saving and investing.

This helps avoid lifestyle inflation and moves up your retirement date

6. Avoid high-interest debt.

If you have it, use the avalanche or snowball method to pay it off (google them)

7. Always take an employer 401k match.

Many employers will match a percentage of your paycheck. This money is getting an immediate 100% return. If you turn this down, it's the same as turning down a raise.

8. Your home payment (mortgage, interest, insurance) should cost less than 25% of your monthly income.

9. When buying a car use the 20/4/10 Rule if you have to.

20% down
4-year loan
<10% of your monthly income
I still prefer to buy older vehicles with cash, but each on its own.

10. You should save at least 15% of your income for retirement.

11. Your age subtracted from 100 represents the percentage of stocks you should have in your portfolio.

Some are now using the number 120.

12. The stock market has a long-term average return of10%.

To calculate your returns, it's common to use 6-8 % to capture the effect of inflation.

13. The rule of 72 to tells you how long it will take your investment to double.

Example: The stock market returns 10%, so 72/10 7.2 years to double your money.

14. The 4-percent rule says you can safely withdraw 4% of your starting investment balance each year (adjust for inflation in subsequent years) and not run out of money.

15. Your Net Worth should be equal to your age x Pre-Tax Income / 10.

For example: if you are 35 years old and have $100,000 in annual income, then your net worth should be $350,000

(35 x 100000/10)

16. Have at least five times your gross salary in term life insurance.