How to Stand on Your Own Two Feet Financially

You cannot talk about independence in life without mentioning financial freedom. Becoming an adult comes with many responsibilities, not the least of which is making your own money and learning to provide for yourself appropriately.

Learning how to budget your money is also essential. As you enter adulthood, learning to budget and pay your bills every month on time will allow you to build strong credit.

And just about every major purchase you will make will look to your credit score and credit report as representative of how consistently you pay your bills and utilize your available credit.

Here are five ways to grow your financial independence:

1. Learn to live within your means. What this means is, do not spend all the money you make. When you bring home your paycheck, you will have bills that you must pay first to make sure you are on time. After that, you can decide what to do with the rest.
2. Learn to create a realistic budget and stick to it. By utilizing a budget, you will live within your means. Sticking to your budget will also create a savings account and put money away for larger purchases.
3. Save money for emergencies. You never know what the future holds. You may need to travel to family in the event of an illness or death in the family, or you may find yourself in need of a new car suddenly. Always expect the unexpected and place a portion of your income into savings only accessed in an emergency.
4. Build your credit when you are young. This means you should utilize credit accounts - but do not abuse them. That is much easier said than done for most women, so make sure you are disciplined about your spending. Eventually, you will want to purchase a new automobile, house or finance your education, and one of the ways you will accomplish that is with a loan. The higher your credit score, the less you will pay in financing costs, and the easier it will be to obtain a loan. As anyone with lousy credit can tell you - it pays to keep your score up rather than try to fix it when you have messed it up.
5. Learn your way around your credit report and score. You will be able to monitor the account for any signs of identity theft and take care of any problems immediately.