Your Year 30 Financial Checkup

Here's a list of six financial milestones we all need to reach before we turn 30 (according to MSN Money.) Their list:

1. Scale back the credit cards.
2. Own a home -- or have a plan.
3. Develop a set of marketable skills.
4. Establish a regular charitable giving plan.
5. Get a firm grasp on your priorities.
6. Have strong advisers in your life.

It's been quite awhile since I was 30, but I can remember back that far (I'm not THAT old). Here's where I stood on each of these points when I was 30 as well as some comments I have on these suggestions:

1. I never had credit card debt. Never. I have always paid off my balance every month. I'm not sure why, but early on (I got my first card in college) having a credit card balance just didn't seem like something that was reasonable. I used credit for convenience, but I only charged what I knew I'd be able to pay back that month. Today, I am much more aggressive -- using my two-card strategy to maximize my cash back credit card rewards.

2. We owned two condos when we got married, then spent the next two years trying to sell them both. We finally did, got a home (I was 29, I believe), then promptly move a year later. It was in this new house where we first paid off our home fully and we haven't had a mortgage since.

3. By 30 I had gotten my MBA and my career was on fire. I was doing very well and had already seen dramatic growth in my income -- something that would lay the groundwork for my long-term salary growth.

4. We had started giving (tithing) by age 30, but not really giving beyond our tithes yet. It would take us a few years to grow into that.

5. Ha! I had a GENERAL feeling about what I wanted to do when I was 30, but as I got older and my desires shifted, everything changed. Not in an immediate way, mind you, but slowly through the years. I could never have guessed at 30 what my life would be like today. That said, my life is much better now than I would have thought it would be when I was 30.

6. I'd change this one to "learn about finances yourself." At 30 I was just in the initial stages of learning about personal finances and starting to apply the principles that I've now seen be successful over many years -- things like getting out of debt, spending less than you earn, growing your career, and so on, the sort of stuff I write about here at FMF.

So, that was me at 30. How about you? Where were you (or where are you planning to be) at 30?

Comments

[Jay]

Regarding #2:

I really don't understand our national drive toward home ownership. Home ownership is not something I long for and is in my view quite irrational as a national - and perhaps even personal - goal. Owning and maintaining one's home can be a tremendous headache that provides questionable economic benefits. Granted, I'm 22 years old (married) and am not interested in being owned by my posessions at this point in life, but even in my future planning - in which I actively engage - home ownership is not high on my list of priorities.

[Mark]

I'm 26, married and we've owned a condo for 2 years. Both my wife and I will be done with our graduate degrees by 30 (MBA for me). We do not have credit card debt and I believe I have a pretty good marketable skill (in the IT field). Started learning about personal finance after college at age 23 and have seen a great improvement since (thanks to helpful sources like the FMF website). Thanks.

[LC]

I am 28. Also never had credit card debt (never even had a credit card until last year). We've owned our home for 2 years and have about 45% equity in it. I have a MS in a technology field and have good career prospects at a large company. We regularly tithe and occasionally give above that but don't make it a regular habit yet. I consider myself well-educated on personal finance topics. As far as priorities, I think I have those generally straightened out. We are expecting our 1st child and although my work is important to me, family comes first. What that means as far as my plans for the future, time will only tell. But I think I'm doing pretty well in these areas. For some people, just moving out of their parents house by 30 is difficult enough.

I agree that home ownership is a personal choice, not an across-the-board goal to reach by any age.

[Kevin M]

I'm 33 now, so this isn't that long ago for me -

1. I was out of my credit card hole by age 30, thankfully.
2. I'm on my 3rd home by age 30 - and banked some "profit" from each of the first 2, so I guess I'm doing OK here.
3. I guess you could call a CPA license "marketable skills", so check this one off the list as well.
4. I don't give that regularly, but we are starting to increase our efforts here.
5. Check. Our #1 priority was getting our financial house in order to start planning for a child, by age 30 we were in good shape.
6. I'm with FMF on this one as I'm more of a do-it-yourself guy. My CPA background definitely helped, as did checking out various websites, books, magazines, etc. just to keep that knowledge fresh and repetitive so it became second nature to me.

Yikes! I guess I'm behind the power curve. I'm 23 (soon to be 24), not married but dating someone, and trying to turn things around. Got an AAS in Network Security, 2 certifications, and work as a contractor for the DoD doing Network Security.

-Live at home. :( (Planning to change that by 25th bday)
-Getting a second job soon and working toward paying off debt.
Debt:
-17k car loan (selling my other car and putting money toward this)
-1700 credit card (just have one)
-27k in school loans (There is a long story behind that)

Yeah...30 isn't to far away and have a lot of ground to make up! :)

[Graham]

I'm 21... out of college 4 months ago.

1. My wife and I have one credit card, with a $1600 limit and no balance. When we got married (18 months ago) we had $29,000 of student loan debt. We are now debt-free.
2. We are saving for a home now and I hope to have it paid off by the time I'm 26.
3. Working in IT, constantly trying to improve my knowledge/skills.
4. We tithe and occasionally give to missionary friends.
5. Still figuring this one out, but making progress. :)
6. Also figuring this one out. I have no personal advisers, but am always reading blogs/books, so they kind of act as my advisers. This is something I need to work on a lot. :)

[JEM]

I just turned 28.

1. Scale back the credit cards.
*Never had any CC debt.
2. Own a home -- or have a plan.
*Bought my townhouse at 23.
3. Develop a set of marketable skills.
* I am in Sales and Marketing and am learning everyday.
4. Establish a regular charitable giving plan.
* We don't have a regular plan. We do donate every year to different things we believe it. Maybe we need a plan.
5. Get a firm grasp on your priorities.
6. Have strong advisers in your life.
My father has helped alot, I also have some very wise trusted friends.

How do you develop marketable skills if you can't afford to go to school?

[Seth]

I am 24 and in law school. My wife is 24 and in Graduate school. We hope to have our school loans (about $60k) paid off within about a year after graduation.

1. We have no Credit Card Debt
2. Own a house now and have about 20% equity. Trying to figure out now whether I should use this equity as a down payment for a new house when we graduate or pay down the student loans.
3. After 7 years of school I better have the skills to be successful. I am always looking for ways to grow, maybe I will start a blog...?
4. We tithe $50/month to our missionary friend in East Asia. Not exactly 10%, but we are doing our best at the time.
5. My priorities? Umm, I am on this website right now when I need to be reading Brandenburg v. Ohio...Crap
6. I have several spiritual advisers available to me, and I could probably use them more often. As far as career and financial advisors - I light to read books listen to Dave Ramsey's Podcast.

[whatever you choose to call me sir]

important point to take out of this is that you can strive to do these things long before 30 too. Please read the following statement with all the humbleness that the verys intend. I was VERY blessed and VERY lucky to have most of this figured out around 25ish. I agree with FMF (shocking I know!!!) about #6. My father gave me a financial book for Christmas when I was 23 and I feel like if you are willing you can do that stuff yourself. Just have to know when to ask for help.

[over30]

Husband is 33, I'm 31. We have a 3 yr old and a 4 mo old. Married five years ago. We're a military family and have changed residences every 12 months for the past seven years.

1. $4000 in credit card debt, $3300 in a car loan
2. Planning to buy in 2 years, debating between WA and CA (approx $150k diff in housing costs per today, not sure about 2010)
3. Waiting until GI bill transferability becomes effective next fall then I will finish my BA in finance; encouraging husband to complete AAS during next 4 1/2 yrs until retirement. Then he can use remainder of GI bill to complete a BS in engineering
4. Tithe only 6-7% to "home" church from 6 years ago, haven't found a new church home in area where currently reside
5. Easy! Marriage and children first, everything is for my family
6. Very important to self-educate, however equally important to surround yourself with people smarter than yourself

[Sarah]

Don't understand the fixation on owning a house. If it happens to be one of your deep desires, great, but I don't think it's necessarily the cornerstone to a successful life.

[Kaitlyn]

I'm 23, and my SO is 24.

We have approx $3000 in credit debt that is a hold over from graduating college and immediately moving across country from the Midwest to SoCal with little more than a coffeemaker. This is down from $7000 originally. Together, we have 71K in student debt. *sigh*

Owning a home comes after the debts get at least paid down.

We're both chemists. I'm analytical, so advanced degrees don't mean as much as instrumentation experience ATM. He's biomedical R&D, so he'll need advanced degrees eventually.

I can't say we donate regularly right now, but over the years, we've given lots of time to various charities, such as voter registration for the homeless. By 30, I hope to be donating regularly to Kiva.org, a microlending group.

We're young. Our priorities are in flux.

I am very thankful for the many people I surround myself with who are helping me figure out who I am - and how not to get fired while getting there.

[a]

I'm a few months away from 30 and now you've got me feeling like the class retard. Here's where I stand:

1. Scale back the credit cards.
I have no debt - credit card or otherwise.

2. Own a home -- or have a plan.
I don't own a home, nor do I really have a plan to buy one. I'm finishing grad school soon and looking to start a career first. If I can find a good job in a place I want to live then maybe I'll start thinking about home ownership. But its probably a long way off.

3. Develop a set of marketable skills.
I'm oozing education, I guess that counts as a marketable skill.

4. Establish a regular charitable giving plan.
Financially, I'm not in much of a position to give much of anything to anyone.

5. Get a firm grasp on your priorities.
My priorities can be summed up as "get a job" and "?????"

6. Have strong advisers in your life.
I have zero advisers and am pretty much learning everything on my own.

[Jeff]

The world does value such things, doesn't it? I appreciate your fostering conversation and thought about prioritization, but I feel that you're a bit too proud of your status in society, my brother. Leave the place of honor at the banquet for someone else.

[whatever you choose to call me sir]

sock??

[whatever you choose to call me sir]

jeff=fmf??

[whatever you choose to call me sir]

Jeff, be careful because FMF hates anonymous posters who won't own up to their opinions.

[whatever you choose to call me sir]

I will take the comments into account and make sure to thank all those involved with the VERYS I took the time to point out, my brother.

[FMF]

Whatever --

You must have been bored last night... ;-)

No, Jeff does is not me.

Yes, I do dislike anonymous posters (aka cowards) who spew forth without taking credit for it (spewing and taking credit for it is ok with me.) But Jeff is leaving his name, so what's the issue?

Not sure about the sock comment...

[John]

Six is interesting. Using your interpretation I would agree that learning about finances is necessary if for no other reason that to understand how to choose competent advisers. However, I felt like the comment could be talking about developing financial coaches and increasing accountability for your financial goals. After all, FMF discussions commonly talk about the necessity of making goals.