While you’re still in high school

• Get a job. Right now. You can wait tables or work retail or do manual labor. Or you can start your own money-making venture: babysitting, doing yard work for your neighbors, tutoring, walking dogs, running errands for the elderly, selling crafts. Whatever. Just get an income stream that’s all your own and start adding to it aggressively.

• If you don’t yet have your own bank accounts, get them. You’ll want a checking account (where you can withdraw money regularly to pay for your expenses) and a high yield savings account like Ally (which will earn literally 1000% more interest than a standard savings account at your regional bank). These accounts must be all your own. If you have a joint account with your parents, or if they have access to your accounts in any way, you need to either cut them out or start new accounts. I’m sure your parents are lovely and wonderful. But don’t risk ending up like my friend whose mother regularly stole money from his account to pay her bills after he got his first job.

• Start building credit. It’s harder than ever to get approved for a credit card, so at your age you might need to start with a secured credit card. That’s ok, as it’ll be a really safe way to build credit without living outside your means. Use it to buy gas or your bus ticket or another regular expense you have to pay for anyway.

• Create a budget. The easiest way to do this is to track your expenses and income for a few months. From there, you can see about how much you need to live on from month to month. Assuming you’re still living with your parents, your expenses should be very low. Put the rest of your income into your savings account.

• Think carefully about whether or not you’ll go to college immediately after graduating high school, or if you’ll take a year off to continue earning money and real world experience. There’s no right answer here–but I do think getting an education eventually will be incredibly valuable to you. And yes, I mean that literally, financially. Look into all your options before settling on a school and program, including community college, a state school, and going to school abroad.

• Determine the return on investment (ROI) of various college degrees and schools before you decide where you’re going to study. By which I mean: a degree in English might cost X, and the average job salary you can expect to earn by age thirty with that degree might be Y. Whereas a degree in Engineering might be Z, and the average salary you can expect by age thirty will be $160,000. So if financial security by thirty is your goal, minimize your college expenses and maximize your potential earnings by choosing a field of study and school with a high ROI. I… didn’t do this. And I regret it.

After high school

• Continue working after high school. Keep putting money away in your savings account even if you need to adjust your budget when you leave home. (I’m assuming you live with your parents now, and won’t after you graduate high school.) I worked as a nanny making $20 an hour all during college and graduated with enough of a nest egg to afford to move across the country and cover my expenses for a few months while I got my career going. I did this job while maintaining a near perfect GPA and graduating with high honors (as Kitty would say, I had no life in college). Balancing school and a job is hard, so be realistic with yourself and adjust accordingly.
• If you can avoid it, don’t buy a fucking car. They’re money pits. If you absolutely need one, buy used. Otherwise, public transit is your friend. Look at those long bus and train rides as the perfect time for uninterrupted studying. You don’t want to make eye contact with your fellow public transit commuters anyway. That way lies madness.
• Embrace the roommate lifestyle. You’ll save more of your money and be able to afford a better lifestyle if you join forces with other young people during and after college. I lived with six people and two dogs in a four-bedroom house my first two years after college and my rent and utilities were a fraction of what they would’ve been if I lived in a studio or one bedroom apartment by myself. Sure, I was constantly asking “Who moved my milk/shoes/coffee/backpack/mail/library books?” but that was half the fun!
• Start a Roth IRA. This is basically the independent retirement account of choice for lower income people, and you can start one regardless of your employment status. You usually need $1,000 to start it, so save that up in your savings account, then transfer it over. You can’t touch this money until you retire, so factor that into your budget.

• Join your grocery store’s loyalty program. It’ll give you access to sales and coupons non-members don’t have, and it costs you nothing. So without it you’re literally leaving free money on the table. Buy store brand and generic instead of the fancy name brand stuff and you’ve got your grocery bill hacked.

• Live frugally. This means buying generic instead of name brand products, shopping at thrift stores, and being intentional about your entertainment costs. The hardest part here will be saying no to your friends when they want to spend a lot of money to hang out. Be strong. Don’t give in.

• Stay healthy. Things like cancer, chronic disease, and accidents are beyond your control. But outside of these factors, if you treat your body well it will be much cheaper to maintain. So eat lots of vegetables, drink lots of water, and establish a reasonable exercise regime that doesn’t involve a gym membership. Barring the unavoidable, this will keep you healthy and out of the hospital… where they’ll bleed you dry of your savings.

• Learn to cook. Sweet fucking crispy jibbers who art in the ocean, you will save SO MUCH MONEY by making the majority of your food at home. Eating out is unnecessarily expensive. The cost of takeout is ludicrous. Just buy yourself some staples, bookmark some frugal recipe blogs like Budget Bytes and the Budget Epicurean, and make yourself a meal.

When the rest of the world considers you an adult

• Get a grown up job. Life isn’t fair, and the plain and simple truth of the matter is that some jobs pay more than others. If you made a wise choice on the ROI of your college education, you could be making a lot of money by the time you’re thirty. Push yourself to apply for high paying jobs, even if you’re not 100% qualified. Get your foot in the door at companies in high-paying industries. You’ll start at an entry level job, but you shouldn’t stay there for longer than two years. And on that note…
• Ask for a raise every six months. Studies show that people who ask for raises get them more often than people who don’t. So you have nothing to lose and so much to gain by asking, even if it’s terrifying and nerve-wracking. Think of it this way: they can’t say no unless you give them the chance to say yes.

• Keep applying for a better job. If you’re going to be financially flush by thirty, you need to move up the ladder as quickly as possible. And this means job hopping your way to prosperity. Even if you’re employed, apply for at least one job a month that could increase your salary or put you on a direct path to a higher salary. Nothing will stagnate your salary and career like staying in one place too long.

• Use your company’s 401(k) and/or 403(b) program. If you don’t, you’re losing money in three ways. So just fucking sign up for it as soon as you’re hired. You won’t miss the little bit of money that’s not going to your paycheck if you never got it in the first place.

• Don’t rush into marriage or children. If you want to get married or have kids, that’s totally fine. But there’s absolutely no need to rush, as both of these things come with all kinds of expenses. It will be monumentally harder to be financially secure by thirty if you have to do it with dependents or another person affecting your personal finances.

• Stay out of credit card debt. Once you’re in your twenties and you have a solid track record of paying bills, you’ll be in a much better position to apply for a regular credit card. I recommend you get a rewards card that offers you cash back or travel reimbursement (I have the Capital One Venture card and I love it). BUT… you have to be responsible with it. Pay it off in full and on time every month and you’ll easily build credit without going into debt.

It won’t be easy

The road to financial stability is just lousy with potholes. You’re going to fuck up. You’re going to have accidents and completely unforeseen bad things are going to happen to you. You’ll get sick, or your family will need you, or you won’t get that job you were counting on, or you’ll lose a bunch of money.

Here’s the thing though…

You will not give up. 

At no point are you allowed to roll over and content yourself with mediocrity because succeeding is too difficult. You’re going to get creative. You’ll find new and innovative ways around the roadblocks in your way. You’re going to look around you at those assholes who have it easier than you and who don’t understand a fraction of what you have to deal with. And you’re going to know that you are stronger.

You have been forged in the fires of adversity and that experience has made you nigh unstoppable. Making it to thirty with a fat bank account and a well-ordered life makes you a certifiable badass. But doing it in the face of hardship and heartache and numerous setbacks? That makes you mighty.

Open your arms wide to the coming hardships. Look the steaming pile of garbage that is life in the face and say, “You will not break me.”

You’re going to be great.