Financial literacy is an essential aspect that should not be ignored in one’s life. With financial literacy, you can manage your money and career well. This will all lead to a safe and secure future.
Introduction
To be financially stable, one needs to exercise financial and career management. Financial literacy breeds financial stability and discipline. With financial discipline, one can manage money well and avoid debt traps.
Financial management involves effectively managing one’s spending, savings, and borrowings. Poor management of borrowing can lead to a debt trap, where you continuously borrow new loans to pay off the old ones.
This trap occurs due to unplanned borrowing, which stems from inadequate money management characterized by impulsive spending and a lack of savings.
However, it is impossible to discuss financial stability without considering the impact of careers or jobs. You earn money through working; as self-employed or employed in other sectors.
Your career gives you money, so you need to manage it well as you do with money.
Do you want to make money and learn how to manage it? Have you had problems managing your finances? If these questions define you, then this article is for you.
Keep reading!
Career Management
The first step to making money is managing your career. Career management involves strategically planning your job engagements and activities to achieve financial stability, ulfilment, and personal growth.
A career is an essential part of one’s life and, therefore, it needs better management. It encompasses the following aspects:
Goal Settings
The first step is to set up your career goals. What do you want to achieve with your career? If you want to be financially stable, you choose jobs that pay well or focus on entrepreneurship.
To do so, research the average remuneration in different job markets. For instance, the average salary in Singapore is $57k. You can go ahead and find out the average salaries for distinct careers.
With this information, you can make an informed decision on what occupation to pursue.
Developing Skills
After deciding on a career based on your goals, it is essential to develop the necessary skills to thrive in that profession.
For instance, if you go for software engineering, whose average income is S$ 60,5158 in Singapore, you must develop software engineering skills.
Additionally, to remain relevant in the field, especially in this dynamic technological era, you should be up-to-date through continued learning. With the swift technological development, these fields keep attracting new skills.
Network and Self-Brand
To be successful in any career, you have to build your brand. Personal branding is selling yourself to others. It is making others who you’re, what your values are, and why they should choose you over others.
To secure your dream job, it is crucial to market yourself effectively. You do this through networking with other prominent people like CEOs of successful companies, directors, business owners, etc.
You meet these people through professional social media platforms like LinkedIn. You need to utilize such platforms and ensure they effectively highlight your strengths.
Job Searching and Attending Interviews
After you have created your brand, jobs will be open for you. Of course, these jobs won’t come by themselves; you must hunt them. You will have to make several applications to land your dream job.
To do so, you will need a resume tailored to the job and a cover letter. Ensure your skills and experience match the job description. Applying for a job alone is not a guarantee to get it. You have to attend an interview.
Salary Negotiation
Upon securing the job through a successful interview, it is important to negotiate your salary. Ensure it is within the average range.
However, once on the job, you will discover the amount you are getting is not meeting your desires. To expand your income base, consider looking for a part-time job.
For instance, you may consider exploring weekend part-time jobs in Singapore, such as Pet Care Consultant or part-time Customer Service Executive, among others.
Money Management
You now already have a career that is bringing you money. The next step is to manage this money through personal finance management.
Financial management is an important aspect of life. Through effective financial management, one can increase savings, avoid debts, and attain financial freedom.
To effectively manage finances, the following aspects are involved.
Budget and Save
Budgeting helps optimize your money usage. It helps to avoid wastage. By having a budget, you can prioritize necessary expenses and avoid impulsive purchases.
Before you receive your income, decide what proportion to spend on recurrent expenditure, save for emergencies, and long-term goals.
With such a plan, you will utilize the money well once you receive it. You will avoid spending more on day-to-day expenditures than what you have planned.
Additionally, emergencies must happen in life. For instance, people fall sick unexpectedly. With some funds set aside to cater to occurrences, you will avoid stress and unnecessary borrowing.
Saving for long-term goals also ensures their achievement. You may have a dream of buying a house in five years. To achieve this, you need to reserve some of your income towards the same.
Debt Management
No one chooses to be in debt. It takes unexpected occurrences or unnecessary expenditures to find yourself in debt. Debt management is, therefore, a very crucial aspect of life.
Excessive debt can lead one into a debt trap. To manage debts, first list all your debts in their maturity order. Proceed to clear those with short maturity terms first.
It is also advisable to prioritize the ones with higher interests to avoid further interest growth.
Furthermore, allocate your income towards debt repayment and refrain from further borrowing. Moreso, have a budget to ensure your expenditure is within its limit.
Make Investment
Investments ensure future regular cash flows. The main aim of investing is to grow one’s income. You can invest for a short term or a long term.
Short-term investment refers to placing your money in avenues that mature within one year, such as depositing it in a fixed deposit bank account.
Conversely, a long-term investment requires more than one year to generate returns, such as investing in government bonds.
There are two investment strategies. You can invest either passively or actively. Passive investment involves buying an asset and leaving it to grow money, like investing in real estate.
On the other hand, active investment involves actively managing your assets personally or through a broker.
It involves actively buying and selling assets. An example is the purchase and sale of company shares. It requires a lot of research on market trends.
Plan for Retirement
No career is eternal. You will, eventually, retire from what you love doing. You, therefore, need to plan for this retirement.
While in retirement, you will have to maintain your lifestyle. To do so, you will need some source of income. However, you will be inactive during that period, so there will be no employment income.
Therefore, the income to spend then should be worked for now. To achieve this, it is crucial to save. As you save, set your retirement goals and work on achieving them.
Also, do a diversity of investments and have a retirement account. Moreover, consider contributing to social security funds.
Final Thoughts
Better financial and career management will create money. To better manage your career, first set goals to achieve.
Go ahead and develop relevant skills and continue learning. Additionally, network with other people and start hunting for jobs. Attend job interviews and negotiate salaries.
Once you start earning, manage your money through budgeting, saving, investing, and planning for retirement. Further, manage your debts to avoid debt-trap. All these will bring financial stability and freedom.
