Financial Literacy for Young Professionals

Getting your finances in order and living within your means while planning for the future can be a challenge for anyone, but especially for those in the early stages of their professional careers. We asked Chamber member Ted Ramirez, who teaches financial literacy through the MasterCard Community Financial Outreach Program, for some tips for young professionals.

"Three key components to keeping your finances on track are creating a budget, saving some money when possible and utilizing some readily-available tools that can help you be successful," Ramirez says.

"Creating a budget may seem boring and a lot of work, but if you count something, you can more easily improve on it," Ramirez advises. "It's really not that hard. Just record all your income and list all your expenses in a given month. Any spreadsheet program can help you do this easily.

"Once you have the actual numbers, you can see areas where you might be spending too much. If those last few days before payday are stressful because you're running low on cash, you can see why it's happening and what you can do to close the gap. Tracking your numbers from month-to-month and keeping things updated means you'll never have to guess at where your money is going or how much you have on hand."

Saving money can be difficult, especially in a lean economy, but Ramirez says you can always find little cuts that can make a big difference.

"Now that you've got your monthly expenses and income in front of you in your budget, look at everything really closely and ask, 'Do I really need this?' See if there's anything you can live without or put off until the economy improves," Ramirez says. "Do you really need the grande Frappuccino every day, or can you make do with a tall? Do you need all those cable channels? Are you going out for lunch every day? Look at your habits, they're very telling."

Ramirez also cautions you should understand little, almost-invisible fees you might not notice, but which fly out of the door every month. "Little things, like fees for check cashing or other financial services, or charges if you go over a certain number of texts in a month on your cell phone plan, all add up over time."

Finally, Ramirez advises you should always use direct deposit for your paycheck and look for tools that can help you keep more of your money, like a prepaid credit card. "Also, you should consider setting up a savings account to make it easier to set aside a little money each month so it's there when it's time to make important purchases in your life, like a house or a car. Your bank should have many tools to help you keep track of and save your money."

Contact Ted Ramirez if you're interested in signing up for one of MasterCard’s free financial literacy classes, or if you have any financial questions. Ted also trains young professionals to become freelance financial literacy advisors for the MasterCard program so get in touch with him if that interests you.  

Get Connected
Ted Ramirez
MasterCard Community Financial Outreach Program
602.638.7627
teodoro [dot] ramirez [at] razrmarketing [dot] com

This article is part of the Chamber's monthly Valley Young Professionals email newsletter. To sign up for any or all of the Chamber's email communications, click here.