Answer: The answer will differ for everyone, but if you don’t already have your financial house in order (steady job > emergency savings > no high interest debt), then you have some work ahead of you. Start by reading my post called How to Save. Then, check out the personal finance subreddit (r/personalfinance), which is an incredible resource to understand what your options are. Here’s some free advice: you don’t need to pay $16.99 for a Dave Ramsey book to comprehend this flowchart. (Note: This is most useful to people in the US but is broadly applicable to all savers).

Once you start the process of figuring out where your money should be going, you will get excited about your financial future. Because whether or not you’re drowning in student debt or you’re already maxing out all of your retirement accounts, you’ll know future paychecks are going to make future you happier and happier.

Invest as early and as often as you can. Maybe waiting a few years doesn’t seem like a big deal, but the truth is it makes all the difference in the world. If you invested $10,000 a year from age 20-60 and made a 7% return each year, you’d have almost $2 million stored away. What if you waited until you were 35? You would have just $632,490. Where does the $1.4 million difference come from? Well, 10% of the difference is coming out of your pocket as you make additional contributions of $150,000 over that time frame ($10,000 per year x 15 extra years). So what does that mean? That means 90% of the difference comes from your money making you money!! Work smart, not hard. Let your money do work for you.