It feels awesome when you receive your first salary. It also makes you proud. You can stand on your own two feet. But, you need to use your first salary wisely. What should you do when you receive your first salary?
4 Important Things to Do With Your First Salary
1. Building an emergency fund
Since childhood we have often heard about saving for a rainy day. Now, after becoming an adult and receiving the first salary, it is time for us to make it real.
You can start building an emergency fund. If you are not used to saving, starting from a small amount first is not a problem. Over time, the amount can adjust. But what exactly is the ideal amount of emergency savings? Annisa Steviani suggests this amount.
We don't know when unexpected events will come. It is precisely because of this that we must always be ready. By having an emergency fund, you can deal with the events quickly, without having to borrow money from other people or parties.
2. Saving for retirement
In addition to emergency savings, there is another savings that you need to start filling with money from a young age, best since receiving your first salary. This savings is a retirement savings.
Retirement does seem far far away, especially if you've just started working. However, time flies quickly and if you are not used to saving from now on, you will feel overwhelmed as you have to find a way to save enough money to support your life after retirement.
3. Buying something you’ve always wanted
Is there something you've always wanted but haven't bought yet? You may not feel comfortable asking your parents for money. Now, you have got your first salary and you can use it as you wish.
But remember, you need to use your money responsibly. Otherwise, you may end up having no money at all in the middle of the month, for example.
4. Starting to manage finances through budgeting
Receiving your first salary also comes with responsibilities. One of them is starting to manage your own finances through budgeting.
Budgeting can help ensure money doesn't run out in the middle of the month, as stated above. With budgeting, you can also know for sure what your monthly salary is spent on.
Also read: 4 Reasons Budgeting Can Reduce Financial Anxiety
Each need is best separated so that funds don't mix and it's easier when you monitor expenses. You can budget easily and practically when you use the Pocket feature in the Jago application.
You can create a lot of Pockets, all tailored to your needs. For emergency savings and retirement savings, you can separate them by creating 2 Saving Pockets.
When your savings have accumulated at least Rp1,000,000, you can move your money to a Jago Deposit to get higher interest and protect your savings from being spent on other needs.
In addition to savings, of course there are other needs that you need to take into account when budgeting. If you live in a boarding house, you need to pay rent. Likewise with necessities such as transportation, daily meals, etc. For these needs, you can create a number of Spending Pockets.
To conclude, spend your first salary wisely and do the 4 important things above.
